Friday, April 27, 2018

Careful with Labels

Be careful with labels.

I was at a communications conference that ended with a session on what "millennials" do and don't do, and what "they" believe and don't believe. There was wide agreement and only a little pushback among the ethnically diverse group, which ranged from 20-somethings to 70-somethings.

But...

If you replace "millennials" with "old folks" or "women" or "black people" soon someone will point out what's wrong with making sweeping statements or generalizations about a segment of the population.

Generalizations (which follow labeling - or other words, categorization or, really, the creation of models) are useful, it's true. But only when they inform your decision-making. When you let the labels define decision-making, you do a disservice to yourself and to the people you're trying to reach.

To rearrange the famous Box/Deming quote: Some models are useful; but all models are wrong.