"Data-driven" is a buzzword

Some years personality tests are trending. Other years they’re considered unscientific. Right now “data-driven” is the thing.

Organizations follow fashion cycles. It applies to leadership theories, project methodologies and now to decision-making. Each cycle is presented as the definitive solution. The next cycle replaces it without anyone evaluating the previous one.

“Data-driven” sounds objective. It rarely is. Which data gets collected, how it’s interpreted and which decisions it justifies is just as subjective as the judgment it was supposed to replace.

In three years the backlash will come. “Qualitative decision-making” and “experience-based leadership” will be the new buzzwords. And then it starts over.