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Dark Side of Democratization
Friday, October 13, 2023 • Advancing Research Community
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Dark Side of Democratization
Speakers: Ari Zelmanow
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Summary

The democratization of research practices has become almost ubiquitous, and an increasingly expanding part of many research teams. There has been a lot of discussion and sharing about the benefits of democratization programs, and case studies shared on how to make them effectively work. As the reach of this approach grows though, there are a number of emerging voices who are starting to question the way in which democratization programs are being used and rolled out. As well as asking difficult questions about the extent to which they should be deployed in the first place, and how they are able to work, rather than undermine, traditional research sciences.

Key Insights

  • The term 'democratization' in research is often misleading and functions as propaganda framing critics negatively.

  • Research involves three phases: impartial evidence collection, partial insight generation, and case presentation with a point of view.

  • Good enough research is often not actually good enough; the risks of poor-quality research can undermine business decisions.

  • The Dunning-Kruger effect leads untrained non-researchers to overestimate their research competence.

  • Democratization without guardrails creates a 'wild west' in organizations where research quality and ethics suffer.

  • Researchers have specialized training akin to physicians or detectives, which cannot be casually transferred.

  • Well-designed democratization programs require explicit governance, training, coaching, and clear boundaries on what non-experts can do.

  • Making insights ubiquitous and accessible across the business is more beneficial than broadly democratizing research tasks.

  • Research value lies more in developing informed points of view and strategic decision support than in merely delivering data or reports.

  • The research profession struggles with balancing rigor and protecting the domain without resorting to excessive gatekeeping.

Notable Quotes

"The very word democratization in research is misleading, almost akin to propaganda."

"Good enough research? Sometimes good enough isn’t good enough."

"Who would you rather have conduct heart surgery? A part-time or full-time surgeon? That’s specialization."

"The risk of using bad data is worse than using no data."

"There are no guardrails in democratization, and that is dangerous."

"Researchers are like detectives. We turn data into stories, stories into strategy, strategy into outcome."

"Overconfidence is a problem caused by the Dunning-Kruger effect in research democratization."

"Making insights ubiquitous is different from allowing anyone to do research."

"Businesses don’t democratize functions like finance or engineering; why research?"

"Our value as researchers is the diversity of thought and experience to develop a point of view."

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