Data, Discomfort and Diane Arbus
By Elizabeth Graff
“I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn’t photograph them.” - Diane Arbus (1923–1971), American photographer
Don’t look away.
Carnival performers. People with cognitive disabilities. Children being mean to one another. Diane Arbus is best known for her unflinching portraits of marginalized people and the ugly truths we prefer to avoid. Her photographs were hard to look at when she took them in the 1960s. They’re still hard to look at today.
“Take pictures of what you fear,” she said.
Last week, my colleague Chris mentioned Arbus. Chris and I were talking about the survey tool we created for teams that are part of our Bon for Work program, and Chris pointed out that — like Arbus’ photographs — data forces us to look at facts that might be more comfortable to avoid.
On our Discovery Survey, we ask team members questions like, “How satisfied are you in your job?” and “What’s the biggest thing getting in the way of your team achieving even greater impact?”¹ Questions like these can be uncomfortable to answer with candor. What if the data reveals that team members are less satisfied than their leaders assumed they were? Or that a lack of accountability is impacting morale? Or that the team’s leaders aren’t giving the team what they need to be successful? Each team must make a choice about whether or not to pull back the curtain. Then, they need to decide what to do after this less-than-rosy information is out in the open.
The way a team approaches the data is more important than the data itself.
It’s controversial, but we see the data itself as less important than the conversation it inspires. Especially if the data is uncomfortable. Especially if it reveals something that a team would rather ignore.
We are learning designers, coaches and facilitators, which means that we view data as a springboard, not as a final destination. We believe it’s important for teams to look in the mirror, to confront their reflection bravely, together, and to communicate with one another about what they see. That’s why we’re asking teams hard questions and why we want their candid responses.
Often, the most useful gift we can provide to a team is not the data itself (more often than not, they already had an inkling about what the survey would reveal) but rather to help them see the data as a starting point. We want the data to spark meaningful conversations, not to shut conversations down. We want the data to provoke curiosity and powerful questions, not cement judgments. We want the data to help teams create a shared and compelling future vision for what could be, not get stuck on what is. So, instead of presenting the data as a fixed appraisal of the team’s worth, we’re careful to frame conversations about the data developmentally.
And what does a developmental conversation look like?
Developmental conversations are ones that keep the focus on development and growth. We want teams to look at the data and ask:
- “What can we learn from this?”
- “How can we do even better?”
- “Where do we want to go next together?”
- “What’s our plan for getting there?”
- “What’s standing in our way?”
- “How can we support one another and hold ourselves accountable?”
And we want teams to be asking questions like these regardless of their scores on the survey. Teams that are struggling have room to grow, but teams that are super-high functioning can always do better too.
The challenge for us as facilitators is to help teams move away from patting themselves on the back or from judging themselves harshly. Instead, we help teams (1) remember that the data is a single snapshot from one moment in time and (2) use the data to identify the gap between where they are and where they want to be. We then use that distance to create what organizational psychologist Peter Senge calls a
“slingshot” for the team, giving members the vision and the motivation to propel themselves into an audacious future of their own creation.²
Tips for keeping the focus on development.
Dare to try it out for yourself? Use the steps below to structure the process, and make sure that you turn your insights into action.
- Collect the data. Take a picture of what you want to know — even if you fear what you will see. Write a survey and send it out to your team. Make it anonymous.
- Make sense of the data. Read, analyze and discuss. Together.
- Categorize your observations into three buckets: (a) Insights — What do you see that’s interesting or surprising? (b) Areas for Development & Growth — Moving forward, where would you like to focus your energy? (c) Calls to Action — What do you need to do?
- Brainstorm solutions. Generate energy and create a sense of possibility by moving into a solution-building process. Ideate how you might work on those areas of growth that you identified. Perhaps your team will decide to design a conflict resolution process. Perhaps you’ll initiate a weekly scrum meeting. The possibilities are endless, but it only happens if you have the courage to look at the data in the first place.
- Try it out. Put your ideas into action. Test the solutions you designed with your team. See what works. See what doesn’t. Iterate toward better solutions.
- Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Food for thought.
What do you track over time?
Is it personal data or team data?
How do you use the data that you collect?
What mindset do you adopt when you examine your data?
What would you be curious to learn about yourself or your team?
What’s stopping you?
[1] These are a few of the questions on the Discovery Survey that we recently created for teams participating in Bon for Work. Before we kick off our learning program with a new team, we ask everyone on the team — leaders, managers and individual contributors — to anonymously take the survey. Then, together with their team, we use the survey’s results to shape a customized learning program for the team.
[2] “The gap between vision and current reality is also a source of energy. If there were no gap, there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision. We call this gap creative tension.” — Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline
