Managers overwhelmed by dashboards are turning to a new kind of session to restore clarity — and control.
It is one of the quietest appointments in the corporate calendar — but perhaps the most transformative. “Data Therapy”, a structured one-hour meeting with a Decision Scientist, is gaining traction in boardrooms and startup offices alike.
The premise is simple: most managers are not short on data, they’re short on direction.
One telling figure: 83% of managers say decision-making is the most stressful and difficult part of their job, according to a recent internal study by the service’s creators.
And despite the proliferation of business intelligence (BI) systems, the stress isn’t easing. In fact, it’s getting worse.
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When the Tools Stop Helping
Companies today are flush with technology. BI platforms, KPI dashboards, and attribution models are all designed to assist.
But ask the VP of Marketing why the numbers don’t align, and you’ll hear hesitation. Speak to the Sales Director and you may uncover three different versions of revenue. Even CEOs, surrounded by “green” dashboards, are still asking why the targets are being missed.
“Something isn’t working,” says one executive. “We’re reporting more. We’re acting less.”
The issue isn’t data. It’s translation — from number to narrative, from insight to action.
Four Ways Teams Get Stuck
Stage one: The Metric Mismatch
Different departments calculate the same metric differently, leading to disputes rather than decisions. Nearly three-quarters of internal reporting conflicts begin with the question: “Whose numbers are these?”
Stage two: The Focus Fog
Too many KPIs, none of which clearly signal what to do next. As one participant put it, “Everything feels urgent. Nothing feels clear.”
Stage three: The Idea Drain
The problems are obvious but solutions aren’t. Even strong analysts report difficulty turning metrics into actionable proposals.
Stage four: The Action Freeze
Decisions are agreed in theory, but fail to gain traction in practice. Seventeen percent of strategic decisions in mid-size companies are reversed within three months, largely due to poor alignment on metrics. Each stage brings its own paralysis. And none are resolved by more dashboards.
A New Kind of Meeting
Unlike traditional data reviews or strategy workshops, Data Therapy is not focused on software, tools, or outputs. Instead, it offers what its designers call a “diagnostic mirror” — a brief but structured look at how decisions are made (or avoided) inside an organisation. Participants are asked a range of sharp questions: Which reports spark the most disagreement? What’s one decision you’ve delayed for lack of confidence in the data? If you could only keep 20% of your dashboards, which would stay? One hour, one facilitator — and no slides required.
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Get more clarity of your data with our free audit and to-do list of recommendations.
Results Without New Tools
The impact, in some cases, has been immediate. At a SaaS firm with 96 staff, the marketing team entered the session with 18 dashboards. By the end, they had five. A tiered metric structure was introduced and the rate of actionable decisions in weekly syncs jumped from 22% to 74%.
In another case, an e-commerce company managing a $50 million advertising budget used Data Therapy to reconcile agency metrics across 11 channels. Within three weeks, two platforms were paused, one was scaled by 30%, and agency incentives were recalibrated.
“None of this required a new tool,” says one participant. “Just a shift in how we look at what we already have.”
The Human Limits of Decision-Making
The rise of this approach is also a response to an overlooked reality: humans, even experienced managers, have cognitive limits.
According to the company’s internal research, the average manager can make just one major and five tactical decisions per day before fatigue sets in. Beyond that, decisions slow or slip through the cracks.
Complicating matters further are organisational changes — new executives, strategy pivots, or internal tensions — that often leave dashboards outdated, misaligned, or mistrusted.
Signs It’s Time to Intervene
While not pitched as a universal solution, Data Therapy seems to resonate most where BI is present but underused. Common signals include:
- Chronic indecision despite abundant reporting
- Internal disagreement over what numbers to believe
- Endless priority-shifting
- A growing sense that “testing” has replaced strategy The creators are clear: this isn’t a pitch for another platform. It’s a call to rethink the connection between data and decision.
As one Decision Scientist puts it: “If you’re looking at your dashboard and still asking ‘so what?’, it didn’t help you. It hindered you.”
Book your Free Data Therapy Session
Get more clarity of your data with our free audit and to-do list of recommendations.