# Absurdity and Positive Insights By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-04-19 Organizations and managers expect insights generated by the analytics team will be positive. For example, they expect the insights to generate more revenue, reduce costs, or improve a process. But negative insights are likely just as, if not more, common than these positive ones. There are likely many more ways to fail than to succeed. Due to asymmetrical power dynamics and this positivity bias, these negative insights almost always get swept under the rug. Analysts wanting to keep their job do everything they can to find "the bright side of life." The trouble arises when the negative insight is fatal, and it's too late to unmake the decisions. It's like jumping out of an airplane and halfway down asking an analyst how things are trending? Unless you had the foresight to pack a parachute, things are trending very negatively for you. As crazy as it may seem, never underestimate how many organizations forget the parachute and always assume those in power have theirs discretely packed away in their fancy leather laptop bag. So the organization is quickly falling to its death and looking for unreasonable hope. Should the analyst provide positive insights about the benefit of feeling the wind in your hair when the big negative one looms? Probably the better question at this point is whether it will matter. Do you give false hope and make increasingly ridiculous insight-based recommendations? For example, on the way down you saw a bird flapping its wings and flying. Arms look like wings. Maybe the people falling to earth should start flapping their arms? Boom - positive insights delivered. Gold star stickers are incoming. As absurd as this sounds, the equivalent of this advice is given every day. Worse yet, the people getting the advice know it is absurd and do it anyways. What you do as an analyst is up to you, but I highly recommend always bringing your parachute. #### Related Items [[Analytics]] [[Insights]] [[Organizational Analytics]] [[Management]] [[Absurd]]