What Superior Autobiographical Memory Subjects and Unified Information Access Have in Common

July 26, 2011

I am pleased to mention I have posted my first article on the Attivio Unified Information Access Blog, in which I discuss a parallel I see between people who have superior autobiographical memory – the extraordinary capacity to recall specific events from one’s personal past – and the need to combine objective (structured) data with subjective insights (drawn from unstructured content) to gain true understanding, “see the big picture” and avoid getting distracted by unimportant details.

Here is an excerpt:

The Gift of Endless Memory, a 60 Minutes story originally broadcast on December, 19, 2010, introduced viewers to emerging research on superior autobiographical memory – the extraordinary capacity to recall specific events from one’s personal past. The story featured five of the six people recognized by researchers as having this superlative level of memory, including actress and author Marilu Henner…

I would have liked to have learned much more about how each group member actively uses their memory to their benefit. How does each person effectively manage what amounts to a vast personal “database” of highly detailed memories, each one as vivid as any other, regardless of the passage of time?

Please read the entire article here:

The Gift of Memory – and the Gift of Perspective by Mike Urbonas

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Business Managers Can Learn a Lot from Data Scientists

February 11, 2011

Source: HikingArtist.com (Flickr CC)

In a recent thought-provoking TDWI article, David Champagne informed readers of The Rise of Data Science: a discipline of emulating the scientific method when analyzing data, in a conscious and laudable effort to ensure objectivity and avoid poor analytical practices.  Having just recently blogged on the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy, a type of flawed analytical logic business intelligence users might fall into, David Champagne’s article caught my attention.

From David Champagne’s article:

Back in the “good old days,” data was the stuff generated by scientific experiments. Remember the scientific method? First you ask a question, then you construct a hypothesis, and you design an experiment. You run your experiment, collect and analyze the data, and draw conclusions. Finally, you communicate your results and let other people throw rocks at them.

Nowadays, thanks largely to all of the newer tools and techniques available for handling ever-larger sets of data, we often start with the data, build models around the data, run the models, and see what happens.  This is less like science and more like panning for gold…Perhaps the term “data scientist” reflects a desire to see data analysis return to its scientific roots…

Barry Devlin, in his business-focused commentary on David Champagne’s article, noted the worlds of science and business have rather different goals and visions, which I interpreted as data science might offer limited benefit to business managers.  But perhaps the best practices of data scientists have a lot more in common with those of business managers after all, in light of some commentary I came across on effective business decision-making.  That commentary gave high praise to the manager who utilizes the scientific method in the decision-making process. The author was not a technologist, but rather: Peter Drucker, the father of modern business management.

Revisiting Peter Drucker’s writings on effective decision-making process will show surprising similarities to the best practices of data science, and yield beneficial insights for business managers seeking to make more effective, data-informed decisions.

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Slow Down, Cowboy! How BI Users can Avoid the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy

December 2, 2010

It is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.  - Josh Billings

A Texas cowboy fires several rounds at a barn.  Looking at the holes riddled across the barn wall, he observes there are lots of holes clustered together.  He excitedly paints a bulls-eye centered over the biggest cluster of holes and proudly shows it off as proof he is a sharpshooter.

Artist: Mahbsol - appearing on: youarenotsosmart.com

This old joke is the namesake for a type of illogic known as the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy: a false assumption that the existence of clusters of information – be it bullet holes or sales data – must be the result of a particular direct cause.

Such illogic can be deliberately fraudulent like the cowboy’s, or at least disingenuous.  Examples of the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy can be seen in public health investigations, politics (a politician might accuse an opponent of a “pattern” of poor actions), and pseudoscience.  I especially like YoureNotSoSmart.com’s David McRaney’s description: “If hindsight bias and confirmation bias had a baby, it would be the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy.”

But a Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy can also be the result of the mistaken assignment of meaning to what is in fact a small subset of all related data.   It then occurred to me: virtually every business intelligence tool has a feature to highlight a portion of a graph to focus only on a particular data cluster, enabling every BI end-user to “draw a bulls-eye” of their own!  The risk of jumping to false conclusions based on such selective data selection can be very high.

So how can business intelligence users avoid unwittingly creating their own Texas Sharpshooter Fallacies, and help debunk those put forth by others in the organization?

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

What do Highly User-Friendly BI Tools and European Travel Expert Rick Steves Have in Common?

October 6, 2010

Source: Rick Steves Press Room

I am a longtime fan of Rick Steves, host of the long-running PBS television series Rick Steves Europe and author of an extensive series of European travel guides. His London guide helped me make the most of limited free time while traveling to the old world on business.  I hope to return sooner rather than later!

Always keeping an eye out for interesting business analogies, I suggest Rick Steves and highly user-friendly BI tools actually have a lot in common.   For openers, Rick Steves has a knack of making European travel as non-intimidating as possible for new travelers; very user-friendly BI tools help eliminate the ‘intimidation factor’ non-technical personnel might feel when trying to use an analytical tool. 

I think the analogy between Rick Steves’ brand of travel and user-friendly BI tools goes much deeper, after reading Rick Steves’ unique travel philosophy…  Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Business Intelligence is a Diagnostic Tool, but is the "Patient" Willing to Listen?

October 5, 2010

Over the years I have found BI author and consultant Neil Raden to be a welcome voice of common sense, from advocating simplicity for successful BI, insisting on avoiding hype, to a healthy disdain for BI buzzwords (“I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that ‘analytics’ means anything the speaker/writer/vendor/analyst wants it to mean,” Raden said in a recent droll tweet).

Photo: ThisIsIt2 - Flickr CC

Somehow, until recently, I had overlooked a particular Neil Raden BeyeNETWORK blog entry which really struck a chord.  The title speaks for itself: You Cannot Fix a Broken Company by Measuring How Broken it is.  Neil Raden’s post goes to the heart of what Business Intelligence is, and what it is not.  From Neil’s post:

The BI industry has sort of casually sent the message that BI makes companies better. I’ve seen this in presentations, webinars, seminars, books and blogs from vendors, practitioners and analysts. But the question is, once you expose something that needs attention, what next? As a consultant and implementer of data warehousing and BI for many years, I never really came up with a good answer…

And here is an especially important comment:

Even when we did everything we set out to do [in a BI/DW consulting engagement], when approaching management about the next phase of the operation, to help the client start addressing the problems with employee morale, high turnover, inventory snafus, poor customer service, etc., the response was usually something like, “Neil, aren’t you the data warehouse guy? Shouldn’t we get McKinsey in here to work on that?”

I empathize with Neil and this ‘You’re just the techie’ brush-off, but management’s response to Neil’s inquiry raises much more serious concern: the first response by management to address serious business problems was to bring in outside consultants…?  Was the accidental point of the response that the company’s executives perceive they cannot effectively address, on their own, the issues identified by Neil Raden’s BI solution?

One more quote from Neil’s post:

In short, if you’re involved with BI, you may have as good or even better insight into what is going on in the company, but you clearly lack the portfolio to do anything about it…

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Business Intelligence: Think Outside the Box by Turning it Inside-Out

August 9, 2010

Source: Lifehacker.com

I just read a clever tip on the Lifehacker website on how to easily reuse sturdy electronic device boxes for shipping or storage: turn the box inside out.  Many electronic device boxes use no glue or tape at all, making the process very easy.  You end up with a like-new, “fresh” box ready for easy labeling for shipping, storage use, etc.

In fact, a shipping box company has taken the inside-out box idea further with a reusable box design that turns inside out, by enabling easy removal and reattachment one of the glued box edges.

This tip suggested to me a business metaphor: Think outside the box by turning it inside-out! After all, that’s one thing that takes place when implementing a business intelligence system: data and insights previously not visible become available for many, if not all, people in the organization to see.  That can be regarded as a boon or a liability depending on one’s perspective.  Indeed, a significant hindrance to business intelligence acceptance is the perceived loss of control over the data, and therefore perceived risk of judgment and  reprisal, of one’s department, region, product line, etc.  In her book Successful Business Intelligence, Cindi Howson quoted a senior executive who said, “Some departments don’t like [their] data being exposed…others may see they are not doing a good job…” (p. 159).

Maureen Clary wrote an excellent article for the BeyeNETWORK on proactively addressing people problems that might derail a business intelligence initiative.

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Of Seeing Eye Dogs and Intelligently Disobedient Business Intelligence Use and Product Marketing/Product Management

June 11, 2010

Photo by Zevotron (Flickr CC)

I have written before about the risks of misusing business intelligence software and misinterpreting business intelligence data results.  To help avoid these and many other business risks, organizations should encourage employees to be “intelligently disobedient.”

This term is from a great article by The Leader as a Mensch (click for my review) author Bruna Martinuzzi which cleverly presents this highly beneficial trait:

I once worked for a technology company that encouraged employees to practice what they called “Intelligent Disobedience.” The concept originates from Seeing Eye dogs: while dogs must learn to obey the commands of a blind person, they must also know when they need to disobey commands that can put the owner in harm’s way, such as when a car is approaching.

Intelligent disobedience is not about setting out to be disagreeable or arbitrarily disobeying rules for its own sake. Rather, it is about using your judgment to decide when, for example, an established rule actually hinders your organization, rather than helps it…the antonym of intelligent disobedience is blind conformity.

That blind conformity, all too rampant in weakly-run organizations with executives preoccupied with loyalty, can rear its head any number of ways, including using business intelligence/business performance management software to “do the wrong things right.”  Blind conformity can also result in incuriously sticking to conventional wisdom within product marketing or product management, resulting in, for example, a preoccupation with competitors instead of actively differentiating your products from the market.

Bruna Martinuzzi offers a number of ideas to encourage cultivating an environment of intelligent disobedience, several of which are directly applicable to the wise interpreter of business intelligence data, as well as product marketers and product managers, including the following…

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Poor Communication can Scuttle Effective BI, Your Personal Brand, and a Simple Bus Ride

November 8, 2009

Simpsons_Bus_Driver1Some ten or twelve years ago I flew home from a trade show via TF Green Airport in Providence, RI instead of the usual Boston Logan Airport.  This small airport has (or at least had at the time) one large economy parking lot with shuttle buses.

You were supposed to give the bus driver the number of your bus stop near your car.  Running late, I rushed to catch my departing flight and didn’t make note of the number, but I knew where I was in relation to the entire lot.

“Excuse me,” I said to the bus driver, “but I don’t have my bus stop number. Can you just drop me off at whatever stop is near to the far right corner of the lot?”

“What’s the number?” grunted the bus driver.

“I don’t have the number.  But I know my car is near the far right corner of the lot from where we are right now.”

A slightly louder grunt this time: “What’s the number?”

Huh…?! After one more similarly circular exchange I said, “Sir, any stop near the far corner of the lot will be just fine…”

One of my compadres from the trade show mercifully interjected with a stop number he knew was somewhat close to my car. The bus driver, now given “the number,” did silently acquiesce to stop there, his eyes forward. Note that there was no language barrier or misunderstanding. The driver could also hear me just fine. But he was simply locked into his own way of thinking to a degree beyond the pale.

The way a person communicates is a major part of their reputation, and therefore, their personal brand.  I also suggest the vast majority of communication problems are caused by the personal baggage we bring to the table when communicating, known in sociological terms as conditional confirmation bias.   Read the rest of this entry »

5 Comments | Books, Business Intelligence, Interpersonal Skills, Personal Branding | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mike Urbonas

Hans Rosling, the Guitar Hero of Data Analytics & Business Intelligence!

August 26, 2009

In May 2009 I blogged about an article by BI authority and writer Dan E. Linstedt in which Dan called for a visualization breakthrough in business intelligence, on a par with the graphical breakthroughs seen in such popular games as Guitar Hero. I suggested that “most of the ‘must have’ visual features of BI are already fairly well covered” and “this same end user demand for more realistic, graphical experiences [as for gamers] doesn’t really exist for BI.” I agreed with Dan that BI should be “used” and not be “merely useful,” but innovations were better focused on such breathtaking areas as…Excel integration. Okay, Mike!

My suggestions were, in fact, already soundly debunked by global health professor and data visionary Hans Rosling in his simply amazing 2006 and 2007 TED talks, which I have just gotten around to discovering for myself. Hans Rosling’s presentations prove a “Guitar Hero-style experience” with data is not only possible but also highly beneficial. Hans Rosling turned global health and poverty data into graphically engaging, focused, insightful, compelling, even exciting stories. I am certain you will be captivated by both presentations and be as convincingly informed by them as I was. Here they are…

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

Doing the Wrong Things Right (part 2), or: Doing and Measuring the RIGHT things Right!

July 9, 2009
Photo: mrwilleeumm (Flickr)

Photo: mrwilleeumm (Flickr)

Recently I blogged on how organizations all too often “do the wrong things right” (see part 1) due to misguided, fundamentally flawed traditional management techniques of rule enforcement and incentives. I also noted that Business Intelligence/Business Performance Management (BI/BPM) software is often misused by supporting misguided rule enforcement and incentives. In other words, many companies are unwittingly “measuring the wrong things right” to help “do the wrong things right”!

I have repeatedly pointed to Barry Schwartz’ related TED talk in past postings (here and also here) for good reason: I think any successful deployment of BI/BPM solutions must begin with full awareness of Barry Schwartz’ warning that rule enforcement and incentives will often lead workers to “stop being wise” — that is, unwittingly discourage workers from independently “doing the right thing” in a given work situation. I also believe organizations can and do unwittingly misuse BI/BPM solutions to help “do the wrong things right” by “measuring the wrong things right.”

I cited a worker behavior example in my above-linked posts. Consider a much bigger, all too real example: CEOs have been compensated quite handsomely — even grotesquely – only to see the companies in their care later implode. Why? Because those CEOs were often heavily comped on one key measure, most notably increasing stock price. Unfortunately, many a CEO “earned” treasure troves of incentives for hitting that higher stock price, only to be found out later the CEO failed to do so in a sustainable, ethical or even legal manner. It’s as if the CEO stuck his or her hand over a glass thermometer, made the measured temperature go “up” and then proclaimed, “See? The room is warmer now! Where’s my bonus?!”

OK, so how can organizations “measure the right things right” and “do the right things right”? It all starts with the company’s mission statement.

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Posted by Mike Urbonas

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