The Visual8

Data* with emotion is not something we think much about.

Because we fantasize that we are rational beings with no feelings for numbers. Honestly who gets excited about the number 21?

20 year-olds looking for an adult beverage and Black Jack players who want to beat the House. That’s who!

Which brings up the myth of the purely rational.

In Design Thinking, there is a thought experiment about Econs and Humans. The cohort of the emotionless is called the Econs (economizers). The other cohort in this exercise are called the Humans. Full of feelings.

You have encountered Econs in your life. They explain that purchasing the Ford F150 was a completely rational choice. It was due quality records, hauling capacity, or advanced diagnostics. But when presented with an equivalent Chevy , there is resistance. Because Ford people don’t buy Chevy. They do not identify with that tribe.

We use our rational brain to justify what our emotional body has already decided.

This is what Jonathan Haidt Ph.D. was trying to tell us in his book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.

Haidt described our rational thinking process as a rider on an elephant. The elephant being the emotional body. We imagine the rider is in control, but the elephant won’t move if it doesn’t want to.

Now imagine the role that data plays in this decision making process.

There are two distinct situations where data influences our next action.

Operational dashboards keep the business moving forward. We set tripwires to indicate when the system drifts, the machine sputters, or the inventory drops. These are low-emotion data points because we have established procedures to correct the drift. To put the anomaly back in line. This reflects plan-based thinking. It is based on prior experience.

Language in this domain focuses on how to optimize the budget (time, money, or energy). It’s a game of driving to an ideal state based best known methods.

Econs love this environment. The check-engine light ignites and we follow the pre-defined steps. Nothing to feel here.

Strategic thinking is what happens in the other situation.

Its moment arrives at certain inflection points. In the midst of research, seeking investment for a new idea, or branching into a new market. This is a high-emotion state because it requires defeating the status quo. Humans thrive in these moments.

However, many Humans are not prepared to build their coalition to win.

They are not prepared because they have not accentuated the emotion of their data. If their goal to persuade, it must come with an electrical charge for other people.

Strong emotions move the needle. There are three types.

1. Positive emotions. This group includes satisfaction, delight, connection, or anticipation. These are feelings that elevate us beyond the every day. Of gaining something we don’t have.

Data in this domain reflects outcomes that are bigger or sooner than what’s expected. It is the reinforcement that more community members agree with you.

2. Negative emotions. Consider feelings of fear of loss, fear of missing out, anxiety, unwanted isolation, or disappointment. This feeling group feeds rumination or worry. It is a symptom of losing something we did have.

Product managers present data to leadership around the number of features the competitors have that we don’t. Or our declining market share. Or the dwindling of number of customers buying. Or community members not attending our conference.

3. Novelty emotions. Generally speaking, this state is about surprise, exploring the unknown, adventure, or the energy that stems from curiosity.

Scientists dive into this swimming hole because it’s uniquely satisfying. The excitement of breakthroughs puts your name on a star, improves patient outcomes, or drives up the patent count. These are the emotions of the pioneers.

Data in this space can be quite anomalous. It breaks the math that predicted something would occur. It unlocks wonder about the fundamental truths.

Consider that dark matter was the byproduct of the observations of Fritz Zwicky of the California Institute of Technology. The math did not add up to why galaxies in the Coma Cluster were moving so fast. So he coined the x-factor as “dark matter” in 1933.

Next time you are in a Strategic Moment consider what strong emotion you need to put to work.

What emotion does your data trigger in you? Is it positive, negative, or novel? Is it enough to inspire others to your cause? Does it move others to nod their heads, open their checkbooks, or tune-in to your presentation?

If not, then you don’t have the right data.

Remember that in this moment, we are breaking from convention. Your data has to make us laugh, cry or get angry.

Short of that, you will merely receive acknowledgment, not change. Agreement without action is not forward progress.

Your stakeholder, your investors, or your community have to feel what you feel. It doesn’t matter how much they agree. It matters what action they take.

Chasing the emotion in data demands responsibility, too.

First of all, we don’t all share the same emotional response to data. Let your experience guide you. Find what resonates.

To ensure that the decision sticks, offer logical reasons to support the proposal. Emotion inspires. A plan puts the body in motion.

Secondly, the fear of loss is stronger than gain of something new. Daniel Kahneman described this predictably irrational behavior in his book, Thinking Fast and Slow.

The status quo is the immovable object. Your argument needs sufficient inertia to overcome that object.

Many leaders weigh the cost of effort or the price of risk in their decision. They have a number in mind. You have to know it, to leap over it.

Lastly, data gains emotion when certain things line up.

Consider the case of protecting against cyber attacks. Authorized access from a new location is low risk. Off hour access is low risk. Large downloads are low risk. Taken together we have a 3-alarm-fire. High risk.

There is no better time to make this real.

The most important lesson is to remain conscious about the salience to others of your data. If you are in the business of starting something new, you need strong emotion. Otherwise expect nothing more than a pat on back. And that empty feeling in the stomach that meeting should have gone better.

*For the purpose of this post, data refers to numerical values even if there are non-numerical values in the raw data set. In the same way that product reviews are scored numerically with sentiment analysis score even though the raw text has no such number.