I heard that headline in the media at the start of the coronavirus crisis.
An impressive figure: +50%. It sounded urgent, alarming.
But if you looked beyond the percentage, you saw a completely different story:
the absolute number had risen from 2 to… 3 patients.
An increase of 50% – statistically correct, yes. But in absolute terms? Only one more patient.
Still an important patient, but the impact was far less spectacular than the headline suggested.
The key issue: misusing or misrepresenting data quickly gives a distorted picture of reality.
As in this case, percentages on small numbers. This can completely frame reality.
An increase from 100 to 101 represents exactly the same absolute difference (one patient),
but seems almost insignificant with its 1% increase. And yet there are many more people in intensive care (101 versus 3).
In today’s data-driven world, not all data are created equal.
These examples of data pitfalls often lead to flawed conclusions and poor decision-making.
Charts can mislead when context is missing.
Your major gain:
Avoiding teams going the wrong direction.
Opinions have value, but problem-solving needs facts.
Your major gain:
Far lower risk of lost sales.
Validity comes from study design, not confidence.
Your major gain:
Increased confidence in decision-making.
Treating common cause variation as a signal.
Your major gain:
Saving you tremendous amounts of time.
I help professionals and organisations understand what their data actually say, turning data confusion into clear insights.
From recurring problems to lasting solutions.
Applying the practice of statistics with a problem-solving roadmap, so you act on facts and not on false patterns.
From false certainty to trustworthy decisions.
Applying critical review to data and underlying analysis and findings, so you avoid false certainty and misinformation.
From statistical confusion to informed judgement.
Strengthening data literacy, so you improve decision-making and hence performance.
“Luc combines expertise with a pragmatic mindset, making him a reliable partner for organisations seeking structure, clarity, and improvement.
I can highly recommend his services.”
Filip Waem— Operations Manager, Industrial Manufacturing
In just 1 day I will help you understand and use variation, making you distinguish noise from real signals. Stop wasting time, and know when to make confident data decisions.
Read here about my insights on how data can be helpful, but when misused or misinterpreted can be very harmful – for business, society and science.
You can prove anything with statistics – is the professional cyclist right?
Throughout my career as a Management Consultant and Six Sigma Black Belt one thing became impossible to ignore: data are often used in ways that don’t reflect reality. Think of misinterpreting scorecards, acting on natural variation, misleading graphs, and so on.
Recently, a question about health claims led me into the scientific literature, where I ran into the same issues. Health claims in the media, reports, even peer-reviewed studies — too often conclusions are built on noise, flawed assumptions, or misleading statistics.
The result: massive waste of time and money, frustrated teams, reputation damage and even safety issues.
That realisation shaped my mission:
cut through noise and misinformation,
and reveal what the facts and data are really saying.
Today, I help professionals and organisations review unresolved questions, recurring problems and doubtful claims — clarifying what really happened, what the data support (and what not), and where conclusions exceed the evidence.
Curious to know more?
Let’s connect for a free call.
Ready to turn data confusion into clear insights? Share your challenge and let’s find a solution together.