What is Factfulness, where does this word come from, and why it is important in quality management?

Perhaps you do not like made-up words. Every now and then there is a concept that could use a new word to succinctly convey an idea. In the past writers would use a larger vocabulary to convey concepts, but for today’s audience, this is tiring. Ever try to read Thorstein Veblens’ “The Theory of the Leisure Class”[1]? He has a wonderful vocabulary, but it is tough going for most readers today.

The Swedish doctor Hans Rosling wrote a book last year called “Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think”[2]. I thought ‘Factfulness’ was a made-up word. It turns out there have been a few definitions floating around, but that is not truly important here. I would like to use Rosling’s definition here: “The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.”

In this book, Rosling gives us his summation of his life. He was a remarkable human, and you may see just how remarkable by watching his Ted talks and videos. It was a great loss to all of humanity when he passed. His work continues by his children and their website.[3]

The book pertains to quality managers since they live and breathe facts and are often surrounded by misconceptions. Misconceptions are humanity’s stock-in-trade: all of us are so full of misconceptions, it is a wonder we can function in today’s complex, non-primeval environment. (By the way, I include myself in that category.)

Rosling’s book offers 10 instincts, or ways humans get facts wrong, and each one has several corrective actions. Getting facts wrong cause us to misinterpret the world around us. As his focus had always been on understanding other places in the world, some of his instincts apply in only a limited way to quality managers, but most of them are highly instructive. Here are his 10:

• The gap instinct

• The negativity instinct

• The straight-line instinct

• The fear instinct

• The size instinct

• The generalization      instinct

• The destiny instinct

• The single perspective      instinct

• The blame instinct

• The urgency instinct

One valuable aspect (to me) of his book is to help us become more positive about the future. I do heartily recommend this book to any data lover who is depressed about the future. All these points are valuable to us in a general sense, but I want to focus on the field of quality management.

The gap instinct

We can err when we compare averages or extreme values. The average tells us nothing about the range. Two averages may be different, but if the ranges overlap, the difference may be misleading. Extreme values show differences that may not be typical.

The straight-line instinct

Here, you see a trend and assume it will continue in a linear fashion. Even without outside action altering the trend, it may be change into a ‘curve’ and you just don’t see it yet in the chaos of random variation. Also, not every curve is even, and there is a world of difference between a simple arithmetic curve and an exponential curve.

The fear instinct

This is all about risk-based thinking.[4] Rosling’s corrective actions here include calculating the risk, first severity and then probability.[5] Multiply those two variables. He adds to our risk-based thinking concept of needing to remember that fear kills logic, and the risks are not as bad as our imagination makes them. He says to “Get calm before you carry on.”

Some other instincts are useful. The size instinct includes the 80 / 20 rule; the generalization instinct is about data interpretation; the single perspective instinct is about open-mindedness and using subjective and objective data; the urgency instinct is about thinking slow not fast[6].

The blame instinct

I feel this one is critical. Too often we look for someone to blame (root cause analysis ending with human error)[7] or we reward the heroes who fix things (what about the system that drove the physical cause?) The all-too-common willingness to find blame/ heroes stops us from going deeper and really finding permanent fixes to systemic issues.

It is amazing how looking around in other fields can help us in our usual jobs. We all need to take the time to slow down and ‘smell the flowers’ (I mean ‘read the literature’) so we can be both focused and effective in our usual activities.

Copyright 2020 DC Wood Consulting, LLC              

References

[1] Veblen, T. (1961). The Theory of the leisure class: An economic study of institutions; With a foreword by Stuart Chase. New York: Random House.

[2] Rosling, H., Rosling, O., & Rönnlund, A. R. (2019). Factfulness: Ten reasons we're wrong about the world - and why things are better than you think. London: Sceptre.

[3] Rosling, O., Rönnlund, A. R., & Rosling, H. Gapminder.org. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from https://www.gapminder.org/ (Constitution adopted 2005, February 25).

[4] International Organization for Standardization. (2015). Quality management systems- requirements (ISO Standard No. 9001). Retrieved from https://www.iso.org/standard/62085.html

[5] Stamatis, D. H. (2003). Failure mode and effect analysis: FMEA from theory to execution. Milwaukee, Wisc., WI: ASQ Quality Press.

[6] Kahneman, D. (2015). Chapter 1 "The Characters of the Story". In Thinking, fast and slow (pp. 24-30). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[7] Okes, D. (2019). Root Cause Analysis, Second Edition: The Core of Problem Solving and Corrective Action. Milwaukee, WI: ASQ Quality Press.