About a year ago, I led a training on data triangulation and used the story of the Titanic to get folks thinking. You know the image — that famous iceberg where only the tip is visible, while the bulk hides below the surface. We talk about it all the time in leadership, but late-Lee I’ve been seeing it differently.

The Titanic didn’t sink just because it hit an iceberg. That was the moment, but not the reason. After the wreckage was analyzed, researchers discovered the deeper cause: faulty rivets. Little things. Hidden things. But when the pressure hit, they broke — and the ship went down.

That’s how it is with teams, too.

On the surface, things can look fine. Everyone’s smiling at the staff meeting. The bulletin board is on point. There’s a plan. A protocol. A data wall. But under the surface, there might be stress, fear, mistrust, or fatigue — and the real trouble comes when we don’t address what’s underneath.

That’s why triangulating data matters. It’s not just about knowing what students scored on a benchmark. It’s about connecting the dots:

What are the teachers saying? What are the students feeling? What’s the instruction really looking like?

We have to look at perception, performance, and practice — all three — or we’ll miss something. Just like the Titanic’s builders missed the weak spots in those rivets.

And here’s the thing: faulty rivets don’t show up in one meeting. They show up when trust is low and accountability is uneven. When the hard conversations aren’t happening. When we pretend the surface tells the whole story.

Strong teams ask hard questions. They look below the waterline. They don’t wait until there’s a collision to examine their structure.