Positive change is harder to see

Positive change is harder to see

Humans are wired to see negative change because we need to protect ourselves; a negative change is seen as a risk and a danger. Positive change is much more difficult to see; there's no risk involved.

Think about it this way: When there's a negative change with your data (e.g., a board member's email address is incorrect), it is a problem, everyone knows about it, and often we rush to fix it. When there's a positive change (e.g., all the board members' email addresses have been updated and are now 100% accurate), we rarely notice, and it's even more rare that we say anything about it.

This is why I recommend that data managers practice database public relations. Because positive change is much more difficult to see than negative change, we have to make a proactive effort to highlight all the positive change going on around us.

Wes's Wednesday Wisdom Archives

Next-to-Nothing Goals

January 27, 2021

Next-to-Nothing Goals I saw a Ted Talk by Christine Carter recently discussing the concept of […]

Just because you can…

January 20, 2021

Just because you can… In response to a recent Wednesday Wisdom on averages hiding the […]

Always ask “Why?”

January 13, 2021

Always ask “Why?” Little kids ask “Why?” all the time, because they are sponges for […]

Averages hide the extremes

January 6, 2021

Averages hide the extremes I can’t remember where I first heard it, but “averages hide […]

Look up PARTIAL names!

December 24, 2020

Look up PARTIAL names! Train your staff to do look ups on partial names, not full […]

Not Just Technology

December 16, 2020

Not Just Technology There was recently a discussion on the ASAE online community about project management […]

Consider quitting

December 4, 2020

Consider quitting Patient: “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” Doctor: “Then stop doing that.” […]

There is nothing so permanent as business rules

November 25, 2020

There is nothing so permanent as business rules Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman said, “There’s nothing […]

Budget for feature discovery and adoption

November 18, 2020

Budget for feature discovery and adoption When developing a budget for implementation of a new […]

Customize staff pages for better user adoption

November 11, 2020

Customize staff pages for better user adoption The single most important element to data management […]

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top