When attempting to bring the use of data into education organizations, I have heard countless variations of the same basic statement, “Data is not my job”. I have heard this from team leaders who need data with which to make decisions, from those tasked with entering information accurately into a database or tracking tool, from those who are responsible for implementing simple new data gathering tools, and from those accountable for meeting financial targets. There is a strange perception that data is only the responsibility of the person managing the database or the information system or of the business or financial analyst.
I have the same blunt response to all of these statements, “Yes, data is your job. Data is everyone’s job.” In today’s education landscape, in which data is crucial to effective decision-making and thriving in a rapidly evolving competitive landscape, data is a shared responsibility throughout the entire education organization. Everyone has a part to play in the overall data competency of our organizations.
How do we make data a shared responsibility in our education organizations? Here are a few things to think about:
- Data as a shared responsibility starts with the leaders in our organization. Our leaders need to be committed to their own data competency, to learning how to use the data systems and tools, to using data for decision-making, and to reporting data clearly and effectively. Do your leaders understand the importance of data and are they committed to improving their data competency? If not, this is your starting point.
- Help each employee or group of employees understand how their work contributes to the organization’s overall use of data. Bring data into every job description. Bring data into performance discussions. Bring data into daily work conversations. Recognize employees who use data well and strong data proficient teams. Do all of your employees know the importance of data and how it pertains to their areas of responsibility? If not, it is time they did.
- Provide ongoing opportunities for employee learning around data. Provide onboarding in the use of the tools and systems used to collect data. Provide regular ongoing training so that employees keep their skills current. Teach employees how to identify when data is clean (or not), how to analyse and report data, and how to use data for decision-making. Do you invest in employee training around data? If not, it is time to start.
- Be transparent and regularly communicate data throughout the whole organization. Don’t hide your data. Use it in internal communication to teams and to individual employees. Present it in Town Halls, quarterly and annual reports and other stakeholder communication. Share the data in easily understood formats and in data stories that give it meaning. Be transparent about how the data is used in decision-making. Relate the data to the questions you need to answer about the organization’s performance. Do you hide your data or only share it with a select group of people? If yes, it is time to share.
My favourite expression related to data competency in an organization is “Garbage in, garbage out.” If we don’t have data competency and a sense of shared responsibility for data ownership across our whole organization, we will always be working with garbage data. And our decisions based on that garbage data will be flawed. Don’t accept statements like, “Data is not my job.” Instead, reply that “Data is a shared responsibility in our organization. It is everyone’s job.” Then you won’t have “Garbage in, garbage out”.