Is Data Overwhelming your Team?

“Data is king”

“Data is powerful”

“Data makes the world go around”

You’ve probably heard one (or all) of these phrases, and it’s partly true. Data has become so integral in the way the world operates - from fuel prices, to patient data in hospitals, and marketing data used on social media to track performance. It’s used to create KPI’s, and most importantly ensure that businesses are on the right track.

But, information overload in any sense can be detrimental - and data overload will do more harm than good. Haiilo produced an excellent article on information overload, stating “Not only does information overload affect your employees’ health and well-being, but it also impacts their performance at work, your ability to attract and retain top talent as well as your brand reputation. At the end of the day, it’s your entire business that may suffer from information overload.”

So, how do you know if data is overwhelming your team?

It rarely (or never) gets used

The point of collecting data and analysing it, is so it can be used for something positive in the business. However, if you can see that data isn’t being used - or it’s being fed back to you that certain elements of a data set are deemed unhelpful or useless, then it’s important to question why and perhaps eliminate that data set.?

This also goes for data that was once used that is no longer important - if it isn’t a core data set, don’t be afraid to let it go.

Let’s look at team performance data as an example - tracking everything from deadlines, to tasks completed in a week, to responding to customer queries - not all of these elements need tracking, and doing so can lead you to fall into the trap of micromanagement.?

Instead, focus on one element of team performance as your “core” measure - let’s say responding to customer queries, and then work out if this is sufficient enough for you to track overall team performance. If not, add in another data set such as weekly task completion and repeat the process. Sometimes, less is more with data.

It’s a hindrance rather than a help

As mentioned, if it isn’t being used regularly - you should probably scrap it. However, the same goes for data that is creating more work for you or your team. If you find that analysing the data and trying to make sense of it isn’t helping you (or generating the right “ROI” from analysing it) then don’t be afraid to let this go, either.

“Having too much data can become a fatal flaw--especially because we now live in the Big Data era where everything is being tracked, recorded, and analyzed with machine learning. Data has become a valuable asset-- there are whole businesses based on Big Data, Advanced Analytics and Data Science - but only if you know what to do with it.” - Inc

And sometimes, our intuition (and common sense) is best!

Although data can help with checking if things are truthful, or even just “keeping track” of things - sometimes, our intuition can be even better. Businesses have functioned for tens (and hundreds) of years without extensive data management and analysis. So, don’t feel as though you need to replace every decision with something that is rooted in data!