Dinosaurs vs Future leaders

The more I fume about the anti-measurement dinosaurs I encountered this week, the more I started thinking about the difference between dinosaurs and what we'll call for want of a better title "Future Leaders. "  Here are a few ideas, I'd love some more..

1. Dinosaurs make decisions based on gut feelings and common wisdom.  Future leaders base their decisions on data and proof.
2. Dinosaurs maintain relationships with clients through the strength of their personalities. Future leaders maintain clients by proving statistically that they are helping the client succeed.
3. Dinosaurs, if they measure at all, measure clips. Future leaders measure relationships.
4. Dinosaurs define success as a front page headline in the Wall Street Journal. Future leaders define success by the strength of their messaging, the degree to which they are positioned better than the competition, improved relationships and behaviors that contribute to the corporate goal. 
5. Dinosaurs fear measurement because it could reveal failure. Future leaders measure failure on a regular basis.
6. Dinosaurs don’t measure because they don’t want to take money away from programs. Future leaders measure results so that they CAN take money away from programs that aren’t working and apply it to programs that will make them more successful.
7. Dinosaurs only measure when they have to. Future leaders measure so that they can lead more effectively.

Other thoughts?

Comments

[Vince Hazleton]

Chris Thilk's observation that objective data without subjective analysis is correct but it ignores the fact that good research is in fact driven by analytical thinking and should be designed with specific goals and questions in mind. If you wait until you have data to think, its too late.

[Chris Thilk]

When you speak of the "anti-measurement dinosaurs" I hope you don't mean Kevin Dugan and what he wrote on his Strategic PR blog. I don't think Kevin was anti-measurement, he was just trying to point out some of the problems in relying SOLELY on measurement.

Yes, measurement has its' place and I am a big fan of it but it's really only half the equation. Objective date with no subjective analysis is useless just as a skeleton is useless without a heart. Unless there's someway data has been qualified in addition to having been quantified then there's no perspective to be gained.

My two cents.

--Chris