Numbers, their Meaning and the Absurd!

It’s not often I allow myself to express my interest in philosophy as an accountant.  It just doesn’t seem like part of the job.  But indulge me, bear with me, I assert there is something to learn in business from a branch of philosophy called Absurdism.

I’m making it sound like I know a lot about it, actually I pretty much only know the basic idea which is:  Humans are programmed to find meaning in everything, but the universe around them has no meaning.  The only possible result is therefore absurdity, we are like a sieve being used to hold water or wellington boots being worn as gloves.

It shows up a lot for accountants in numbers.  You open a report.  There are some numbers on a screen.  Something you learn very quickly is how much meaning these numbers have for people.  The sales figure is lower, sharp intake of breath.  The profit figure is bigger, exhale.  The KPI is down, the bank balance is high.  Every number comes with a meaning attached.  (And don’t get me started on the tax numbers!) Or perhaps worse, the business owner is confused by what they are seeing and now you are expected to give them the meaning.

What I am about to say is virtually heresy in the accounting world:  the numbers don’t mean anything.  Literally nothing, they are squiggles on a screen.  The meaning has nothing to do with the numbers, it is all over here with us. 

The first value in this insight is free ourselves from the meaning we attach.  The first order of this is gaining freedom from interpretations like:  Profit is down, things are going badly.  Really?  Perhaps the business is investing wisely, profits are bound to be down when we invest.  

The second order is gaining freedom from interpretations about what is going on around the numbers:  Profit is down, my team are not performing.  Really?  Perhaps they are or perhaps they aren’t but before you start on a round of performance reviews, maybe we should consider that the profit number doesn’t mean that.

And the third order of value is gaining freedom from interpretations about ourselves:  Profit is down, I’m failing.  Really?  And also: Profit is up, I’m a genius! (Less common but equally as dangerous, more common is: Profit is up, it’s a fluke).

If you are on board with this philosophy, there is a pitfall, which is to imagine you can escape the dynamic. I know the numbers are meaningless, you tell yourself sagely, I have short circuited the human condition.  My sales are falling but it means nothing!  My accountant has told me!  No, sorry, it’s not that easy.  After all, that is just another meaning.  You are kind of saying, the sales are falling, there is nothing to worry about.  But guess what? It doesn’t mean that either.

There is now nowhere to turn.  The numbers will mean something.

But to me the real value of the philosophy is recognising that this is a life sentence.  We will never stop making the numbers mean something.  Recognising this I say we can move to the real gold of the philosophy.  

If we are fated by our nature to find meaning in our numbers, we can start to choose the meaning we give them.  To me there is only one logical interpretation to choose: the meaning that empowers us.

So this is what I tell clients, your numbers mean nothing but you since you are going to make them mean something, make it something that empowers you.

Sometimes the empowering meaning to falling sales is:  we’re in a recession, there’s nothing we can do about that, we are doing everything we can.

Another time the empowering meaning to falling sales could be:  I dropped the ball.  I lost my focus on marketing.

We need to find the interpretation that empower us.

Summary

The numbers mean nothing, but you will make them mean something, so make them mean something that empowers you.