Data, Grace, and Focus

What do people love about data?

It’s unflinching in its view of the world.

What do people hate about data?

It’s unflinching in its view of the world… and the choices we make.

Mint was a tremendously popular app for tracking your finances. I willingly gave them my data for years. Mint gave me an unflinching view of how much I’d spent on prepared food. My brain immediately started calculating how much I could have saved if I’d just bought groceries instead. Before long, I wasn’t looking at data anymore. I was putting myself on trial. And that’s why I stopped looking.

The true signal was there, but I got stuck in that blame loop. It was hard to move past that to action.

I’ve come to realize that this isn’t really a data problem. It’s a relationship-with-data problem.

I see the same thing happen inside organizations. Teams avoid dashboards, delay reports, or explain away metrics because the numbers feel like judgment. But data isn’t there to blame us. It’s there to help us make a better next decision.

Getting Unstuck Means Looking At What You Did

When people hear “Grace” they think of just forgiving a person for wronging them, regardless of the impact.

That’s not truly grace, that’s covering and escaping.

Grace acknowledges our actions, both what we do control and what we don’t. It accepts those things as they are, without judgment. It acknowledges that we’ve done what we could. From there, we can focus on the next reasonable action.

I spent more money than I wanted to on prepared food. I chose that because I didn’t prepare a meal plan and go shopping. So I often bought prepared food because I’m human and I need to eat. After I acknowledge that, I can focus on making a different choice.

The data didn’t accuse me of anything. It simply reflected reality.

In order to spend less on prepared food, I need to make a meal plan. Full stop. Once armed with a meal plan, I need to decide when to go to the store and where I’ll shop based on my plan.

Where I often get stuck is when it’s 7 p.m., I’m hungry and tired, and I don’t have anything ready to cook. At that point, I’m no longer responding to the data. I’m responding to the story I’m telling myself about how hard it will be to change. Suddenly, ordering takeout feels easier than changing my habits.

When I catch myself doing that, I try to come back to something much simpler: Look at the data. Give yourself grace. Take one action.

The Next Step Is Always Smaller Than You Think

I’m not trying to land a rocket from low earth orbit on a self-stabilizing barge in the middle of the ocean without it falling over. I’m buying groceries at the market.

Good analytics works the same way. The goal isn’t to solve every future problem. It’s simply to identify the next meaningful action.

• Collect and view the data.
• Graciously analyze it.
• Focus on what I control and take the next reasonable step.

The Mint data was right. I just needed to make, plan, and buy groceries.

That’s true whether you’re managing a household budget or leading a business. Great analysts don’t use data to assign blame. They use it to reduce uncertainty and decide what to do next.

That’s what will lead to lasting change for you.

Be kind to your future self.

– Shaun