Are you suffering from corporate grade inflation?

Organisational knowledge is not always accurate as the following email, received by a colleague recently, showcases perfectly. Honest to God, this is what landed in her inbox.

SUBJECT: Survey response please kindly change to a 9

I understand you have recently completed a Relationship Survey for [name of one of our supplier companies].

Question 1 is based around recommending [name of company] to others. This is used as a reflection on how the Centre Team, in this case [name of two members of staff] have supported you during your time at Gerrards Cross.

So far we have had some really good scores 9/10's as we like to think we support all our clients during their time with us.

Unfortunately for us anything 8 or below is actually counted as a negative score towards the Centre Team.

Can I kindly ask if you would be so kind to change your score for the first question to a 9/10 by retaking the survey as this is what the staff at [name of supplier company] get reviewed on?

Would really appreciate your assistance with getting some good scores back.

It’s why, especially at a senior level, nothing beats hearing directly from your customers to check that no one is whitewashing the data or insights you receive. It can happen via colleague influence (as above) or via cherry-picking of insights to create a more positive narrative.