JUSTIFYING A STATISTIC

the one big Godawful mistake an executive can make in reading and managing by graph is being reasonable about graphs. This is called justifying a statistic. This is the single biggest error in graph interpretation by executives and the one thing that will clobber an org. One sees a graph down and says "Oh well, of course, that's . . ." and at that moment you've had it. (HCO PL 6 Nov 66 I)