Proceed with Caution

After completing this module, you will be able to:

1. Describe the biggest challenges to implementing changes using data.

2. Explain how to avoid challenges to implementing changes using data.

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The tasks below will be automatically checked off once you complete watching the video and taking the quiz.

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In this module, we’ll discuss the challenges you will likely face when implementing changes using data.

Governance

Governance focuses on the policies and procedures surrounding your data strategy. The tricky part is that there are a number of things working against us. There are things within the organization that are going to make applying this kind thinking to your decision-making process and planning challenging. There are also things in our brains that make change challenging, like HiPPOs and the Backfire Effect.

Following an established data governance framework will help you evaluate your current strategy against successful models to ensure you’re not overlooking vital policies or procedures. Without a strong data governance framework, most organizations fail to manage their data efficiently. As a result, the quality suffers and dirty, unstructured data will begin to clog your systems. At this point, you can’t rely on the data to provide valid insights or to be used to form key decision-making processes.

Key obstacles:

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1. Closed organizational culture

People are just as essential to the success of your data governance program as the technology you use. If your association’s culture is resistant to change, it’s very difficult to successfully launch and maintain new governance projects. Real problems occur when there are no defined data quality standards or clear ownership of the data. In this situation, datasets begin to divide, data silos surface and there is no single definition of what the data actually represents. This is a tricky challenge to overcome and requires careful negotiation, but it’s also an important step in your overall strategy. To eliminate the need for expensive reconciliation processes, you need every department, function and team member working within the same data governance framework.

2. Limited leader buy-in

Low-level, non-threatening changes using data management are often welcomed by board members, but it’s harder to get buy-in for bigger changes to the norm. Large data governance projects require a careful balance of resources, budgets and timing. Leaders need to understand the business value of a complete data management overhaul. Using data modeling tools and processes is a good way to engage and empower these leaders in the process.

3. Lack of standardization

HiPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion)

The acronym is used to describe the tendency for lower-level team members to defer to higher-level board members when a decision needs to be made.

When HiPPOs are present, discussion may cease, and brainstorming may shift from generating new ideas to generating reasons why an opinion will work. People have a natural tendency to look to the authority in the room for decisions, resulting in the possibility of groupthink and conformity, which can be damaging when there is a problem to solve. If everyone is looking to the HiPPO, then there’s really only one possible solution discussed.

Ignoring the HiPPO

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If you are the HiPPO

If you are NOT the HiPPO

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The Backfire Effect

Sometimes people hold tighter to what they believe as they are given more facts that disprove their beliefs. Source

The Misconception: When your beliefs are challenged with facts, you alter your opinions and incorporate the new information into your thinking.

The Truth: When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get stronger.

Experiments show that when people’s beliefs are threatened, they often descend to where facts do not matter. In scientific terms, their beliefs become less “falsifiable” because they can no longer be tested scientifically for verification or refutation. Source

How can we try to convince people to accept facts? Source

Remain indifferent. Emotions can make matters worse and heighten unreasonable thought processes.
Listen carefully to the other person's point of view and make sure you understand their position so there is no confusion over their argument.
Acknowledge that you understand how or why they hold that opinion.
Show respect, always.
Make sure your counterargument is a good argument.
Agree to disagree if you find you’re not able to make progress.

Success metrics

Measurement vs. metric

What is a measurement?

A measurement is a data point at a single point in time. Typical measurements include things like:

How many people visited a website in a month
How much revenue an organization received last quarter
The number of members an association has

Often, the goals set by organizations are based on measurements like these. Out of context, however, these numbers don’t help very much. For example, if you had 10,000 website visitors, but that was the same as the month before, you’re not improving.

What is a metric?

A metric is a data point in context. Typical metrics include things like:

The change in website traffic compared to a previous month
The change in revenue, month over month
The number of association members now compared to the same time last year

A metric considers the past and puts your success (or failure) in context. Plus, a metric encourages continual improvement. If your metric is growing website traffic by 5% a month, you have to keep building upon your success. A metric of growing leads by 10% a quarter encourages continuous and exponential growth.

Outcome metric vs. performance metric

Once you change your mindset from measurement to metric, consider the best metrics to use for your organization.

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What is an outcome metric?

An outcome metric looks back at what has already happened.

Outcome metrics are studied after the work is completed. They provide useful insight for the next time you do similar work, but they can’t change the result.

Typical outcome metrics are the examples mentioned above: Traffic or revenue growth, month over month. Knowing what happened to your traffic or revenue compared to previous timeframes is helpful for knowing what to do in the future. However, if you don’t have the metric until the month is over, you can’t course-correct and improve that month’s performance.

To make adjustments while an initiative is in process, performance metrics are needed.

What is a performance metric?

A performance metric measures key activities that lead to successful outcomes.

Performance metrics are analyzed on an ongoing basis to make sure your work is on track to meet the goal. If you don’t reach your performance metrics, you know you will not meet your outcome metric. Fortunately, performance metrics help you make changes to alter the ultimate outcome.

A typical performance metric would be something like the number of phone calls made to potential sponsors to reach the outcome metric of increasing event sponsor commitments. If you make enough phone calls, you should reach your sponsorship goal.

Similarly, publishing a specific number of blog posts could be a performance metric that will help you reach your goal of increasing traffic, month over month. The more content you share online, the more people will visit. If you fail to publish blog posts, it’s more likely you will not reach your outcome metric of increased traffic.

Loss leaders

Loss leaders are events or initiatives that attract an audience but do not yield revenue for your organization. There are times when loss leaders need to be cut from the annual plans, but there may also be times when hosting a loss leader makes sense. Consider hosting periodic events where the only purpose is to keep donors in the loop regarding the organization’s work and impact. Donors give all the time without expecting a tangible return. You can build trust, demonstrate gratitude and deepen relationships by hosting events that are wholeheartedly for the donors.

Members can also be loss leaders and are worth the effort because of the referral opportunities they can provide. Government agencies, churches and other non-profits often fall into this category, as well as chambers of commerce. Your local or regional chamber of commerce can connect you with all the local businesses, government agencies and civic organizations likely to hold events. And they can tell you when new businesses are coming to town.

CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING

See if you understand the concepts by completing the quiz. Click Proceed With Caution Module Quiz to begin.

Proceed With Caution Module Quiz

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