Why are my staff uncomfortable with data?
Your staff may be uncomfortable with data for several different reasons, and it's worth finding out which ones apply before you decide what to change, since one team can hold more than one of them.
- It feels like someone else's job. When information is gathered mainly for a funder report, staff can come to see it as separate from their work with participants.
- They've never seen it used. Staff who have completed forms for years without learning what the information showed have little reason to believe the next form matters.
- They worry it will be used to judge them. If numbers have been used to criticize a program or an individual, staff may be cautious about reporting what they observe.
- The skills are unfamiliar. Interpreting a table or knowing what a set of responses can and can't tell you are learned skills, and many people were never taught them.
- There's no time. Collecting information on top of full responsibilities can feel impossible. My team sees data collection as extra work. How do I change that? addresses that problem directly.
Ask your staff which of these applies, in a conversation where they can answer candidly, and listen for differences between the staff who work directly with participants and the staff who prepare reports.
How do I connect data to work my staff care about?
You can connect data to work your staff care about by starting from the questions they already ask about their programs and showing how the information they collect helps answer them. Staff who work with participants every day often have questions of their own. For example, a program coordinator might want to know why some participants stop coming after the first few weeks, which sessions people return for, or where participants say they struggle.
Start with the question, and then determine what information would help your organization answer it. That order matters, because it keeps your team from collecting information simply because a form asks for it. Involve your staff in naming the questions, and ask them whose perspective might be missing. When the information comes back, use it to decide what to try or change, and tell your staff what changed because of what they collected.
What does it look like for a team to use data together?
A team using data together reviews what the information shows on a regular schedule, discusses what it means, and agrees on what to change. That can happen at meetings your team already holds, without adding a separate session. A useful conversation moves past the number itself to questions like these:
- What does this finding mean, and why might we be seeing it?
- Does it confirm what we expected, or does it challenge an assumption?
- Is there an important difference between groups of participants?
- Does it suggest something we should change?
Data doesn't make decisions. People do, and staff who help interpret the information are more likely to understand why a change is being made and to help carry it out. When the information shows that something isn't working, treat that as an opportunity to improve the program rather than a verdict on your staff.
What role should an evaluator play in building my staff's skills?
An evaluator's role in building your staff's skills is to design what gets collected and how, carry out the analysis, and explain the results in ways your staff can understand and use, so that your team learns alongside the work without taking on specialized tasks it isn't trained for. Over time, your staff should get better at asking questions like these:
- What evidence would tell us whether this is working?
- Are we collecting information we actually need?
- What does this finding suggest we should do differently?
Some staff will need new skills along the way. Is data training worth it when my staff is already stretched thin? considers when training makes sense, and Why didn't our last data training change how anyone works? examines why a previous training didn't last.
The Grantibly perspective
Angelika's perspective
As sociologists and faculty members, Lauren and I understand research methods and evidence, and we also understand what it's like to be responsible for doing the work while managing staff, serving a community, and meeting grant requirements.
We want the organizations we work with to understand their own data. That means explaining what we're doing and why, making what we find accessible, and helping teams develop stronger evaluation thinking over time. We're educators as much as consultants, and we want people to understand what the findings mean and how they can use them.
We should never make data feel like one more thing your staff are failing to do correctly. Many teams are already collecting useful information and simply haven't had the chance to see what it can do for their work.
