As you think about Organizational Development, a lot might come to mind! There are a lot of different methods for developing an organization — all of which are focused on enhancing its ability to achieve success as measured by outcomes. We want to share just one example of how we have partnered with organizations to help them achieve their goals…
Examining Current Practices Related to Data: A Roadmap to Becoming Data Informed
Regardless of what field you’re in, terms like data driven or data informed are likely being said left and right. Have you ever stopped and asked, What does that look like? More specifically, What does being data informed look like for my team, initiative, or organization?
Over the past several years, we have collaborated with organizations in a variety of sectors to answer that exact question. More than that though, we’ve helped them assess where they’re at, where they want to go, and how they’re going to achieve it. You see, it’s not enough to want to be data informed; there are underlying barriers and key milestones to achieve in order to develop a culture that understands, appreciates, and uses data to inform decision making.
To begin with, our team collaborates with leadership and key team members across the organization to collect key perspectives. Typically, we’re digging into existing documents and tools, including strategic plans, existing protocols and measures, policies, and, of course, data! This provides a great opportunity for us to understand expectations, goals, and any opportunities for improvement.
Keeping this baseline knowledge front-of-mind, we complement it with our Needs and Culture Readiness (NCR) Tool©. This is a tool we administer organization-wide, as someone’s standpoint (i.e. where you’re at in the organization) greatly influences your relationship with data. Our team analyses the results and conducts a series of what we call deeper digs to better understand nuances and other pivotal findings.
This end product is a comprehensive roadmap enabling organizations to make intentional forward progress in their data practices. Our approach emphasizes the importance of establishing a culture appreciative of data — recognizing this is not a natural state but instead, one requiring pointed effort. Depending on an organization’s data aptitude (i.e. where they’re at), a component of the roadmap might be establishing a data-focused task force or even a standing committee. So, although we’ve established an effective process, our approach embraces the differences between each organization — resulting in a plan specific to each one of our partners.
By engaging in this process, organizations have been empowered to fully embrace data informed decision making and institute…
- Metrics attached to organizational, program, and/or initiative-related outcomes
- Meaningful (and timely) dashboards
- Data governance policies
- High-quality data collection practices
Have questions? Think this process might be just what your organization needs? Let’s chat.