3.0: Making Decisions

Critically assess data to make decisions - Put data into context so you can determine what matters, what doesn’t, and what you don’t know.

Commanders have outsized impact on their units in the army, often with the decisions they make. Leveraging data to make better decisions isn’t as simple as just watching a dashboard though. As Jim Perkins correctly points out, critical thinking is the key to data literacy. It’s what allows you to look at a dataset and separate the forest from the trees, to question your assumptions, and to change minds, including your own. And just as critically, if you’re not data literate, you’re vulnerable to being manipulated by those of us who are.