Numbers don’t lie.

A single, solitary number can tell you a lot about a person, place, or situation, but a number in the context of other numbers can tell you much more. Context is absolutely crucial, and one number⏤one piece of data⏤is rarely enough to paint a full picture. When painting with numbers, more is always better. For example, you hear that your friend’s relative has only two months left to live. On the surface, this number sounds alarming, but two months means something completely different for a 3-year old than for someone who just celebrated their 100th birthday. Or, let’s say you hear through the grapevine that your company has just assigned 10 people to work on a new initiative. Based on the numbers, you conclude that this new project is of great importance⏤until you realize that only the most junior people have been posted to the project and no money has been allocated to it. Any number deserves a good double-take. To dig deeper into the numbers behind anything, simply ask an initial question for which the answer can be a number, then probe that answer with additional questions in order to see the answer from another numerical perspective. Some examples are below:

  • How many times a day do you communicate with your partner? Answer: 10. Excellent! Of those 10 times, how many are face to face? How many are written versus spoken? How many feel uplifting and positive? 
  • What percentage of your company’s employees are (insert group of your choosing here)? Answer: 50%. Amen! What percentage of these employees work in leadership positions?
  • How much money did you save this year? Answer: $5,000. Good job! What percentage of your income does this represent? How much more (or less) did you spend this year on (insert frivolous purchase of your choosing here)?
  • How many orders did you ship this month? Answer: 1,000. Impressive! How many of these were filled incorrectly? Damaged en route? Never arrived?
  • How many countries have you traveled to? Answer: Two. Awesome! How many years has it been since you last traveled? How many countries are still on your wish list?
  • How many people has your company hired this year? Answer: 25. Very robust!How long does the average new hire stay at your company? What’s the turnover rate?
  • How many calories did you consume today? Answer: 1,800. Sounds reasonable! How many were in the form of no-bake cookies? Crunchy cheese twists? Animal crackers dipped in chocolate and coated with a layer of whipped cream, lol?

Anything can be quantified. The next time you encounter a number, probe it more deeply to see what more it has to reveal. 

Copyright 2023 Kesel Wilson (entirely, 100% human-created)

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