Without a compass data is useless
A brief summary of “data-centric” organizations
We all produce, collect and consume various kinds of data on a daily basis. In private life, our phones are counting our steps, daily activities, sleeping arrangements, and so many other activities — Your heartbeat is alarmingly high; don’t you say.
Businesses behind those apps are feeding their databases and algorithms to create more personalized experiences for us. On the other side we “enjoy “ the usual habit of checking the visual presentation of the data that summarizes our daily activities — Yes, I am on my walking goal strike for 7 days! (Not really, just caught me walking to the fridge too many times).
In a business environment, data becomes a crucial point in defining your next product development steps, marketing strategies, and even vision in some cases. I mean if the data says so and data is the king.
But is it really?
While data is important in all business activities we tend to forget that, even though data is used in all these decisions making processes as the core framework, people are still setting the data framework.
Every business has data but does every business has data-centric people?
One without the other becomes useless. Organizations are obsessed with subscribing to various kinds of analytics tools because again they know and read somewhere that data is essential for business growth. I mean to run an organization without collecting data at every step. Karen, you are mad!
Collecting data is the right move.
Just collecting data for the sake of it is rather not.
For an organization to effectively use all these data loads, the whole organization must have a data-driven mindset and an army of people reading the analytics.
Are we on the right track now?
Not quite.
So if we modify it a bit and say “for an organization to effectively use data, the whole organization must have a data-driven mindset and clearly set objectives to know what to measure in the first place”.
What about now?
Jackpot.
Measure what matters
First objectives. Than data.
There is a great book written by John Doerr who talks exactly about this. To measure something you need to set clear objectives and KPIs. How else can you know what to measure?!
Where does the change begin?
From the top (that’s what she said)!
The top leaders of the company need to grow a data-driven mindset and afterward implement practices and frameworks for the whole organization to follow. If you are working at the top level and you are familiar with business objectives but didn't have a chance to implement them in practice (read: didn’t have a clue how to do it) I definitely recommend this book where you can learn the essential concept of OKR’s and their ultimate importance.
If you are working at lower levels of the organizations, push the idea up, and also please check out the book.
In his book, John is talking about achieving operating excellence and the perfect tools for that are Objectives and Key Results.
In this kind of system, objectives define what we seek to achieve and KPIs are there as means of how to achieve those top-priority goals. Also, they are defined as specific measurable actions within a set time frame which means you cannot just set an objective and measure it with a KPI whenever you feel like it. There has to be a timeframe that puts your time in a disciplined and focused mode.
When you know your goals, you know immediately what you need to measure. And what you measure will bring you a step closer to operational excellence.
Are we close to the Holy Grail here?
Call it however you want but the benefits are profound. Objectives and KPIs put on the surface organization’s most important work. They boost focus, efficiency and strengthen the team by keeping them on track.
And as you can see, here is the clear answer to why you don't just need data. What you need are clearly set objectives and KPIs so you can measure what matters.
