# Spark Meaningful Arguments By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-04-07 An indicator of good analysis is when it sparks a meaningful dialogue or debate. In other words, when it makes people think and question. This means you must find the right balance of understanding the critical parts of the problem without telling everyone your answer. Analysts often jump to a conclusion. Many uninformed leaders who don't get the point of analytics reward this behavior and think this is a good analysis. However, providing answers is hardly the path forward. For a change to occur, people must come to it on their own because humans can easily refute any proposed solution. So, instead of providing answers, analysts should provide nuggets of understanding and formulate arguments at the heart of the issue. The report shouldn't say that the answer is 5, but one could get to 5 in several critical ways. Should we add 1 and 4 to get 5, or add 2 and 3 to get 5? What do the tradeoffs look like? Do they matter? Why 5 at all? Effectively presenting this understanding in terms the stakeholders can understand and debate enables progress and action. People will see analysis differently when you begin to implement this approach. They'll view you are a partner and a critical person to be in the room. So, spark dialogue and debate. Ask well-informed and thought-out questions. Challenge the status quo. #### Related Items [[Analytics]] [[Debate]] [[Organizational Analytics]] [[Problem Solving]] [[Progress]] [[Questions]]