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I read an article the other day that I found kind of disturbing and I thought I’d share it with you.  The piece is called the 10 Worst Paying College Majors.  In brief, OMFG.

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve written this screed a number of times this last hour but I guess this is really the gist of it.  If you’re going to college to study a “best paying major” you’re even more lost than most people your age.  College is (was) a blessing – it was four years (up to six for some of my close friends) in which one figures out how to take in a lot of information, synthesize it, and form cogent opinions about the world and one’s self.  It not about how to get a degree that will pay me a crap-load of money.  I’m not really a New Testament guy, but even I understand the meaning “gaining the whole world and losing one’s soul.”  It’s an intellectual sanctuary within which we get to spend time with great works and not with a focus towards how to study that which will earn me the most money but deplete my psychic bank account.

How many of the issues we all face revolve around a focus the bottom line and not on the things that make each day worth living?  I am a raving capitalist, but not at the expense of losing my ability to seek out facts and blend them into a 360 degree view of the world  and the people who inhabit it.

Here is where I come out.  Yes, go to college.  Learn critical thinking.  Trust no one but the self you’re going to become.  If and when you  find something in which you believe, follow your calling.  The worst-paying college majors may just be the most satisfying things you can ever do in your life.  I studied English, Education, and Music.  I”ve never worked a day in any of them but the critical thinking skills and the ability to express myself were an integral part of those four years.  I would not trade any of it for a nice paycheck but I earned quite a few of them because I possessed those skills.

You?

Great piece in this morning’s USAToday on how NFL teams are building analytics departments to take advantage of all the data they get.

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This isn’t about their digital properties either. Instead, they are used in the draft (what better way to compare hundreds of college kids than with test results?), game-management (play-calling tendencies, personnel match-ups, etc.), and in managing their rosters – the salary cap, free agent players, etc. What does this have to do with your business?

If you saw Moneyball, you probably recall the reluctance the scouts had in accepting the data being used to analyze players.  There’s a tendency in all businesses, particularly among those of us who have decades of experience, to believe our own impressions more often than we believe the impartial numbers that might be available.  An NFL coach might think that a running back can’t block, but when the numbers show that the missed block only come on plays where the  safety blitzes, the right answer isn’t a better blocker – it’s to get the tackle to give the running back blocking help when they see a blitz.

Your business isn’t that different.  You get reams of data on an hourly basis that explain what is or isn’t working.  It’s overwhelming  and because it is the data is often ignored (“I can’t react to everything every minute of the day”).  As I’ve said to clients, it’s not so much what’s happening in the moment but the trend over a bunch of moments that’s important. Ignoring those trends can be fatal, especially if they’re being subordinated to the often blurry vision each manager has.

That said, I’m among the first to say that numbers don’t show everything.  Leadership on the field, for example, isn’t really quantifiable (no numbers available from what goes on in the huddle, folks).   Still, confirming one’s own impressions against impartial measures from ongoing business activities is an important check and balance.

If you’re running a business and you’re not involved in analytics of some sort, you’re running that business blindfolded.  If you’re don’t have full-time people supporting your data efforts, there are outside folks like me who can help.  As the NFL shows, even the top dogs need to learn a few new tricks.