How Learning and Development Can Use Data to Create a Greater Impact in Training
In this episode, I've invited self-proclaimed frustrated changemaker Heather Hiscox to talk about how she uses data to overcome the status quo.
Heather, the founder and CEO of Pause for Change, is on a mission to change the way we change the world. I'm so excited to talk with her more about data and what L&D can start to do differently to create a greater impact in training.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
03:00 Heather’s frustration working in social impact and how it compares to L&D
07:28 Why is it so important to utilize data
10:56 The best ways to capture data
15:50 Using data in your work and the impact it can have on your organization
23:56 Using data to create more impact in training
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How Learning and Development Can Use Data to Create a Greater Impact in Training
Are you tired of the same old approach to developing training?
A subject matter expert walks in and they say they need a training and off the Learning and Development team goes to start the project.
Now, I know that most Learning and Development teams try to pause and identify learner needs and they gather as much data as they can so that they can make decisions about that work. But sometimes it just doesn't feel like quite enough. And it leaves the L&D team feeling frustrated.
That's why I've invited self-proclaimed frustrated changemaker, Heather Hiscox, to talk about how she uses data to overcome the status quo.
In this blog post, we’re covering the following:
Now Heather is outside the world of L&D, and I love that we can learn from all different areas and Heather's work in change-making might be just the thing for us. Heather, the founder and CEO of Pause for Change, is on a mission to change the way we change the world.
1) The Importance of Data in Learning and Development
Heather emphasizes the importance of using data to account for a power dynamic within your organization.
She explains that often people with power will explain the best way forward and because they have institutional power, that is the path that will be followed. However, this may not always be the best path forward and this person may not understand a certain situation as much as other people on the team do.
Questioning leaders about their plans is not the status quo.
“You're not really supposed to say that within an organization. It's seen as disrespectful. And as a leader, you're not supposed to show gaps in your understanding. You're not supposed to walk around the organization saying I don't know if this is going to work, but let’s just try it. You're supposed to exude confidence.” - Heather Hiscox
However, Heather explains that this removes us from the larger and more impactful conversation around power, positionality, and bias.
“We've just accepted this as the way things work. And this is how we measure and this is who gets to measure and this is who is measured. But there are so many challenges to the dogmatic thinking and the ways that we collect data.” - Heather Hiscox
Heather admits that while data is complex and often misunderstood, it does help to create a power balance.
“Data is really complex and we don't give it its due. We don't really spend enough time talking about who says what data is meaningful and how to collect it. What is right and wrong? But I think the other end of it is that we can't just make decisions based on power and decision-making ability. We have to really make decisions based on what we have the proof of.” - Heather Hiscox
I bet there are some members of L&D agreeing with this right now because we often have a subject matter expert or someone else in the organization who almost gives us an order.
Our job in L&D, if that happens, is to thenshift that conversation to identifying what the needs are and what the solution would be based on the need. But to do that, we need data. We need to go to the learners, we need to understand what their experiences are, what expertise they're bringing, if there's a change involved, and what success looks like to identify the right solution.
2) Methods to Conduct a Training Needs Analysis
Focus groups, interviews, and surveys are all methods that L&D can use in the needs analysis process, and Heather explains the benefits and limitations of capturing data using each method.
Heather explains that many organizations gravitate towards focus groups and surveys to capture data.
“I know why we do them. There's an efficiency element to it. There's a feeling that we're concretizing the system and the way that we're gathering the data.” - Heather Hiscox
According to Heather, with a survey, “we can have a spreadsheet and make some intelligent understanding of what's happening” and with a focus group, “you feel like you get to go a little deeper, you get to have more of a human connection.”
However, Heather explains that there are some downsides to these data capturing methods. With surveys, “we never know who's going to reply” and with focus groups, “the levels of engagement can be a little bit wonky.”
You can, however, still use those tools.
“Know that those are just going to give you a compass direction of where to focus your energy. They're not the end all be all. They're just getting some early insights.” - Heather Hiscox
Heather encourages organizations to focus on one-on-one interviews which she refers to as empathy interviews.
“How we get ready for interviews is we first focus on our uncertainties. We really celebrate and embrace and pull out what do we not understand. What do we not know? What do we not have existing data around? What are we really curious about? What are we missing? And then that helps us feel free to learn very openly that we don't have to have all the answers. So it changes the whole tone and dynamic of our learning experience.“ - Heather Hiscox
Heather explains that the interview questions are structured around the uncertainties.
“In order to do empathy interviewing, you have to be able to make an empathetic connection. And that's really hard if you first don't think about the lens that you use to see the world. We are all biased, right?” - Heather Hiscox
This bias may affect how you view the data.
“I had to have teams really focus on how they view data, how they view learning in their own situation to really get them ready to be able to absorb the lived experience and the truth that another person can have that might be in direct conflict with their truth and their own lived experiences.” - Heather Hiscox
3) Learning Experience Design
How do you go from collecting data to identifying the “right” solution?
Once you have gathered the data, you then need to utilize the data in your nonprofit.
Heather explains that you need to pull out the key themes that keep emerging.
“The biggest question I always get asked is how many people do I have to talk to to know the answer. And we say, you just talk to as many people until you just keep hearing the same thing over and over again.” - Heather Hiscox
Once you have pulled out those insights, the next step, according to Heather, is to start to brainstorm potential solutions.
Heather explains that often in response to an issue, people will start with the solution and then start designing around that.
“That's highly wasteful, not very efficient, usually not quite as effective. So what my team is really focused on first is understanding the problem, identifying uncertainty, going and doing those empathy interviews, and then starting to pull out those insights, which leads to their abundant and really bold brainstorming.” - Heather Hiscox
Heather explains that this might lead to 40 different ideas.
“It feels like we don't just have this one thing that we have to build. [...] But we can go back and we can prioritize these different potential solutions. And we'll choose one to test at a time. Then the teams learn that instead of building a solution, to actually break a solution. They break it apart into its component assumptions.” - Heather Hiscox
Heather explains that throughout this process, they are doing additional empathy interviews.
“We're never done being curious. We're never done learning. We're never done connecting to create the best possible outcome.” - Heather Hiscox
4) Using Data to Gain Buy-In and Support for Talent Development
Heather explains that utilizing data can have a tremendous impact on your organization. She gives the example of grant writing in a nonprofit.
Instead of doing a traditional grant application, frame your application in data. For example,
We just recently talked to 50 community members, here's the key learning.
Here are the top five solutions we identified.
Here are the top three that we've selected to move forward.
Here are the 20 different assumptions that we've tested.
“I've had so many foundations say that those applications stand out head and shoulders above any others because it's just backed up with this data. And it's so immediate, it's so relevant, and it's so compelling that they can't say no. It's just such a strong application. And that goes for their donor conversations. It goes with ways that they engage their board member’s community buy-in and engagement. It just has this beautiful ripple where that data is not just data. It's really this transformative puzzle piece that allows them to get and create the impact that they want.” - Heather Hiscox
What if we took this approach with our internal partners? Instead of saying “yes” when they tell us they need a training, we can say, we’ve talked to your audience. We’ve identified several solutions, and here are the top three we want to move forward with.
That’s a very different conversation.
5) Empathy and Equity in Data Collection
Heather explains that the empathy piece is huge.
“We're all designers, we're creating the future for someone else. We're imagining the future on behalf of others. We're designing their experience or designing their reality in certain ways. We're creating learning curriculum, materials, experiences, feedback forms, our evaluation processes. We're shaping what their experience will be with what we created. And that's tricky because what we create is deeply embedded with our own positionality, biases, and experiences.” - Heather Hiscox
Heather explains that because of this, there is an excellent opportunity to think about data in new ways.
Heather shares two episodes of the Possibility Project that were impactful in shaping her thinking around data.
Heather explains how there is no set code of conduct for this type of work.
“George Aye from Greater Good Studio in Chicago talks a lot about how many of us don't have a code of conduct. We don't have a certification with accountability attached to this type of work, especially the co-design and interviewing type of work. It's very much what he calls a BYOE, bring your own ethics, wild west situation where we're all doing this differently. And in some ways, we can actually create harm.” - Heather Hiscox
However, you are able to reevaluate the role you play in this harm.
“There's a really important opportunity for all of us to think about the role that we play, our power that we hold, and how that influences the data we do collect and how we do engage to collect that data.” - Heather Hiscox
To hear the full conversation I had with Heather Hiscox on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 72.
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