Embracing the "Every Person is a Data Person" Mindset

I am focused on empowering every person to feel like a data person because I did not always consider myself a data person.

When Elise says her team shuts down when presented with a new data dashboard, I get it. When Ashley tells me that she feels like her organization is collecting gobs of data that they don’t have time to figure out how to use, I’ve been there. When John mentions that his institution’s leadership dismisses the accuracy of the data they are presented, I understand that too.

I learned how to be a data person over a decade ago when I worked at a college-access foundation and my boss asked me to translate what our education programs were accomplishing for our business-oriented board members.

That is when I discovered that data work wasn’t just asking workshop participants how satisfied they were or creating a graph for a report on how many students participated. There were big questions about whether our programs were “working” and what we meant by “working” and who were we NOT serving. There was collaborative work of asking these questions with diverse voices in the room. And there was knowledge about how to find the answers to these questions in a way that didn’t take over our work.

To be a data person the main requirement is that you are open to learn. Your team is open to asking actionable questions, seeking to answer them in small and big ways, and constantly dialoging about how social change is unfolding.

When every person sees themselves as a data person, together we:

1.???? Democratize knowledge.

Have you ever worked for an organization where useful data rots away in an unread annual report, but those closest to the work never interact with it? I certainly have. It takes intention to build regular data pauses, where everyone (and especially those staff closest to the programs) are included in understanding the bigger picture that data can show. One goal of bringing all staff into data conversations is that each staff member feels they are part of the greater mission. By embracing every person as a data person, we offer each member of your team, regardless of their technical background, the opportunity to engage with and understand the information that shapes our society.

2.??? Recognize that everyone on your team has knowledge to contribute.

I used to work with a research center at a university where every month or so they would bring educators into a brown bag conversation to get their input on what the K-12 data trends were showing. These retired teachers and assistant principals could take one look at the line graph and instantly spot behind-the-scenes information that no statistician would be able to know. Oh yeah, that data looks weird because that was the year the district changed the reporting system and no one knew how to use the technology.

In the same way, every member of our teams has knowledge of their programs, their students, their communities, and their own past experiences that can bring new life to the data. A staff member is made to feel like a data person when they have space to share their own insights and expertise.

3.???? Foster innovation

Running programs is busy work. It’s easy to get into cycles where your team’s head is down, and you aren’t stopping to regularly learn. When you build in time to bring in student voice, take an equity pause by looking at disaggregated data, or examine how your enrollment trends compare with similar rural communities – these are all examples of developing a data culture. Each new input offers new ways of thinking about the challenges facing your program and your communities.

Fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement leads to innovation. But it takes the whole team together building these skills and creating space for innovative thinking. When a diverse range of people can understand and contribute to data insights, it opens the door to creative solutions that benefit us all.

Every person can be made to feel like a data person. Let’s work together to create opportunities for learning from data in our everyday meetings and workflows.

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