We’ve written a lot in the past about data transparency. We’re serious, it seems to be a theme around here (like this and this.)

For us, data transparency is all about presenting information in an easily understandable way. We talk about it so much because we believe data transparency will save the world because it empowers anyone, regardless of training, to start using data to make better, faster decisions.

So why is it that Gartner shows business intelligence and analytic tools still only penetrate about 20% of an organization? Why keep 80% of people in the dark?

Basically, we’re not playing nice with our data. By this point, we all should have learned to share. So why don’t we share our data within our own organizations? We spoke with our management experts and think we have a pretty good idea why.

The Root of the Problem

In an ideal world (bad management jokes aside) leaders in any business got to be leaders by being great at what they do. Great salespeople often go on to manage other salespeople. Same thing with executives- show an aptitude in your trade or in school and you will be called up to lead other people to greatness.

That’s what a manager or a leader in any business is (again, ideally) supposed to do: help others achieve their potential and guiding teams to achieve their goals.

That’s why this 20% business intelligence penetration statistic is so disconcerting. It means that we have entire teams in numerous businesses across the country out there that aren’t using data to do anything. Or if we do have someone in an organization that is using data odds are it’s just the manager and the operational employees under them have no clue what is going on, essentially taking the manager’s word for it all the time.

And that makes sense with what we’ve seen over countless implementations of VisualCue’s insight systems. Managers hang on to data, disseminating it to their teams.

Come on managers- share that data. It’s easier than you think.

Communicating with data is a social, not a technological, problem

We have the technology to communicate data in such a way that anyone, regardless of training, can understand it. So why not turn it lose? Give it over to the operational employees who are actually supposed to be making decisions off of it?

Simple- leaders are often reluctant to hand over control. And for any leaders out there reading this it’s okay to admit it, you’re not alone.

You have good reason to be nervous. Whose to say that an employee, looking at performance data, won’t get the wrong idea and start working hard in the wrong direction? Unless you happen to be managing a team of data experts, you would be right in thinking that operational employees lack the skills to analyze complex data sets.

But what if they could? What if you could empower everyone on your team with the skills of a data expert, ensuring that they could use the data your business is already generating to do their jobs better?

Thresholds are the answer

The answer lies in how you present the data to them. Just delivering a pile of data to an operational employee, patting them on the back and wishing them good luck with all that analysis isn’t fair to anyone and isn’t going to lead to any major improvements in performance. Probably quite the opposite, actually, as the employee spends hours poring over charts and graphs looking for how they can improve.

That’s why the data visualization and analysis you deliver to the employees should have thresholds attached to their key performance indicators- a visual signal that tells the employee, automatically and without any confusion, exactly which KPIs they are succeeding in and where they could be doing better according to management’s current expectations.

Such a system gives employees insight into their own data and empowers them to start making smarter, data-driven decisions to improve their performance on their own, freeing up the manager to do what they do best: lead.

Think about it.

Until next time,

The VisualCrew