How To "Lie" With Data
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In my years in strategy consulting, I’ve seen how data can be shaped to fit a preferred narrative. Often, it’s done with good intentions—teams are motivated to please their clients—but sometimes it can slip into a gray area. We’re witnessing more frequent misuse of these tactics outside of consulting, as politicians or influencers craft numbers to confirm their own beliefs rather than aiming to serve an audience’s best interests. This makes it increasingly difficult for people to see through manipulations or omissions in the data presented to them. A simple example: let's look at a few ways of showing the same Fortune 500 CEO statistics: Example 1: Highlighting a large disparity between men and woman
This version of the data set is intended to show that the number of men are dramatically larger than the number of women and then paired with a headline to make this fact more easily understood (phrases like “ten X for every one Y” are easy ways for people to understand numbers). Example 2: Making the gender breakdown visual
This slide is similar to the first one except it has a block for every single CEO. This still shows a relatively small number of women CEOs but because each one has a block it may not feel as vast a gap as the first slide. You could also use different colors with this slide to focus more on the women and highlight them as a “powerful” group within the larger group. Using a light grey makes the blocks of men seem a lot less dominating.
Example 3: Highlighting a time series of the # of women CEOs
As you can see, you can "lie" with the data while still telling the truth. Understanding how easy it is to change the message of something can help us defend against others trying to persuade us. It can also help us get better at persuading others toward good aims in our work. The opposite of lying with data isn't telling the truth. It's usually just not telling any message at all. My course, Think Like A Strategy Consultant, is focused on helping you bring alive the most powerful version of your information. So you do have to "lie." Watch the video or Read the full Article Here |
Paul Millerd
Freelancer, creator & writer
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