Data Literacy

In the technologically-driven and intrinsically-networked world we live in today, data is everywhere. From the available selections at your local grocery store and stories that appear in your newsfeed to the advertisements that appear on your social media pages, data is being collected and directed specifically towards you. Just as businesses use data to target their most-likely-to-buy customers or build their best product by collecting feedback from their customers, nonprofits can utilize data to plan, manage, and operate their organizations. But before that can happen, nonprofits must learn a new skill: data literacy. According to some, data literacy may be the single most important skill in the 21^st century. It is fast becoming a requirement for social and public policy, as well as for mandatory program evaluations for extended funding.

Data literacy is not only about learning new skills in acquiring, manipulating, and analyzing data, it is also about embracing change. Organizational leadership and decision-making with data requires a certain openness, as data may or may not support existing worldviews – it may change how things are done, how fundraising takes place, what donors to pursue, or even programmatic focus. But, it is all for the better.

Data improves decision-making.

Because nonprofits are not driven by the bottom-line, they do not need to rely solely on data to make decisions (being data-driven); they can be data-informed and consciously use it, being mindful of their specific and shared experience. Good-decision makers do not rely solely on data; they use data to make efficient and wise decisions.

What does being data-informed look like?

There is much talk among businesses and organizations about being data-driven. They see data as concrete and not lying about the state of programs, operations, and the like. But, data cannot possibly account for all situations, especially the human one. Because of this limitation, it is a much more healthy approach to be data-informed, utilizing a strategy where you acknowledge that you only have a small subset of information you need to build a successful program, product, or service.

It means having a culture that is nimble, flexible, and responsive to their environments, understanding that data must be used in the context of its environment.

  In a data-informed culture, data makes people better at making decisions rather than taking decision-making away from people. Using H.O. Maycotte’s illustrations

• A GPS system presents you with all the available options, proving you to assess what you want to do next. You can apply your own experience to that information and choose accordingly — even if that means overriding what the system recommends.
• No matter how sophisticated the systems onboard an airplane, a highly trained pilot is ultimately responsible for making decisions at critical junctures. The same is true in an organization. Given access to increasingly sophisticated data, good decision-makers don’t just put everything on auto-pilot and rely on data alone; instead, they use the data to move faster and more nimbly than they could otherwise.

This approach assumes a commitment to continuous improvement.

It means using data from multiple information sources to incrementally make changes that benefit both the beneficiary and nonprofit. It means setting quantifiable metrics (key performance indicators) that are organization-specific to determine whether or not you have achieved your goals. According to Beth Kanter (2013), data-informed nonprofits:

• Use measurement to improve their programs
• Embed measurement into the design of their programs

How do you know when you are there?

The nonprofit innovator, Beth Kanter, describes the evolutionary stages of becoming a data-informed culture in this way: first you Crawl (relatively passive in the use of data), then you Walk (starting to use data but without a strategy), then you Run (a system is in place for collecting measurement data and data skills and capacity are being continually improved), and finally you Fly (data is shared across departments and dashboards are used to monitor goals).

What steps can we take to make this shift?

As with anything, change is difficult. Organizations, as well as people, cling to what is known. Understand that there will be resistance.

There are two things that are critical to making the change – time and leadership.

Shifting to a data-informed culture takes time. Gaining organization-wide buy-in will take years – literally, you are looking at a good five years to get people actively on board and more for them to acculturated.

The key, however, is to create a culture that desires to make better decisions, and then to use data to do so.

Organizational leaders make or break the shift. Leadership must be at the forefront of change, understanding of resistance to change but resolved in their intention to do so. Here are some ideas for how leaders can gain organization-wide buy-in, as presented by Bernard Marr:

• There are naysayers in every company and negativity can be contagious. Identify skeptics or blockers and spend time engaging them. Use their pain points to show how fact-based decision making can make their job easier.
• Make it easy for people to understand data and pull out the key facts they need to make better decisions. Present insights in an attractive and engaging way. It’s of no use to anyone if key facts are buried in long, dull reports.
• Build and maintain strong links between whoever is analyzing your data, whoever is reporting the insights, and the people making key business decisions. Knowing what the decision makers need to know makes it easier to present information to them.
• Be open about what you are measuring and why, especially if you are gathering data on employees. For example, if you are focused on improving people management, then you are probably going to be measuring what your people do, when, for how long, etc. Understandably, this can make people nervous. Be open about this; people are far more likely to be comfortable if you are honest from the outset and emphasize the positive goals (in this example, building a better workplace for everyone).
• Lead by example and use hard facts as the basis of everything you do. This is harder than it sounds; make a commitment to changing the way you make decisions, and your people will follow.

Taking this a little further:

• Have a vision for what you are trying to do. Use data to validate and help you navigate that vision, and map it down into small enough pieces where you can begin to execute in a data-informed way.
• Collect smarter data, not just data. It is easier to ignore difficult-to-use data. The reality is, however, that you will most likely have to sift through some bad data (ie. bad decisions) to get to the good data. You can offset this by seeking out professional help when you are setting up your data structures.
• Start with the small wins. Some of the easiest data points to pick up are those related to communication: social media, e-mail, SMS, and Web.
• Put someone in charge of data, whose role is to collect, store, analyze, and disseminate info. Unfortunately, if it isn’t someone’s job, it isn’t going to get done. Furthermore, when a salary is committed to data, the organization is more likely to take it seriously.
• Allow teams or groups to have access to their data. Never treat data as a threat; help them understand that data is their friend. To add to this, find tools that allow people to own their processes.
• Move away from gut-feelings into program effectiveness.

What do we do now?

According to Beth Kanter, the best places to start with this shift:

1. Start at the top. Does your Executive Director know where the organization stands? Educate through examples – showing how adding a data-driven approach to your social media can avoid ineffective campaigns and increase audience satisfaction. The organization’s leadership needs to model and encourage a data-driven approach.

2. Make the case to improve your measurement practice . The only way to evolve is through implementing a series of small measurement pilots and small data wins (maybe even pick social media measurements to start). Keep the end in mind when agreeing to how experiments will be structured, run, and measured.
Take the Evaluation Capacity Diagnostic Tool to get a good idea of your organization’s readiness for such activities: http://informingchange.com/uploads/2010/06/Evaluation-Capacity-Diagnostic-Tool.pdf

3. Think big, but take baby steps. Start with looking at Key Result areas and key performance indicators, but since these may be outcomes that deal with long-term changes, you can’t get there overnight. Keep the steps in the plan small and manageable. Use measurement pilots.

4. Share stories: Celebrate every bar graph that leads to a program or campaign victory. Share it at staff meetings. Also circulate stories about other nonprofits that have become data success stories.

Understand that data must be used over time (you can’t just measure once) in order to use it well.

Sources

From “Democratizing Data: Why Data Literacy Will Be the Most Important New Skill of the 21^st Century,” Venture Beat. Url: http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/07/democratizing-data-why-data-literacy-will-be-the-most-important-new-skill-of-the-21st-century/

From “Be Data-Informed, Not Data-Driven, For Now,” Forbes. Url: http://www.forbes.com/sites/homaycotte/2015/01/13/data-informed-not-data-driven-for-now/#4a6b16e6ff96

From “Why Data Informed VS Data Driven,” Beth’s Blog. Url: http://www.bethkanter.org/data-informed/

From “The Data-Informed Nonprofit: Assembly Line to Results,” Common Good Vermont. Url: https://blog.commongoodvt.org/2014/02/the-data-informed-nonprofit-assembly-line-to-results/

From “Know the Difference between Data-Informed versus Data-Driven,” @andrewchen. Url: http://andrewchen.co/know-the-difference-between-data-informed-and-versus-data-driven/

From “How to Blend Data, Experience, and Intuition for Better Decision Making,” Data Informed. Url: http://data-informed.com/blend-data-experience-intuition-better-decision-making/

From “Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement Based On Data?” Beth’s Blog. URL: http://www.bethkanter.org/continuous-improvement/

From “How Can Nonprofits Switch to a Data-Informed Culture?” Beth’s Blog. URL: http://www.bethkanter.org/switch-data-driven/

From “How Any Business Can Develop a Big Data Mindset,” Data Informed. URL: http://data-informed.com/how-any-business-can-develop-a-big-data-mindset/?utm_campaign=weekly-newsletter&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=27553867&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8iA2FJnbn5-XWUCjko_YL1iqEO7ESMpPUN7JZ8IJkptulpSXneFu4Ew_JARjxu9rHk4j_Rqj2AYkMMrbP9vNH-LkA_54cA0g17QK9KUJ4lKiIcMSc&_hsmi=27553867