Everybody lies & other things I learned from Dr. House

​“It’s a basic truth of the human condition, everybody lies. The only variable is about what.”

So says Dr. Gregory House, the dysfunctional, misanthropic diagnostician featured in the late (and in my opinion for a while great), medical drama House M.D. I have been re-watching House on Netflix and I find the show offers many interesting insights on the human condition and innovative problem solving that apply to the business world.

Based on my experience of the world, I can say that the fundamentally mendacious nature of humans is commonly accepted. Often when I am speaking with clients about customer research or developing interview questions for new hires, my clients wonder how to address the issue that “everybody lies”. To some extent I think this cynicism is justified and I think skepticism is a good position to begin with.

There are many reasons why people may not be transparent or completely truthful in these situations. There is a lot of pressure on people to conform to expected societal norms and behaviours. People today also worry about our “surveillance culture”. Some are concerned that if they give their actual opinions on a survey, it will be recorded on their permanent record. People also want to look good, like our best selves. For example, survey respondents tend to under-estimate their weekly alcohol consumption and over-estimate their annual salary. There is no malicious intent in these deceptions.

Dr. House often instructs his team to break into their patients’ homes to look for information the patients might be trying to conceal or do not know is relevant, rather than trust their oral histories. Sometimes the team finds details that patients fail to report that help solve the mystery. House does not ignore the medical history. He questions it and tries to validate the patients’ self-reported behaviour. The information shared by his patients forms part of his analysis, but not in the traditional way, because he considers it in the context of a variety of data points. Although House is portrayed as a man of science who works only in facts, his most powerful tool is his ability to overlay his observations on top of the data points available to him to create a coherent narrative.

The results of both qualitative research and quantitative research are viewed with suspicion by CEOs, CFOs and others in the “C-Suite”. A lot of businesses invest in research but then ignore the findings for a variety of reasons, such as:

• They do not understand how to activate it in a way that adds value; or

• They do not trust its findings; or

• They do not like what they are hearing.

Too often market research is considered on its own, without the additional context of business information. Research becomes more valuable when you layer different data points together to validate your research. This helps get around the question of truthfulness. One way businesses can do this is to compare qualitative research findings against business data. For example, a movie provider can ask its customers if they prefer romances, action movies or comedies and the customers can say "comedies" but their purchasing behavior does not support the research findings. The disconnect between the customers’ self reported preferences and their purchasing behavior tells the story or suggests other questions. Do they prefer comedies but the offerings are not meeting their expectations? Are they being influenced to change their viewing patterns by someone else?

The kinds of questions we ask and the methodologies we employ are also going to help us offset the human tendency to embellish or mislead or omit. Qualitative research employs opinion-based data gathering techniques, usually involving small samples or non-representative samples. Quantitative data is gathered from a large sample size using fixed questions, designed to deliver a result that can be interpreted statistically. No matter which approach you employ, you also have to make sure that your research objectives are clearly aligned with a business outcome and that your expectations are reasonable. You also have to commit to considering the research in the context of the other data available to you.

Dr. House offers executives in all departments – from finance to marketing to operations – good advice that provides context for understanding customer behaviour and utilizing research to meet business objectives:

• Observation is your most powerful tool.

• Do not look at data in isolation: get a complete picture as often as possible from a variety of data points. Even if two data points disagree there is something to learn that can help you become more effective.

• Have a clear question (or business issue) you are trying to solve before diving into a problem. Which approach is the right one? What supporting information could you explore? What other resources are available to create a more complete picture?

• Be incredulous. Challenge yourself and your findings.

• Work with a team. Other people bring interesting perspectives you may not have considered.

• Bring in experts when you need help. Although Dr. House is arrogant, he will consult with subject-matter experts from time to time. Knowing when you need an external perspective or specialized expertise is a sign of strength, not of weakness.

• Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Discovering your mistakes and the grounds for your mistakes are the best way to adapt your knowledge to this constantly changing business environment.

Despite the limitations of research, I am a huge fan. As I have mentioned in previous blog posts (Polls Are Power), I think there is a lot of value in research if you know how to use it effectively. Customers may embellish, omit or mislead about specifics but they are really good at sharing how they feel. Most businesses are sitting on a gold mine of customer and business data that they are not utilizing effectively. It is up to businesses to add context to the market intelligence they gather so that it has value and can be used to build sound business strategies. Mistakes will be made but by taking action and trying new ideas and approaches, businesses have a much better opportunity to meet their objectives – from revenue growth to improved customer loyalty.

House image from www.fanpop.com.

#Retention #Research #Alignment