Friday, December 11, 2009

What is this "paper" you speak of?

Someone brought two handouts to one of my afternoon meetings and asked us to take one of each and pass the rest around the table. Sounds simple, right?

Nope. It was as if she had asked the group to fly a rocket ship.

People's minds were blown. No one knew what they were looking at or what to do. One guy was holding a pile in each hand, staring blankly, and said, "I have no idea what I'm looking at right now." To which I, of course, responded with a witty (and/or sarcastic) comment. (All in good fun, friends.)

Moral of the story:
Give us millions of dollars and we'll spend it efficiently. Give us spreadsheets with thousands of numbers and we'll analyze the data and provide insights. But give us a sheet of paper and you can plan on seeing zero results.

No comments: