Comments on: A Rant Against Anecdotal Decision Making

By: The Growing Danger Of Conference Room Decision Making

The Growing Danger Of Conference Room Decision Making — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:24:22 +0000

[...] You might also like an earlier post, “A Rant Against Anecdotal Decision Making.” [...]

By: Are You The Root Cause Of Bad Employee Morale? «

Are You The Root Cause Of Bad Employee Morale? « — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:07:26 +0000

[...] that department morale is bad, it may or may not be correct. Last year I wrote a post called, “A Rant Against Anecdotal Decision Making” and cautioned against reacting based on the feedback of a few employees. To understand if you [...]

By: Top 10 Sales Operations Blog Posts of 2009 «

Top 10 Sales Operations Blog Posts of 2009 « — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:30:45 +0000

[...] A Rant Against Anecdotal Decision Making Most personal post [...]

By: Tracy White

Tracy White — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:45:20 +0000

Very well put, Marci! I share your disdain for what I always call “management by random whim” and it is critical to know how to combat it with facts and an informed perspective of the business and its real priorities.

Cheers,
Tracy

By: adamsmobile

adamsmobile — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:46:46 +0000

A great point Very well made… I love your style.

By: Adam Clark

Adam Clark — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 23:37:03 +0000

Marci,

You described the problem well. I especially liked your description of the Salesforce data scenario – made me laugh – thanks for making me feel not so alone in my job.

By: John Fox

John Fox — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:31:40 +0000

Marci, first off, thanks for sharing your story of your standoff with Marketing. It’s a terrific lesson for everyone reading this. The reason you won your argument is because you were prepared to make your case. You had cold, hard numbers (facts) everyone could trust. Way to go!

Second, thanks for mentioning my new eBook: 5 Management Blunders Causing Sales Impotence. It was a lot of fun to write and produce. I hope it’s helpful to everyone who reads it.

Lastly, as you note, anecdotal decision-making (especially of the hyper-responsive, knee-jerk, all-hands-on-deck, rush-to-judgment variety) is killing anything (and anyone!) remotely related to “real” strategic thinking.

It’s especially frustrating when you’re working in an environment that fosters this stuff. You may even be working for a company like this and not recognize it.

The 5 telltale signs I’ve seen are:

1. Confusion between the right to speak and the right to be heard.

2. Lack of information filtering.

3. All initiatives and projects have the same priority… Urgent.

4. A rush to judgment and action.

5. A president who believes he or she can do everyone else’s job better and sets out prove the point (btw, this one sets the stage for the blurring of roles throughout the organization and fosters distrust between departments).

fox.
+1 (630) 355-6951

Follow me: http://www.twitter.com/b2bmarketing

By: Paul Castain

Paul Castain — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:29:53 +0000

This one hit home Marci as we have all been there many times!

Nice job saying what many of us have felt!

Rock on!

Paul Castain