As change agents and leaders, we’re frequently given information. Sometimes it’s quantitative information (i.e. measurable), and other times it’s qualitative (i.e. descriptive and unmeasurable). Regardless of the type of information given to you, how often are you validating this information before:
Reacting to it emotionally?
Acting on the information?
Further sharing the information?
How does the answer differ for your work vs. your personal life?
Why validate information first?
What if you’re angry and stressed out about something that was never actually said or done, or is a non-issue?
What if you’re putting in a corrective action for something that in reality is working just fine?
What if the information you’re sharing is actually untrue?
Take the concern the President of the United States is repeatedly sharing on mail-in voting being a recipe for voter fraud. If you validate this statement, you’ll find voter fraud is actually extremely rare in the United States per the data referenced in this New York Times Article and mail-in voting is actually safer for Americans than voting in person given Covid-19.
What does validating quantitative information look like?
Pull and analyze the data to verify if what the person is saying is in fact true. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve pulled the data and found what the person had told me was in fact untrue and the data actually told a different story.
Get a walk-through of the data analysis if an analyst has already pulled and examined the data. Be on the look-out for:
What data sources were used and whether any data sources are missing
What the quality of the data is (i.e. how accurate, credible, complete, timely, etc. it is) and whether it can be used for the analysis
Whether the analyst excluded any data points and why
Whether the analyst’s conclusion makes sense
What does validating qualitative information look like?
Go to the Source (i.e. the person reported to have said the statement, the document that reportedly has the information, the video of the conversation, etc.) and verify if the statement is in fact what the person said or what is written in the document. Why do this? Think back to when you’ve played the telephone game and how many times the message at the end, was very different from the message at the beginning.
Seek other Reliable Sources to verify accuracy of the information. If others were present, ask each of them individually what they observed. Do they all the say the same thing? Or is there conflicting reports of what happened?
Make your own Determination from the information provided. Just because someone came to a particular conclusion, doesn’t mean it’s an accurate one. Analyze the information, and see if you come up with the same conclusion or a different one.
The next time you find yourself reacting emotionally about something you heard, you’re about to take a corrective action at work, or you’re about to reshare a post on social media, pause and validate the information first, otherwise you may actually be contributing to the problem or propagating a rumor instead of being part of the solution and helping to educate others.
Call to Action
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About the Author: Rosanne Essiambre helps change agents and departments in one-on-one and group settings to be seen, be heard, and be effective in bringing about change in the organization and/or in their personal lives. She provides consulting and facilitation to organizations to improve communications and collaboration, smooth out the change / transformation journey, get to the root cause of an issue so it can be solved for good, improve processes, and implement successful lessons learned. And she conducts workshops, trains, and speaks on Energy Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Resilience, Being a Change Agent and more. If you or your organization could use support with your change effort or some inspiration, contact Rosanne for a complimentary consultation. Rosanne is a Change Agent Coach, Facilitator, Six Sigma Black Belt, Change Management / Continuous Improvement Consultant, Speaker, and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner with more than 20 years experience working on a variety of transformations across a diverse set of industries both domestically and internationally, while continuously improving herself.