Organisational development – InsightUnlocked

7 things data-informed organisations do differently (3/4 and 4/4)

4/4 of Colleen Dilenschneider’s steps to a data informed organisation

Here is the forth post of Colleen’s path to becoming a data informed organisation: Seven Things Data-Informed Organisations Do Differently.

The 7 things are:

Bring everyone to the same level of understanding;
Incorporate data into all planning processes (not just marketing);
Develop measurable objectives and metrics for success;
Continuously gather market data and update plans accordingly;
Take advantage of the predictive power of data;
Look at market research as an investment rather than a cost; and
Are actively shifting the organization’s culture

For me no7 is bringing it all together – a culture change. This is about attitudes to data, but I think behind this needs to be a positive attitude and approach to people – eventually it is not about data, but about our visitors, audience, customers, whatever we choose to call them, and about understanding them and showing empathy.

BTW, I realise I didn’t post Colleen’s third blog, here it is if you want to complete the series and hear about common cognitive biases to data: Accepting Data Can Be Hard

Why organisations need data advocates (2/4)

2/4 of Colleen Dilenschneider’s steps to a data informed cultural organisation

Here is step 2 of Colleen Dilenschneider’s path to becoming a data informed cultural organisation: Data interpretation.

From my experience working at Tate, I support the suggested need for data advocates 100%. Research and data alone are not enough to become data informed, you need to bring the data to life. It requires a lot activation to get people to understand, embrace and eventually act on research findings.

Investing in insight is great, but investing in its activation will get you the return.

As Colleen suggests, data needs:

an insider, who knows what the findings mean
a storyteller, who shares the story that the data tells
a translator, so it isn’t misunderstood
a champion, so it is kept front and centre

What it takes to become a data-informed cultural organisation (1/4)

It’s more than just data

Some great insights into becoming a data-informed cultural organisation can be found in a mini-series of Colleen Dilenschneider, of US research agency Impacts, on her blog.

She suggests four steps:

1 – data collection
2 – data interpretation
3 – data acceptance
4 – data integration

Read more about data collection including some useful explanations of types of research, what to measure and how to get the data.

But data is only the start, of course, and the culture change involved is not to be underestimated. Look out for the other three of the four steps she proposes in following blog posts.

The power of brand inside organisations

The power of brand inside organisations – shaping the staff and the visitor experience

I was thinking about branding and came across this interview with branding expert Robert Jones, strategist at Wolff Olins (the agency involved in the development of the Tate brand when Tate Modern first opened) and professor of brand leadership at the University of East Anglia.

What I found particularly interesting is the power of brands inside organisations as they set the tone and culture of the organisation and of staff behaviour.

This strikes me as highly relevant for arts and culture organisations who are about a visitor experience. This experience is to a large part shaped by its staff, those in direct contact with visitors as well as those behind the scenes – the more they live the brand the more visitors will experience it.

This means brand building should not only be thought of as an externally focused marketing activity, but that it can be a strong internal tool. An example from Ikea in the interview, demonstrates the role leadership can play in personifying the brand and setting a powerful example for internal culture and staff behaviour.