If you don’t know me and are confused as to what makes me tick as a safety pro… it’s data! And not just any data – VERFIED AND VALIDATED DATA!
And this leads me to “on-line reviews”. I hear a lot of people refer to these on-line reviews about vacation rentals, restaurants, and products. They are serious about convincing themselves “it must be ok, just look at all these 5 star reviews”. I’m sorry, but I give these “reviews” very little credence as they are not validated and verified in any meaningful manner.
Yes, I do read them, but I read them to identify “trends” and I always start with the 5 and 1 star reviews. But some big orgs have come out in recent years stating they up to 10% of the reviews on their website are bots attempting to influence buyers. If we can rememeber backnin the day when Amazon was having troubles with sellers buying reviews and uploading them to influence buyers.
In safety, METRICS can be very helpful in gauging progress. But these METRICS MUST BE VERIFIED/ VALIDATED before we make decision based on it. One thing I learned being a Six Sigma Black Belt was that “making decisions on bad data will result in making bad decisions”. Or as some like to say… “Trust but Verify”.
