The Numbers That Kill Change
Not all data moves you forward.
I wasn’t looking for this insight.
I just needed answers.
I was working with sales teams in cloud services, trying to understand whether the enablement we were building was actually needed.
So I asked. Over a few months, I conducted more than 200 interviews.
What I expected to find were skill gaps.
What I found instead were patterns.
Pressure to move faster.
Unclear priorities.
Tools that didn’t match reality.
Decisions made under constraints no training had accounted for.
I came in looking for workflow questions.
I came out with something different: business compassion and empathy-driven reporting.
Because the pain points were never about content.
They were about context no one had stopped to understand.
And the numbers we were using to measure success? They weren’t capturing any of it.
Completion rates looked good.
Engagement metrics were strong.
Attendance was high.
But behavior hadn’t changed.
The Risk
Not all data helps you move forward.
Some data just makes you feel like you are.
We measure participation, completion, activity - because they’re visible and easy.
But those numbers don’t tell you what decisions people are making under pressure, where they hesitate, or what’s getting in the way.
A Quick Lens
Activity tells you: who showed up, who completed, who clicked.
Insight tells you: why behavior didn’t change, where friction lives, what conditions need to shift.
Most organizations measure activity.
Very few design for insight.
Worth Your Time
“Are You Measuring What Matters?” - Change Signal podcast with Dr. Ryan Brown.
A behavioral scientist who studies how organizations measure what actually works. His question that’s stayed with me: What if the “immeasurable” parts of change are exactly what count?
Next week: what actually helps humans change - after all the strategy, training, and tools.
— Ali 🧡