How to create a culture centred around data and analytics
Data and analytics are an incredible weapon for all business owners. They allow you to improve your business and make better, more informed data-driven decisions. A lot of businesses believe that once they deploy their system which gives them their amazing analytics and insights the rest will simply follow. But this isn’t always true. People still like to go with their gut or their opinion, which can lead to the stats being ignored. In order to really get the most out of your insights, you need to ensure you have a data culture where everyone lives and breathes the analytics.
Share the data around
You should be loud and proud when it comes to your data and analytics. Share it with whoever needs or wants to see it. Use it as evidence. Being completely open and honest about your data shows everyone that what you are saying is pure fact rather than opinion. It sets an example for everyone else in the business to back up their ideas or thoughts with solid stats. No longer will an opinion rule processes in the business, processes are run by numbers and proven data.
Dismiss opinion led decisions
Any decision which is created from ideas or opinions should be rejected. It should be looked at again with the correct analytics and insights to back it up. Even if people say their decision is backed up by the data it should be ingrained into your culture that you always have to prove it by showing the data. Once you get everyone into this habit you will automatically start making data-driven decisions without even thinking.
Call it ‘decision sciences’
Instead of calling it data or analytics, call it decision sciences to create a culture centred around data and analytics. This is what the General Manager at Houston Astros did. He was setting up new departments in his business and going forward he wanted to make sure that everyone made their decisions from the data. But he needed everyone to remember this and actually do it. Everyone from the farm directors to the general managers. So to get everyone to comply, he decided to call it decision sciences. This embedded the notion that data should be used to make every decision throughout the business.
Show data to everyone in the business, not just head office
In order to get everyone in your business to have a data-driven mindset, you need to allow more employees to access it. You can’t get employees excited about data if they never actually see it for themselves. It’s like describing a rollercoaster to someone and expecting them to feel the same thrill that you felt. When you show more employees the data it makes them act more responsibly and take more ownership of their role.
A perfect example is our stats dashboard which was created so that everyone could see their own location’s knowledge, culture and compliance score against the regional average. You can also drill down to see which person has completed what. The data is collected from all of the activities carried out throughout the business. E.g. number of checklists completed, employee reviews performed, microlearning playlists completed, the number of article reads etc. When every regional manager could see the data of how well or not so well their region was performing it pushed them to encourage more compliant behaviour. It also pushed employees to perform better because they could see for themselves if they were performing below average.
Have a standard set of questions which everyone should ask themselves
Have a standardised set of questions which employees should ask themselves about the data. For example, what do I want to find out from the data? What strengths are apparent in the data and how can I use these to carry on improving business operations? What weaknesses are apparent in the data and how can I use these to improve business operations? How is the data affecting certain processes?
This prevents employees from simply saying what they see, and instead gets them to actually think analytically about why things may have happened.
Create excitement around the data
Benchmark data from one week and see if you can beat the results the next week, or the next month. Share this excitement in a news post or at the beginning of your morning catch-ups. For example, a team leader may say we only had a 50% knowledge rating yesterday, we all need to push incredibly hard this week to try and push the rating up to 100%.
To create a culture centred around data and analytics you need to let everyone see the data. We can't stress this enough. Until your workforce can visualise what you are talking about then it's going to be hard to get them as obsessed with it as you are. If you are looking to improve your data and insights then get in touch. We work with large enterprise companies to help them transform the way their employees work. Virgin Media has already seen a huge ROI since deploying Oplift and you can too.
