Quote-A-Day: Day 325

Claims without #evidence are like piggy banks without change: Both ring empty. #QuoteADay325 #edchat #satchat #NYedchat #BlogEveryDay

One of the important lessons I’ve learned in my leadership role and throughout my life experience as a learner is that if you’re going to make a claim, you had best have evidence to support it.

As interesting as I might be (or as interesting as I might think that I might be J), very few people are interested in what I “think.”  Rather, they want to know what I think only when there is evidence to back it up.  If I’m making any type of claim, then I need to be able to substantiate it.

The problem is that we live in a society where information flies quicker than it can be interpreted and analyzed.  This means that often, what we think we know isn’t true, and it almost always means that every story is much deeper than it first appears.

As leaders and learners we need to make sure that we are holding others to the lofty benchmark of supplying evidence with the claims that they make.  This means asking questions such as, “How do you know this?”  “What resources exist that can support (or detract) from this?”  “What additional sources can we call on that may know even more about this?” and “How much follow-up has been done regarding this?”

We also need to make sure that we hold ourselves to this benchmark.  How do we do this?  We can begin by taking the following steps:

1.        Check in with at least three reputable sources before reporting “news.”

2.       Share sources and text with those who the information pertains to.  Don’t attempt to interpret information if you can supply the original wording/text.

3.       Continue to follow up on an issue.  “News” changes quickly, and what was a big story at nine in the morning may turn out to be a non-issue by noon (or a bigger deal by three).

In our desire to be knowledgeable, we often make the mistake of sharing information as soon as it surfaces.  Better to truly be knowledgeable by taking the time to gather data on a situation, think deeply about it, and only then, share.