The Asshole In The Room
How to be an effective devil’s advocate in data analytics.
Background
In a recent panel discussion, I was asked to introduce myself and my “superpower”. I gave the cheeky reply that my superpower was being the “asshole in the room”. The moderator smiled. As those who have known and worked with me over the years can testify, I have a strong contrarian streak at the very core of my nature; a rebel since birth, I guess. I rather forge my own path than follow the proverbial “wisdom of the crowd” which I frankly think is misunderstood, and ofttimes just nonsense.
But what does being the “asshole in the room” mean as a data analytics / data science practitioner? It’s about playing the role of the “devil’s advocate” in a stakeholder discussion. But how should one go about doing that? And so I dedicate my 57th article to being an effective devil’s advocate as an analytics practitioner.
(I write a weekly series of articles where I call out bad thinking and bad practices in data analytics / data science which you can find here.)
Facts Don’t Lie?
Research shows that regardless of the practice domain, playing the devil’s advocate requires you to challenge the majority view or status quo from a position of commitment. It’s more than just being contrarian for the sake of it. That’s the easy part. The difficult part is believing that your contrarian position is the right one … until you can be convinced otherwise. That commitment comes from being more widely read and exposed in that specific practice domain. Contrarians read both sides of the argument, while the “believers” generally read only one side. This is a key differentiating behaviour. Natural-born sceptics do this with relative ease, but born-again contrarians must “habitualise” this behaviour.
But just reading widely isn’t enough to strengthen your contrarian muscle. You need to read critically. On both sides of the argument, you need to be able to distinguish the foundational assumptions, the way the data or information signal is being interpreted, and the connective line-of-thinking that ensues. Being able to spot the flaw in any of these three areas is key to your ability to play the role of the devil’s advocate. And as per my 22nd article, being a good devil’s advocate is one of the essential leadership behaviours to ensure you maintain your seat at the (stakeholders) table.
What Do You Challenge?
No one likes a challenge, even though we recognise the important role it plays in driving progress. You can (1) challenge the underlying assumptions of an argument, or you can (2) challenge the way your stakeholder interprets the data, or you can (3) challenge your stakeholder’s thought process in terms of how they connect the dots or how they generalise their data interpretation into business implications and outcomes. It should be obvious that the more you move the challenge from (1) to (3), the more defensive your stakeholder will get; because it feels increasingly more personal.
An effective devil’s advocate focuses on challenging (1) and (2). In fact, those areas of challenge are perfectly aligned to the core competencies of a data analytics practitioner. Challenging underlying assumptions is akin to problem framing, and challenging data interpretation is akin to data sensemaking. The more you focus on (1) and (2), the more sensitive you become to seeing hidden and flawed assumptions, and the more tuned in to the diversity of perspectives when trying to unpack a problem statement or trying to find a solution to a problem.
Conclusion
An analytics leader’s job is to bring new decision-related information to the table; to reduce decision uncertainty with better information and analysis / interpretation. Obviously, the value-add of the analytics role is to improve decision-making based on information that was missed out. There will definitely be (many) moments when the information is counter-intuitive to the current decisioning process. These are the moments where you need to don your devil’s advocate hat and push back on the status quo. The work requires courage and maturity.
