Choose Data Over Discomfort

I knew a manager once who was notorious for trusting their gut. Now if you don’t know, my business partner Mel was my former manager. I owe it to her to be clear that this manager that I am referring to is not her. 🙂 

This manager I was working with always had a “gut instinct” and flew in the face of research, data and best practice. This always made my skin crawl out of sheer discomfort with the fact that decisions were being made based on fiction over fact.

A buzzy catchphrase often used in the business sector is “data-driven decision making”. Meaning, we use the most realistic and accurate set of information available to help decide what issues we need to focus on, what we’re going to do about it; and, for communicators, what we’re going to say.

Now don’t get me wrong, the business sector has been talking about data and its importance for the last number of years. But I think now more than ever, the business sector, and marketing communications professionals themselves, have a responsibility to ensure that data is being collected and applied ethically so organizations can be proactive, responsive and thoughtful in ways that lead to mutually beneficial outcomes for the organization itself and the people it serves.

In 2020, we saw the value of truth challenged relentlessly. The importance of research, science and data to help make informed decisions should be top of mind going forward. This is why at SymmetryPR we begin and entrench our process in research and analysis. We believe it is essential for us to use data to inform decisions and design strategy – and to measure the effectiveness of that strategy. 

So as we enter 2021 and into our new planning cycles, let’s think about:

Choosing data over the discomfort of “gut instinct” decision making.

Choosing data over the risk of making a decision that could lead to serious consequences.

Choosing data over shooting in the dark and hoping something sticks.

Data and information is a very powerful tool if used correctly. Our next post will be from Roland Pajares, a dear friend of ours and a member of the Symmetry Collective of sub-contractors. He’ll be unpacking best research practices and how we can get and use data to inform solid business decisions in 2021.

If you want to discuss further how to transform data into helpful insights for your marketing/communications strategy going forward – feel free to sign up for our free, no obligation one-hour consultation promotion taking place this month.

Cheers!
Ben