The Complexity and Value of People

In today’s uber-analytics world we have data stacked upon data stacked upon data stacked upon data. To the point that we have data overload and we get frustrated.  Data loses its value when we don’t understand what it is telling us, it is confusing, it contradicts what we believe to be true, and/or we don’t know what to do with it. The role of Business Intelligence (BI) or analytics in most organizations is to help us cut through the confusion and put the data to work for us. People who are really good at this are worth their weight in gold today, and are generally paid that way. These analysts understand that as the subject becomes more complex and its value to the company increases, their role changes.  The role of the data changes.

Although I believe that concept is widely accepted in most areas of the business world, it is not appreciated in the same way around the data or analytics we have on our people.  If you had to rank the complexity of people, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rank them?  If you had to rank your people on their value to your organization, 1 to 10, how would you rank them?  People might very well be the most complex and valuable piece of any organization.  Today we have access to an enormous amount of data, backed by thousands of years of science and research. The human being is likely the most intensely researched subject in the world. Yet few of us truly understand the data around people or what to do with it to improve our businesses.  In my consulting practice, here are some of the tools I use to gather data:

Behavioral Assessments

Cognitive Assessments

Job Performance Metrics

EQ Assessments

360 Feedback Surveys

Employee Engagement Surveys

Today it is not sufficient to gather the data.  You have to understand what the data is telling you and you have to put those insights to work for you.  

Data at the basic level is simply raw stats or information. It does provide some limited value, but it is most useful when the subject is not complex or is more universally understood.  It does not need to be explained or have insights drawn out for people to put it to work for them. In the world of BI this is about reporting and warehousing information. At this level the data often tells us what happened and to an extent why it happened. 

As the subject grows in complexity and value, the raw data begins to lose its usefulness. We now need help to extract insights from the raw data.  We need to apply our understanding of the data. With insights the data can help us to understand what’s happening now and what might happen. We are starting to understand causal relationships. With insights we can pivot from a historical perspective to guiding future outcomes.

As the subject continues to advance in complexity and value we now have to tap subject matter expertise. With expertise we can predict what will likely happen and what actions should be taken. In BI, this is the realm of advance analytics and for most it is an aspirational level of understanding and using their data. There is way too much available data, research, and science around people to not be putting it to work for us.  We need to utilize what we know about the individual person in our organization so that we can do a better job as leaders. Converting insights to action is the catalyst that accelerates organizational performance. Even in this high-tech hyper-distracted world management remains a one-on-one sport. We need to equip managers with the data, insights, and action to manage and lead. We need to use what we know about people so we can better understand, develop, coach, and engage our people in a way that works for all stake-holders.  

As a leader, how are you using advanced analytics to help your people? If the subject seems to complex, if you do not understand it, if it is confusing, frustrating, or overwhelming, then these are signs that you need subject matter expertise. Put your data to work, extract insights, know what actions to take, and engage your workforce. 

People are asking for it and businesses need it.