The Two Things Every Organization Needs Before Data Will Help

In 20 years of working with mission-driven organizations and data, I have yet to see one succeed with data without two things: senior leaders who are committed to it, and someone with the expertise to lead it.

Notice what is not on that list. A particular tool. A bigger budget. A certain database or CRM. Those matter less than most people think.

What ready leadership looks like

When I think about the organizations that have done the most with their data, their leadership teams share a few traits.

• They are open to feedback and improvement. They know there is more than one way to do things.

• They are curious, with a strong desire to learn.

• They are willing to test assumptions, knowing they will find things that are not working as often as things that are.

• They understand that the mission can stay the same even when the way they work changes.

• They are willing to invest time and money.

No list is true of every organization in every season. But where leaders look like this, data becomes part of how decisions get made. Where they do not, it stays a report in someone’s inbox.

The cost of guessing

Leaders rightly want to know the return on an investment like this. I think about it in two ways: the mission benefit of having good information, and the cost of not having it. Every decision made on a guess has a cost. You just never see the bill.

Take a decline in people signing up to volunteer. Without data, the conversation turns to whether people are less committed than they used to be. With it, you can see how many people showed interest, how many made it through onboarding, and how many are volunteering today. You may find the problem is not interest at all. It is a process that makes it hard to say yes.

Or take a youth program with a goal of reaching 25 new families this year. If you can see when a family first comes and whether they return, you have something to be curious about. A phone call to a family that did not come back may tell you the sign-up was confusing, or the room was understaffed.

Data does not answer those questions for you. It gives you better questions, and it points you to the people to ask.

When leaders hesitate

When leaders can see how data connects to the mission, they are usually ready to move. When they are not, the reason is rarely technical. Often it is fear of what the data might reveal.

That fear deserves an honest conversation. The numbers are already true, whether or not anyone looks at them.

The second thing

The other requirement is expertise: someone who knows which questions are worth asking, whether the answers can be trusted, and what to do next.

Most mission-driven organizations cannot justify a full-time hire for that role, and for a long time that meant going without. It is the reason I now serve as a fractional Chief Data Officer.

A question for your leadership team

Which of those five traits is strongest on your team? And which one would your staff say is missing?