It is so easy to drown in a deluge of data.

So easy to spend all your time in there, looking for patterns, looking for the story, looking for the pictures.

And then you spot an outlier … the exception.  A person or a group of people who are behaving contrary to your expectations.

What then?

The outlier has a story to tell, but it isn’t always necessary to shift your strategy, your messaging, your tactics to satisfy the outlier.

A false positive like an outlier can waste an incredible amount of time and money.  

A red herring like an outlier can be used by executive to shift the narrative away from core business to chase business that isn’t there or doesn’t result in success.

Note the outlier, look for a pattern, but don’t shift your strategy because of a stray.