We had a great start to our 2021 Reset Show series with Sam Knowles, talking data and insight. Sam really is the man when it comes to turning data into narratives that resonate – and he is the author of the best-selling book ‘Narrative by Numbers: How to Tell Powerful & Purposeful Stories with Data‘, published by Routledge in April 2018.
If you were unable to dial in, you’ll find the recording here…
In the world of employee engagement and experience, working with data to uncover insights, to help design great solutions, is a key skill. But one that might not come naturally to many of us. It’s often the case that we have mountains of data we need to make sense of – and it can feel quite overwhelming knowing where to start. So we thought we would share a simple tool we often use in insight workshops, to help us get the most from the data we have.
Clues, insights and themes
This is an activity you can use within an insight workshop, which will enable you to use the evidence and data you have to inform actionable insights. If you are running this activity in person you will need:
- Sticky Notes (post-it notes)
- Pens
- Flip Chart Pad and Pens
And if you are running it virtually, then you can use a collaboration tool such as Miro or similar.
Step 1 – Define the problem
Define the problem you are trying to solve or the opportunity you have identified. For example:
- Why are new recruits leaving so soon
- Why are our engagement survey scores so low
- How can we design a brilliant on-boarding programme
Step 2 – Capture the Clues
Once the focus of the session has been agreed, you can then go about capturing the clues. Clues use data – they are the facts. They are not about your assumptions, or your opinions, they are what we know to be true. Let’s take the example of ‘why are new recruits leaving so soon’.
- 40% of new recruits leave within 6 months of joining
- The engagement index score of people with less than 6 months tenure is 20% lower than everyone else
- One of the key reasons for leaving the company given in exit interviews is a lack of flexibility
It is also useful to ask people to complete the following :
– I have seen…
– I have heard…
– I read…
– I know…
Gather your clues, one per sticky-notes and stick them up onto a wall (or virtual space) and ask the team to read through them all.
Step 3 – What are your insights?
Now ask the group to interpret what these clues might mean. What are their insights about what they see on the wall? This is where opinions and interpretations are sought, for example:
“I believe new recruits are leaving because the job is not what they expected it to be”
“We must be doing something really wrong, as normally engagement is higher in the first months of a new job”
“We have a new approach to on-boarding and I think this could be part of the problem”
Capture all of the insights onto a flip chart and review and discuss them as a team:
– Who agrees/ disagrees?
– Why is this happening?
-What is within our sphere of control?
Do we need to ask more questions and capture more data to help us gather insights?
Step 4 – Themes and action
As you are discussing your insights, you need to capture the themes emerging and any actions arising. For example, many of your hunches might lead to a theme which is “we need to re-design the onboarding process.” When capturing the themes try to focus them into areas for opportunity. So for example:
“we will create a world-beating onboarding experience and to do this we need to…”
In response to your themes, capture any arising actions. Throughout the session ask, “what can we do about the situation?” and “how can we influence it?”
If you’re interested in exploring this topic further Sam also shared some of his recommendations below:
Sam’s newest book ‘How to be Insightful‘ and the accompanying website houses loads of great content. You can also read the prequel ‘Narrative by numbers‘ and be sure to listen in to Sam’s podcast ‘The Small Data Forum‘
And just a handful of the reading recommendations from Sam…
Steven Pinker – The Sense of Style and How the Mind Works
Tim Harford – How to Make the World Add up
Nate Silver – The Signal and the Noise
David Spiegelhalter – The Art of Statistics
Chip and Dan Heath – Made to Stick
Daniel Kahneman – Thinking Fast and Slow
During the show, Sam also mentioned a great masterclass from Chris Voss about tactical empathy.
….and finally, we love Sam’s latest blog on LinkedIn, which is a great example of how NOT to use your data and insights!
And if you are not already a The Reset Show viewer, you can recap on all of the shows to-date here, or you can listen to the Reset Show on-the-go with our podcast. Just search for ‘The Reset Show’ on your preferred podcast platform (e.g. Spotify, iTunes, Podbean, Alexa/TuneIn etc).
