A Little Bamboozling

     In the mid 1980's I worked in the energy management department for a major manufacturing company. We had about 200 various departments that we monitored for electrical consumption and published a fat quarterly report distributed to all.

     In the course of our dealing with the departments we found many who took us seriously as well as some down right against our presence. Most were somewhere in between.

      When we plotted the graphs for the report we knew the managers would thumb through and probably only notice pages with some outstanding anomaly. With that in mind we would adjust the graph settings so cooperative departments who put forth an effort would get a smoother line. Belligerent departments  might also be edited to make their usage graphically more dramatic and more noticeable to the bosses. Nasty little devils weren't we!

       So the presentation to those farthest away from understanding the actual use was manipulated by the presenters. That happened 25 years ago. I was young and played into my seniors who thought this up. It is not on my agenda today.

     It could give rise to the idea that a presentation, even today, could be manipulated in the same manner. The farther away from actual use a decision maker is, the more suspect they should be of "strangers bearing gifts".