Data, data everywhere nor… This sounds like the start of a very well-known phrase involving lots of water that is of little use to the sailor. It comes from 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and essentially describes the situation in which one is in the midst of plenty but little use can be made of it.
Yes – we are living in a world of vast amounts of data. According to a leading authority on the matter, globally over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every single day, and it's only going to grow from there. Yet, how much of this is actually useful and will change people’s lives and the circumstances in which they find themselves?
Collecting the right data, collecting more meaningful data, and reporting it in a way that can be used to make changes to services has been at the core of many advances in human history. Nowhere is this more evident than in aviation sector where the number of accidents and fatalities in commercial airlines dropped to its lowest level in history in 2017 – where a total of 13 people worldwide lost their lives in comparison to well over 2,000 deaths per year in the early 1970s. Improvements don’t happen by chance – we need to use data, understand the story behind it (what went wrong and why) and make improvements. Collecting and collating easy to understand data is the basis for starting discussions and changing practices.
In Northern Ireland, we have been supporting organisations throughout the statutory and community and voluntary sector to do all of the things that now seem to come naturally to other sectors. Of course the comparison is not an entirely straightforward one – many of the outcomes that services in the statutory and community and voluntary sectors strive to achieve involve improving aspects of people’s quality of life or what many term the ‘soft’ outcomes.
In the training we provide, some of the questions we ask of service providers include:
- Why do we want or need data?
- Are we collecting too much data?
- Are we collecting enough of the right data?
- Is the way we report data done to the best effect?
- Are we actually using data to make changes to the services we deliver to people?
- For all the investments we are making, are services changing people’s lives for the better?
The answer to the first question – why do we want or need data – is fairly self-evident. We need data because it provides the evidence need to understand whether we are delivering the right services to the right people at the right time. Data is also useful for helping to understand whether some or all aspects of service delivery need to change to enable greater impacts to be achieved.
Invariably, the answer to the second question is that we collect too much data and that leads us to answer the third question that most of the data collected is not the right data. We surround ourselves in data thinking that the old adage “more is better” holds true all of the time. We also fall into the trap of thinking that by collecting more and more data, we surely will be able to distil from this the key bits of information we need to improve services. However, experience tells us that what actually happens is that we expend enormous resources on collecting data that is more easily quantified (e.g. number of people attending a particular workshop) and give less attention to the more important types of data that are less easily quantified.
The fourth question is about whether data is presented to the best effect or not. Traditional evaluation reports come in all shapes and sizes. Their quality varies enormously – some are text heavy; others rely strongly on charts/graphs and info graphics. The common characteristic of many is that they are lengthy and in some cases people are left hunting for the answer to the question – is the service working or not? Our training places a strong emphasis on presenting less data, in more visually appealing ways, so that people can see ‘the story’ in front of them and start conversations about how services can be re-shaped to better effect.
Ultimately, the most important question is are services changing people’s lives for the better and the reason why we do what we do. Whatever stage of the journey you are at, our suite of training will guide you along each stage of the journey so that the answer to the most important question gets the focus it deserves.
Here’s a selection of feedback from the most recent training delivered in September 2019:
“This was much better than I expected and I think it was the first Excel course I have done where I felt I could do a better job afterwards and where it was highly relevant to my work. This was super. I was not afraid to ask questions. Thank you very much.”
“Very informative and made very interesting and interactive and relevant. Not made too basic.”
“Filled a lot of gaps in my knowledge and really gave me what I was looking for.”