Study: Huge amount of data makes life difficult for managers

The study, which involved more than 14,000 employees and managers from 17 countries, found that in today's world, people have to make more decisions than ever before in both their personal and professional lives, and that this causes them difficulties. People are overwhelmed by the amount of data, which shakes confidence, makes decisions more difficult and has a negative impact on quality of life.

- 74 percent of people claim that the number of decisions they make every day has increased tenfold in the last three years. Of those trying to make those decisions, 78 percent are bombarded with more data from more sources than ever before.
- 86 percent find that the amount of data makes decisions in their personal and professional lives much more complicated, and 59 percent admit that they face a decision-making dilemma - that is, they don't know what decision to make - more than once a day.
- 35 percent don't know which data or sources are trustworthy, and 70 percent have given up trying to make a decision because the data was too overwhelming.
- Eighty-five percent of respondents say the inability to make decisions has a negative impact on their quality of life. It leads to an increase in anxiety (36 %), missed opportunities (33 %) and unnecessary spending (29 %).
- As a result, 93 percent have changed the way they make decisions in the last three years. 39 percent now only listen to sources they trust, and 29 percent rely exclusively on their gut feeling.

Data is crucial for success

While executives want the support of data and know it is critical to the success of their business, they do not believe they have the tools they need to be successful. However, they do not believe they have the tools they need to succeed, which weakens their confidence and ability to make timely decisions.

- Eighty-five percent of executives have experienced decision-making difficulties - regretting, feeling guilty about or questioning a decision they made in the past year - and 93 percent believe the right
Decision-making intelligence can make or break a company's success.
- 97 percent want help from data. In an ideal world, they would want data to help them make better decisions (45 %), mitigate risk (41 %), make decisions faster (39 %), make more money (37 %) and
just now more than ever to plan for the unexpected (29 %).
- The reality, however, is different: 72 percent admit that the sheer volume of data and their lack of confidence in it have kept them from making any decision at all, and 89 percent believe that the growing number of data sources is affecting the success of their businesses.
- Managing multiple data sources requires additional resources to collect all the data (40 %), slows strategic decision making (36 %), and leads to greater susceptibility to errors (26 %).

"People are drowning in data," said Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Data Scientist and author of Everybody Lies and Don't Trust Your Gut. "This study shows how the overwhelming amount of data a person receives in the course of an average day - Internet searches, news alerts, unsolicited comments from friends - is often more than the brain can process. As a result, people are tempted to ignore the confusing and sometimes conflicting data and just do what seems right. But that can be a big mistake. It has been shown time and time again that our instincts can lead us astray, and the best decision making occurs with a proper understanding of the relevant data. An important first step is to find a way to get an immediate handle on the data stream and help organizations distinguish between relevant and less relevant data."