Unbound with Chris DuBois · 2024-05-09 · 11 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
16 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
The DIKW Pyramid provides a systematic way to think about information quality and decision-making. Chris DuBois breaks down how data becomes information when you add context, transforms into knowledge when you apply meaning, and evolves into wisdom when reinforced with insights from experience. The framework is especially useful for leaders trying to accelerate decision-making while avoiding the blind spots that come with expertise - experienced decision-makers often skip details intuitively, while novices scrutinize every data point. DuBois recommends identifying five primary data sources: customer data (CRM, email, chat, point-of-sale, web analytics), market data (competitor activity and trends), financial data (cash flow and business metrics), employee data (culture, retention, productivity), and operations data (quality control, inventory, supply chain). He emphasizes that deliberate decision-making requires asking critical questions like "What don't I know?" and "What are the key facts and figures?" to surface information gaps. This approach helps leaders collect information rapidly while mitigating the risk of making poor decisions based on incomplete data.
The DIKW Pyramid consists of Data (raw facts and figures), Information (data with context applied), Knowledge (information with meaning applied), and Wisdom (knowledge reinforced with insights from experience). Each level builds on the previous one by adding a specific ingredient.
Customer data (CRM, email, chat, analytics), market data (competitor activity and trends), financial data (cash flow and business metrics), employee data (retention, productivity, culture), and operations data (quality control, inventory, supply chain status).
Experienced leaders move quickly by relying on intuition and skip details they assume don't matter, while novices examine every detail deliberately - bringing in less experienced perspectives helps identify blind spots.
Ask 'What don't I know?', 'What are we assuming?', 'What is the core issue or opportunity?', 'What are the key facts and figures?', and 'Are there immediate risks or constraints?'
Context turns data into usable information; meaning transforms information into knowledge by explaining what it represents; and insights from experience turn knowledge into wisdom by showing how to apply it correctly.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode is almost entirely a surface-level definition of a decades-old framework (DIKW), padded with obvious analogies. The only marginally useful nudge - asking 'what don't I know?' - is briefly mentioned without any development, and everything else is textbook-level filler.
Everyone's probably heard that saying, right knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad
you need to keep an eye have an idea of every single number that's going through your business when it comes to money. If you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business
The DIKW pyramid is a standard information-science concept dating back decades; the host adds nothing contrarian or first-principles. The tomato/fruit-salad example is one of the most recycled illustrations of this exact framework, and the cookie-baking analogy is equally generic.
Data is the ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, information is the list of ingredients and amounts that we need for whatever our recipe is
that was a brief snapshot of the DI kW pyramid. Some questions ask yourself and some different data sources that you should go hunt down
This is a solo host episode with no guest whatsoever; Chris DuBois presents himself as a leadership coach selling a decision-making course, with no evidence of operating a significant business at scale or practitioner depth visible in the transcript.
if you want access to like the full kind of decision making course I have here you can shoot me an email Chris at leading for effect.com I can get something sent out your way
There are zero named companies, zero metrics, zero dollar figures, and zero concrete case studies. All data-source recommendations are generic category labels (CRM, web analytics, financial data) with no specifics about what to measure or what thresholds to act on.
go through your CRM, your email, or chat records, like if you have a point of sale system for your business, we have web analytics, go through all of these different places, collect every bit of information you can
you need to understand those wider market trends that demands what your competitors offer
There is no guest and therefore no interviewing craft to evaluate; the solo monologue is disorganised and self-admittedly imprecise ('I might say information, in reference to everything here. I might say data, just bear with me'), with no structured argument or probing of its own claims.
I'm going to use probably some words interchangeably, I might say information, in reference to everything here. I might say data, just bear with me, it's hard to get this out just the podcast
I am sure there are some way to turn that into an acronym that sounds cool, but I'm not gonna risk it
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
On this episode of Unbound, we discuss the DIKW Pyramid and how you can turn data into wisdom.
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Unknown
Speaker 0: 00 On today's episode, we're going to learn how to take data and turn it into wisdom. Unknown
Speaker 0: 07 Are you a leader trying to get more from your business and life native? So join me as I document the conversations, stories and advice to help you achieve what matters in your life. Welcome to the unbound with me, Chris DuBois. Unknown
Speaker 0: 25 All right, today, I want to introduce a concept called the DI kW pyramid. I am sure there are some way to turn that into an acronym that sounds cool, but I'm not gonna risk it because it sounds very inappropriate when I try it. So the DI kW pyramid, okay, what's the sample or first data, information, knowledge and wisdom? Hey, I'm willing to I'll put a picture of this inside of the show notes so that everybody can see what this looks like. But ultimately, this is the flow that you're going to get for everything you have to work with within decision making, right? First is going to be data, then we're going to turn into information, then into knowledge into wisdom. Now, moving them into each next stage requires something we have to add some sort of ingredient to this in order for it to work. And so when we have data, when you apply context to it, right, so if I'm looking at this data, I now add the context, it becomes information, information on its own, it's still more useful, then data, but we can't move it up into knowledge unless we apply meaning to it. Once you have information and meaning, it becomes knowledge. And then that knowledge once you have enough of it, and you can reinforce it with some insights, that's what becomes wisdom. Right? So really what you can break down if if you want to be the wisest person in any stage, anything you're doing in life, how can you how can you get there? Okay, well, first by having some insights, that you've applied to knowledge, because you've applied meaning to information, because you've applied context to the data. So you can use this reverse engineer, how to become smarter in anything. Hey, but the reason that we want to track inputs this way, is that it's important to know what level information is coming to us. Right? So I'm going to use probably some words interchangeably, I might say information, in reference to everything here. I might say data, just bear with me, it's hard to get this out just the podcast, hey, what data are those individual inputs, they're the facts and figures that we consolidate, that we can turn into more valuable information. Unknown
Speaker 2: 45 So again, once we apply context to data, we get information information then allows us to look at multiple data points to see a line on the chart, right? This is where we start being able to identify patterns. Unknown
Speaker 2: 59 From there, if we can apply meaning to it, we create knowledge. Now knowledge tells us what that line actually means is up into the right good in this instance, or is it bad, right? And then finally, when we can apply some insights into that, what are we actually learning? Right? We're going we're normally doing this through the experience of working with this this knowledge multiple times, right? That's what allows us to create the wisdom because the insights that we're able to provide are much stronger. Okay. Unknown
Speaker 3: 31 Everyone's probably heard that saying, right knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. That's kind of same, right, you've had some insights. Here is a simple example. Data is the ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, information is the list of ingredients and amounts that we need for whatever our recipe is. Now knowledge is understanding how those ingredients come together. If you're mixing, baking, you know, everything. And then knowing how to actually make those like cookies, say, cannot wisdom, is knowing when the cookies are baked just right, based on like the smell the look, right that you have experienced that tells you when everything is going right, give it some no matter how experienced you are in any given space, it is important to start by identifying the data. Because experience is going to let you make decisions a lot faster, because you're able to lean into that wisdom. But if you don't pay attention to all the details, you also risk making a poor decision. This is why sometimes having that novice frame of mind, right, bringing someone in to make a decision who does not have the same level of experience can be super beneficial for your team, because that individual is going to look at every single detail. Whereas someone who's more experienced might skip over some because they feel like it's intuitive to them. So they're not deliberate Unknown
Speaker 5: 00 really trying to get this wrong, they've just been through this so many times that they can move quick, they don't notice. Unknown
Speaker 5: 07 Okay, so when you can get good at seeing the data, then quickly applying context, so it becomes more workable, right? And then you keep doing this through every step of the pyramid. Now, that's where we're, we're starting to get really good at during this acclimation kind of phase, right, where we want to hit that speed to inform with go back previous episode 4070 rule, right? We want to collect this information as fast as possible and get to something we can use to help us make a good decision. This is that one of those steps. Okay, so where can we find the data that we need to very quickly move up? Like, what are we looking at for data sources? One of the first ones is going to be customer data, okay, you want to collect customer data, and your customer can change based off whatever you're doing, right? Like, Unknown
Speaker 5: 57 who is that end user who is going to be receiving? What are the results, the consequences of this decision. So go through your CRM, your email, or chat records, like if you have a point of sale system for your business, we have web analytics, go through all of these different places, collect every bit of information you can, and keep track of it. Right? Have it stored somewhere in some database on some, whether it's a spreadsheet anywhere, so that you can use this as a frame of reference to go back to understand where you're at this the same with the next one of market data. Unknown
Speaker 6: 33 You need to be able to understand those wider market trends that demands what your competitors offer. All of these things are going to guide a lot of what you're doing within your business and some of the decisions you're making. Right? If you see every other competitor in your space. zigging when you're zagging, that could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing. And so being aware of what's actually happening is going to give you the ability to actually look through it with a lens of like, okay, what do I actually need to be doing here, right? Unknown
Speaker 7: 03 Hey, financial data. Another really important one, you got to know what your numbers are. If you don't know your numbers, you don't know your business, you need to keep an eye have an idea of every single number that's going through your business when it comes to money. If you are the leader, right, it is your responsibility to ensure there's always cash in the bank. Otherwise, you risk having to let people go, That's never fun. And honestly, it's probably a failure as a leader, anytime you do have to lean into layoffs, Unknown
Speaker 7: 33 employee data, so your company culture, retention, productivity, Unknown
Speaker 7: 38 all of those those details, they'll let you know of you, as a company, as a team are doing the right things you're jiving, right, that information is going to be really important, especially as you start moving further up in that di kW pyramid. Unknown
Speaker 7: 55 Next, operations data. So things like your quality control, production numbers, supply chain status, right inventory levels, all of these things are going to guide what goes into a decision. And obviously, it depends on what the question is being asked. But like this is information that should be readily available so that you can make better decisions. Unknown
Speaker 8: 19 All right, so you're going to use those. And finally, I want to close with some critical questions for all of us. So you should be asking yourself, as you're trying to collect data you're trying to acclimate very fast. A very important question that I feel a lot of people don't ask is, what don't I know? If you can ask that? And ask it to a group, right? You could sit down and look at your team and say, what don't we know right now and you make a list of all the you actually have to think differently. So now make a list of all of these different things that like, we actually don't know this. We're making assumptions here. If we knew this could actually change how we're looking at this entire decision. Unknown
Speaker 8: 59 That that is something you very much need to put down. Unknown
Speaker 9: 04 Getting clear, what is the core issue or opportunity that we're working on? Unknown
Speaker 9: 10 Another critical question asked, What are the key facts and figures? Are there any immediate risks or constraints? These all of these things are just incredibly important, because you're not just going to sit down, take in this information, and, and be good, right? There's information you don't have and you don't know that you don't have it. But by asking specific questions, through a deliberate decision making process, Unknown
Speaker 9: 38 you're able to find some of those gaps within your own data, your own thinking so you can make better decisions. So anyways, that was a brief snapshot of the DI kW pyramid. Some questions ask yourself and some different data sources that you should go hunt down for your own decision making process. I hope you're getting Unknown
Speaker 10: 00 Getting things from this. Unknown
Speaker 10: 02 If you want access to like the full kind of decision making course I have here you can shoot me an email Chris at leading for effect.com I can get something sent out your way. But until next time Unknown
Speaker 10: 17 thanks for listening to today's episode, if you want to leave a review, awesome, but I would recommend you head over to LinkedIn. Connect with me. Join the conversation there. You find my profile in the show notes and I look forward to connecting with you Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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