Leaders Thrive When They Ask Better Questions Of Their Data

What if the most powerful analytics tool in your organization is the data you already collect? Greg and I dive into the mindset shift leaders need to make statistics useful: start with clear definitions, ask sharper questions, and turn simple datasets—like power bills and budgets—into fast, confident decisions. Along the way, we unpack a laugh-out-loud “seasonal days” misread, then translate it into a serious lesson about literacy, control, and focusing on variables you can actually change.

We trace a bigger story too: how newspapers lost ground by comparing themselves only to peers and not to the web that was stealing attention. Contrast that with the digital playbook of The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Financial Times, and The Guardian—winning with subscriber growth, product bundles like Games and Cooking, and a relentless focus on engagement metrics that drive lifetime value. The takeaway applies to any industry: widen the frame of your data, spot substitution effects early, and use real-time dashboards to move from reactive to proactive.

This conversation gets tactical fast. We share small operational experiments that save money, like targeted temperature tweaks during peak load, and show how simple tools—sorting, filtering, and pivoting in Excel—lower anxiety and unlock problem solving across the front line. We outline the three most practical uses of statistics for managers: quality improvement, fair performance management, and evidence-based decision making. Then we bring it home with budgets—the most immediate dataset leaders can use to align spend with outcomes—and why a short-term expert tune-up of your measurement system can pay back quickly. If you’re ready to build a data-first culture without drowning in formulas, this is your playbook.

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Transcript

Why Statistical Thinking Matters

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Well, hello, and welcome to our podcast, Success, Secrets, and Stories. I'm your host, John Wondolowski, and I'm here with my co-host and friend, Greg Powell. Greg? Hey everybody. And when we put together this podcast, we wanted to put out a helping hand and help that next generation and help answer the question of what does it mean to be a leader? Today, we want to talk about a subject that I think supports that concept. So today, I wanted to talk about an interesting subject called statistical thinking. And I took stack classes, I think those of us who had it in college or in master's degrees or whatever, whenever you come across that particular subject, there's that flash of holy cow, this stuff is tough. But to be honest, it is a wonderful teaching opportunity for us to try to tell you that the statistics side of the world is important. And it isn't as overwhelming as it may seem on the surface. So maybe trying to give you some idea of how to understand and digest it a little bit easier is my goal that Greg and I are going to be talking about today. And to help that discussion, we're going to try to talk about transitioning from like a niche marketing to understanding a little bit behind the scenes of what organizations are capable of doing through statistics. So, what is organizational capacity? Where do you look for that kind of information? Well, let me help you. Don't look for something that isn't already being collected, something that you already know. There's a bunch of information that you haven't been looking at. That's the key. Not to start the business over, but actually use the statistical analysis that you have now. Learn that, understand that. Especially, we're talking about in the first 90 days, you're not going to change the world, but you don't need a four-year degree in order to understand things like a power bill, an electric bill. That data is available. Greg, maybe you can help me a little bit here.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Sure thing, John. Like you, when I was an undergrad, I took statistics for the social science student. I'm not sure how helpful it was, but I did take that during grad school, something a little bit more in-depth on statistics. So statistics are really, really important. So we want to talk about using calculations for conceptual ideas, data as basic as your electric bill, to spark curiosity about reducing costs. It is not about creating manuals, it's not about complex calculations or interpretive results. It's about understanding logic, which is the core reason data is collected.

Focus On Logic Not Formulas

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Yeah. And really, it's focusing on the why and the what in terms of what that data is trying to describe and whether it's useful or not. Instead of learning the calculations, deviations of standards, the average cost analysis, exploring variations, oh my lord, you just can get lost in that kind of data. It's just going to bog you down, and you lose sight that the data is a valuable tool. Let's take an example of collecting the information for the electric bill, as Greg had mentioned. I heard the story of an electrical company that had an executive that wanted to talk about the regional data that they had collected. And there was a presentation talking about cost structures and there's the profit and the demand sides of the electric business that they were going to discuss. They examined the months that had the highest demand, which was, I know you're going to be surprised, the most profitable. And they had all those data that was associated with the summer months, the shoulder months. These are all terms that you, when you get into the electrical side, you start to understand. And there was one interesting statistical column that said seasonal days. Well, the unfamiliar executive was looking at that design and said, is there any way that we can increase those seasonal days? Well, let me help you here. The seasonal days is whenever the heat index is over 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Now you're looking at your executive and you're saying, are you going to explain it to him? Not the time, not the place. There's only one way is to ask God for days that are more than 88 degrees. So they just smiled and said, We'll look into that. Which is usually a very good answer when the executive asks questions that are a little bit more obvious and you want to talk about it. Talk about it later, not in that meeting. And you need to also understand that that leader should spend some time to understand the statistics and those actionable signals that really help them understand their business model. It isn't just simply noise. Using statistics, leadership can enable faster decision making and achieve greater success. As the reliability of statistics start to support business decisions, that's when you see the rubber meet the road.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

So, John, one of the biggest challenges for management is understanding the trap of asking for information that supports their assumptions, right? That's what they want. In my experience in the newspaper business, executives requested comparative information from other newspaper organizations in the same region. So from a statistics standpoint, their data supported their assumptions about the newspaper business, but they ignored information about TV and the internet, which were starting to come up and become prominent as far as readers. The impact of the internet was a known challenge, but they kind of dismissed it and assumed that, you know, TV was the newspaper's really only competition. As web-based organizations grew, this newspaper organization could have discussed the internet's effect on their business specifically. Because actually, what was going on, we were looking over our shoulders, we saw something coming, coming down the pike, chasing after us.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

The detective team just now there was a wonderful movie reference that you were talking about that I think kind of helps the executives on that that mindset where they were at. Maybe you can share that one.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

Absolutely, John. For those of you that remember Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and the two were looking at each other several times during the movie, looking behind themselves saying, Who are those guys? Those people on horseback that are distant enough from us tonight to be able to grab us, but they're on our tail. So let's move to the final chapter. The internet became the main component in destroying the printed newspaper approach to news. Ja?

The Seasonal Days Story

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yeah, and when you think about statistics, you want to talk about the most successful newspaper company currently that moved into the digital world. And the first name that comes to mind is the New York Times. They have over 11 million digital subscribers, making them the premium example of a successful digital model. Other organizations like the Washington Post and the Financial Times and The Guardian all saw the handwriting on the wall, excuse the pund, but they had the data. They looked at that column and they realized that there was something happening in their industry of news and need to make that kind of adaption.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Absolutely, John. These organizations survived the decline in print by shifting to digital subscriptions and leveraging national and global resources rather than that whole focus on local appeal. Their diversity and digital content went beyond traditional news. That was smart. Looking at the information in terms of statistics is incredibly important. So let's consider a few categories that best describe the newspaper organization moving into the digital age. One, subscriber growth. So as of late 2025, the New York Times company reached 12.33 million total subscribers. And guess what? 11.78 were digital only. And it's not a lot of newspaper at that point. Not a lot of printed pieces there. The bundle strategy, a key driver of success, has been bundling news with high margin digital products like the New York Times Games or the New York Times Cooking and the product review site, Wirecutter. And third, revenue milestone. In 2025, digital only subscription revenues saw year-over-year growth of approximately 14%, reaching$367 million in a single quarter.

Decisions, Assumptions, And Blind Spots

SPEAKER_01 9:00

So I'm sure you're wondering, okay, what does this have to do with me? It's actually about making informed information decisions and taking the time of learning what the data is that you have currently, those embedded statistics, the dashboards, the automatic reporting tools. A bad example would be the electric bill, but you have those things right now that are currently building data in real time. Simply adding a monitoring device, you can achieve real-time reporting, seeing the trends as they happen rather than waiting for the monthly report or even a quarterly report. It's that mindset of being reactive rather than proactive. And you have to understand, proactive is where you can save the money. You can change the electric bill by a real interesting example. In the hospital industry, from my background, we found that if we changed the temperature, the room temperature, by two degrees, we had a significant power change and a power reduction. It wasn't an enormous savings, but it was obviously a way of being proactive and knowing when the temperature was at its maximum is when you enacted that kind of change, not before, and you tried to make it as little of a change as possible. Here's my point: you learn from that data. You start to change the mentality of the operators to think out of the box. How can you reduce our energy usage by being creative? Turning fans off that aren't important, turning lights off that aren't important, automating that process that might be sensitive to temperature. All those things kind of springboard by engaging your team on those goals that you think are important that your data can reinforce.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

So another real opportunity is training programs. And those programs are based on data collection that use tools like Excel to develop work worksheet knowledge. So it's one thing to have Excel, but if you don't know how to use all the capabilities, how to do different sorting in that, then you're missing the boat there. Learning how to create a worksheet that collects, adds, and totals amounts and provides training reports is extremely valuable. Current tools like Excel from Microsoft are designed just for these applications. So interactive training programs help teach employees to use the software to improve problem solving, definitely reduce some anxiety, and improve retention because people feel empowered by information rather than by being victims of that information.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

And that's where the US kind of business management model is going and redefining statistics as a leadership tool. That means that something very specific, statisticians, were once the interpreters of this complex data process. In 2026, that level of competency and understanding data must be a frontline-level leadership role. It isn't somebody else that's going to answer those questions for you. You need to understand statistical analysis at some level. And it's important that statistics are a requirement for most entry-level management positions. They're not going to talk about that, but those are assumptions that if you're going through school, and in my case, I was through a couple of the classes, you can apply that knowledge. That's where it starts to come into play. Avoiding the work associated with data collection seems to be the game people play. And those who resist change will simply be lost or unfortunately be fired in the process of not collecting the data. It's avoiding that workload isn't really the goal here. It's engaging with the information.

Newspapers Miss The Internet Shift

SPEAKER_00 12:53

So, as leaders, what do you need to do? You need to train your staff to act as champions for data collection. It's not going away. Setting the tone for analytics and then showing how data helps improve service, increases visibility, and maintains or even develops trust depending on its application. So think about my example about the newspaper industry. It's critical that the first blush of information accepted in the organization is not filtered. People must understand what information they are not seeing and agree, the assumptions to not be ignored. But fair warning: if you're in a leadership position, the statistics may not be recorded or already accepted by the organization of your responsibility. So what has been done in the past means nothing to a real statistician. If you're unsure of your skills, hire a statistician to review and enhance your data collection process. It's far less expensive than having a statistician on staff interpreting the data. Hire a consultant for a one-week assignment. It might be the best investment of your budget if you have questions about your skills.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

And really, if you're talking about leadership, and that's probably the best lesson that you can learn having the right counselors, having the right kind of assets that you can bring in short term, not hiring them and putting them on a payroll. That that counseling was actually a very helpful tool for a number of CEOs that we've talked to that bring in people to help them translate statistics. It's a good thing. In this podcast, we're trying to tell you that that's the last step. And if you're a CEO, that makes sense. But the day-to-day kind of information, you own it. You have to own it. And you have to be able to apply it. Another good example of utilizing statistics and data is really to try to help project teams. And you need to come up with a way that people start to develop their own kind of set, their own kind of stats and develop analytical thinking. And to get them off on the right foot, that's trying to put together a statistical description of their work and talking about timetables and timelines. But it takes a knowledgeable project manager to understand the different components and how to interact with that data, and sometimes how to stage work so that they can be successful and create that as a timeline to the statistics so that they kind of coordinate with each other. That kind of sequential data helps the project team be more productive to address scheduling issues and understand the critical elements of resource management.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

So you know, John, this is where an HR department can help as well. There are training classes to help leaders understand the process of acting as a champion for data collection. Also, for how to set the tone for analytics and also showing how visibility helps deliver a project and minimize last-minute changes. So I think the simplest description I've ever heard for this kind of application is when a project manager described data collection as a complicated recipe. You may be making a seven-layer cake, but if you only have four ingredients, you may not like the end result. And think about the anatomy of strategic thinking. You first start off with a strategy, you figure out what your actions are to make that happen. What are you trying to achieve? What are your ambitions? And then the challenge. What's making it difficult? And it goes around again.

Digital Models And Bundles Win

SPEAKER_01 16:26

And really, it's the never-ending circle of asking those questions to make sure that you're using strategic thinking to understand when those challenges and those action items aren't getting the results, you have to maybe rethink your approach. That newspaper approach, that the whole discussion is just one of those things that it has to be an active part of what you're doing. You might change your goals and therefore your strategies have to change accordingly. And when you find examples of leadership that understand the power of statistics, you see the integration into general management. Strategic thinking process is much easier when you're talking about how it interacts with non-technical leaders to understand the concepts of statistics. So how do you how do you relay this importance, this whole idea of why it's necessary? Statistics are wonderful in terms of three basic core components. Quality improvement. Statistics are really built in that world of what is good, what is identified as issues, and they're trying to reduce errors. That's like number one application of statistical information. Performance management is one of those things that helps evaluate teams on whether they're doing the job, and especially when it's pay-related or compensation related, you want to be able to make sure that you can show that it's a fair process. And then evidence-based management to encourage that culture where proposals are supported by data-driven results, so that there's some insight that projects are actually going to return on investment, that they're putting in the homework, the statistics, in order to support their concepts. So those are great examples of how it's actually applied in business world applications, real-world business applications.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

And you know, John, there's then that ultimate statistic, the budget. Right? So, regardless of what company you work for, data collection for supporting your budget is the easiest way to ensure your information is accurate and supports the priorities of the organization. Let me share a little advice. First thing you want to ask for in a new job, especially as a leader, is access to the existing budget for your department or your organization. If there are any notes from the year's budget submission, they're going to be very helpful too when you're starting a new job.

From Reports To Real-Time Monitoring

SPEAKER_01 19:05

And I can attest to that concept. I once worked for an organization and I transferred into a different division. And my new department team didn't have a budget. Instead, the organization had about 280 different sites. And the budget line in each one of these departments, each one of these locations, had facility expenses. I technically only had a budget associated with my staff and the vehicles that they used to go from site to site. You had to combine those 280 different sites and my budget at the same time. Well, one of the first things I did was show the statistical information was totally erratic, and I asked for help to do a budgetary approach that I had seen the organization use in other applications just to mimic it. Having 280 different resources, being able to change my budget, is just not something I can manage. And it was an out-of-control process. That was probably the best application of that data, but I couldn't win that argument because it was already in said in terms of how management worked. But I wanted to collect the data and show it to upper management as a leader on the erratic way that they had done the job.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

So, John, those are great examples. But there's more to leadership in terms of education. And there are other opportunities that are beyond just on-the-job training. One of the great examples is giving people project-based learning so they can learn data collection in real-world scenarios. It also helps them understand the logic of how the data can be understood to support the assumptions to what the project can do. They can also find the errors in the logic collection of data to make sure that you're finding things that will actually drive results rather than simply fill in a column. The other advantage of teaching people something about statistics is decoding. Again, it's our role to teach and help our staff grow.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

So let's summarize this podcast and our trail of understanding statistical thinking and becoming more involved in terms of that essential skill that I think most organizations really need. It is a valuable tool. We've discussed the transition between specialized disciplines and sharing organizational capacities, emphasizing on the importance of data and the statistics in terms of being accessible and having people understand what it really means.

Small Changes, Big Energy Savings

SPEAKER_00 21:53

So let me give you some key points to include here Accessible data for leadership, leadership focused on integrating. Intuitive tools and accessible data into daily operations, making statistical information digestible for all employees, regardless of what kind of technical background they have or don't have. Next, purposeful data collection. The core logic behind data collection is more important than complex calculations. Don't get caught up in that. Leaders must understand why data is collected and how it can drive results, rather than getting lost in all those technical details. Next is real-world examples. The document uses the electric bill and newspaper industry as examples. It highlights how executives sometimes misinterpret or ignore key data, leading to missed opportunities or flawed assumptions, such as understanding the impact of the internet on the newspaper. The next one is digital transformation. Successful organizations like the New York Times adapted adapted by leveraging digital subscriptions, bundling products, and using data-driven strategies to grow their subscriber base and then of course their revenue. And finally, embedded analytics and training. Real-time dashboards and training programs empower employees to interact with data, improve problem solving, and reduce anxiety. Tools like Excel are highlighted as accessible ways to build data literacy. John?

Build Data Skills With Excel

SPEAKER_01 23:19

And those are the keys that you need to understand of what data can do. Statistical leadership. In modern organizations, statistical competency is required at all levels. Leaders must champion data collection. They have to understand what it is that they're trying to pull data from and what is valuable and what isn't, and what is actionable. Another example project management and quality improvement, they are early engagements in terms of collecting this kind of data. That is the nature of their business. Early engagement with data in these projects help reduce last-minute changes and improve outcomes. Data is also used as a quality improvement tool, performance management tool, and an evidence-based decision-making tool. The other thing that we talked about was budgeting and organizational change. Access to accurate data, especially when you're dealing with something as critical as budget, is really an important requirement. Documents stress the importance and the understanding of what data really means to manage budgets. And the statistical information actually supports that effort, especially during organizational changes or transitions. How you understand that change is really important statistically. The last point is that we need to educate and help people grow. One of the things that helps people to understand statistics is looking in some way of putting in a project-based learning tool and helping staff understand the logic of data collection, enabling them to drive results, and then you a little bit of personal growth because now they see how stats actually create something at the end of the day. So let me try to pull this together. Statistical thinking is now an organization's requirement and shared capacity skill set that people are looking for. Leaders must be able to access data, to find champions in terms of analytics, and to foster the culture where decisions are being actually supported by the evidence rather than opinions. Now you're dealing with the data that really means something. Training, especially when you're talking about real-time analytics and focusing on the logic between data collection and just trying to fill in a report at the end of the month. That is the difference between leadership and empowering your staff and helping the organization to be successful. So I'm positive my teacher in my statistics class would be impressed that I understand the importance of it after some of the interesting discussions we had about learning about statistics, but it's worth every minute. It is part of what you should be using in your job. And I hope this helps. Greg and I have put this together to try to help take that stigma away. So if you like what you've heard, I've written a book called Building Your Leadership Toolbox, and we talk about tools like this. And it's available on Amazon and Barnes and Nouble and other sites. The podcast is what you've been listening to. Thank you so much. It's also available on Apple, Google, and Spotify. A lot of what we talk about is from Dr. Durst in his MBR program. If you'd like to know more about Dr. Durst, you can find out on SuccessGrowthAcademy.com. And if you'd like to contact us, please send me a line. That's Wando75 periodjw at gmail.com. And the music has been brought to you by my grandson. So we want to hear from you. Drop me a line. Tell me what's going on, what you like, and what you would like to hear about. It has always helped us to create content. Thanks, Greg. This was fun.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Thanks, John. As always. Next time.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Yeah.