Facts are facts, right? Not always.

Some facts, particularly expertise, can be evolving as the context or the realm of known knowledge expands. What was true yesterday may not necessarily be true tomorrow. Or, what is true in one situation may be less true in another.

If you are learning from your corporate experts, be prepared for conflicting answers. You may get more than one answer, or an unclear answer, or no answer.

Here’s why.

One definition of expert judgment states that a true expert may be simultaneously analyzing up to 50,000 pieces of information when making a decision or performing an action. Obviously, this is happening at a subconscious level. But that click-click-click in the brain is considering extraneous factors and confounding inputs that could affect the outcome or answer. With all that raucous thinking, the answer may not always be clear.

Recently, I heard two math experts discuss the difficulty of finding an answer to what seemed like a very simple question. However, in considering the multiple factors that would influence an answer, they determined the question could not be answered definitively. The parameters could not be set in a way to result in an answer that had a high degree of confidence.

In a different and far simpler type of example, you may have conflicting information or opinions on something such as company policy or best practice. Different facts such as conflicting information can be the result of several different people or departments putting practices into play over time without culling their files. Different facts may also arise from competing internal political agendas or infighting between power centers.

As someone who is just looking to get a straight answer, you may be very frustrated at these kinds of interactions.

Tactics for Getting Your Facts Straight 

If you encounter an expert who confounds your knowledge gathering process because the facts are not clear, you have a few options.

1.       Redefine your question or provide further guidance to seek clarity from your expert.

2.       Get a second opinion from another expert.

3.       In the case of conflicting experts, you may want to seek an outside third party depending on the importance of the discrepancy.

4.       Ask a decision maker to negotiate unclear facts or policies.

5.       If you can’t get clarity on competing “best practices”, use the latest version unless someone with authority decides otherwise.

As much as it would be much easier to live in a world of factual facts, the truth is that the truth can sometimes be relative. When you are collecting internal expertise for posterity, check with the highest authority you can enlist to make sure your facts align with corporate best practices, policies and agendas. And in the case of a defining a quirky equation, limit your problem to specific parameters and qualify your answers…if you can.