Let me provide some
wisdom provided by Dr. W. Edwards Deming on this subject – “Dr. Deming spoke of
3 ways to improve (Does not imply "good") the figures: distort
the data, distort the system and improve the system. Improving the system is
the most difficult.”
Following is a prime example of distorting
the data: High
Schools
Here is a statement from a local high school (Many do this to attract parents to their school):
"In the past five years,
our graduates earned over $20 million in scholarships."
OK – I know for a fact
this school averages around 100 students that graduate per year. I’m not a math
wizard and I’m not making these numbers dance but this statement would mean 20
million divided by 500 = $40,000 per student.
What this really means is the old Pareto Principle at work
- The Pareto Principle is very simple, yet
very important. It is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who, in
1906, found that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.
What was most important about
Pareto’s finding was that this 80/20 distribution occurs extremely frequently.
For example, in general, 20% of your customers represent 80% of your sales.
In the scholarship numbers used by many high schools this
really means your top ten students are getting offers from multiple schools to
attend and get scholarship dollars. Let’s say I apply to 5 colleges and they
each offer me a full ride equaling $60,000. The school will now put in $300,000
in the pot. I can only go to one school the actual scholarship dollars are
$60,000. So if you really want to know the numbers ask the counselor to be
specific and show you the scholarship winner and the schools they are to
attend. I guarantee you it will be a much smaller number.
Following is a prime
example of distorting
the system: Wells
Fargo
The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted
fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make
more money.
"Wells Fargo employees
secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive
bonuses," Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, said in a statement.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/31/investing/wells-fargo-investigations-fake-account-scandal/
Whom do you blame? Management owns the system and
sets the policies. Employees follow these rules in order to save their jobs or to
make more money. It all comes down to the dangers of Management By Objectives
(MBO), Quotas and Rating and Raking. I have posted about this numerous times
since 2005.
http://qualityg.blogspot.com/search?q=Ratings
There are so many examples day in and day out. The
most popular today is
“FAKE NEWS.” Everyone is distorting the facts to gain
viewer and readership and this is very dangerous. Social Media only compounds
the problem.
Dr. Deming wrote about these dangers/diseases many
years ago and people continue to abuse them:
https://deming.org/management-system/deadlydiseases
Dr. Deming did not just tell about the diseases he
provided a prescription for preventing (not fixing) them. We would all do well
to take a good dose of learning and applying these concepts.
https://deming.org/management-system
Oh - by the way - I DO realize numbers don't actually lie it's the people manipulating them for their own gain or protection.
