Is emotional baggage holding your data program back?

Unfortunately for you, negative experiences with data can shape the way people feel about data, analytics, and KPIs for decades.

Not everyone has had great experiences with data.

In the past, people may have been disciplined or terminated based on KPIs they don’t have any ownership of. They got handed metrics that don’t make any sense for their business. They might have even been told they have no choice in the matter.  

KPIs (or more specifically, USELESS KPIs) easily become an easy target (ha!) of contempt. It’s even worse if those KPIs were developed by the data team. Now, the data team becomes the target.

Here’s a few ways emotional baggage can hold your data program back.

Fear of repercussion

What it is: the stakeholder believes that they will be punished as soon as a metric goes bad.

What it looks like: You may observe sugar coating results: intentionally or unintentionally. Poor results may be downplayed. You may hear evasive or vague language when describing the data or performance. There can be a reluctance to report on the metric which may result in hoarding data.

Data hoarding

What it is: a complete breakdown of trust. The stakeholder is intentionally holding on to data and strictly controlling the flow of information inappropriately.

With highly sensitive personal, financial, or security information, controls must be very strict. The stakeholder may also have responsibility to control the flow of data as part of their mandate. Or there may be commercial sensitivities (in the case of external stakeholders) that prevent sharing outside of the company. These aren’t cases of data hoarding.

In the absence of a mandate or true restrictions, data owners may flat out refuse to share data with data teams.

What it sounds like: “I don’t think your team will be able to accurately report on this.” and “It’s too complicated to explain to you.” “I’ll send you the data” (but never actually gives it to you)

What it looks like: Who knows, you can’t get a look inside to know what’s actually happening behind the curtain!

Blame mindset

What it is: a highly defensive and reflexive response to any negative mention of their data or performance.

We tend to attribute negative outcomes on people, and that tendency gets reinforced when a data program is poorly managed. Were people personally held responsible for KPIs that were outside of their control? Congratulations, you’re going to be playing the blame game!

What it looks like: Usually you can FEEL this reaction in a room before anyone says a single word. Phrases like, “It’s not me”, “Not our fault”, or explicit finger pointing at someone else.

What you can do about unpacking emotional baggage

All these symptoms require a cultural change and strong relationship building skills. Unfortunately there’s no one band-aid solution that will fix these problems.

It’ll take a lot of hard conversations that will be super awkward as you begin building relationships with these stakeholders. Rebuilding trust from the gutter is an uphill climb. You’ll need help to make progress.

Since all these behaviours are ways to deflect negative attention from something/someone, start by reinforcing a different message.

That message: we have a data program to bring transparency to our operations, NOT nail people to the wall when things don’t go well. Be clear that this isn’t a punitive program.

The messaging needs to be clear, frequent, and infused from top to bottom in the organization. And it has to be followed with real action.

Final thoughts

The legacy of a terribly run data program can follow people and companies for years.

People shouldn’t fear personal repercussions for events that are outside of their control. Yes, they should certainly be held to task, but the data program should never be used as a weapon.

The more transparency in the data program, the better. Better insights, better decisions from those insights.

To be truly transparent, people can’t be afraid to share data. They can’t always be watching their backs expecting to be attacked for something outside of their control.

Help them unpack their emotional baggage by being consistent and honest in your communication. Getting help from leadership who will reinforce the message is crucial.

Know that it will take time to rebuild - maybe even years. But once you get there, you’ll have a data driven organization you built on a foundation of trust.  

Need help with stakeholder engagement in your data program? Book a discovery call with me and we’ll figure it out.

Photo by Matthew Smith on Unsplash