Services

Item Description

Help your leaders become more effective consumers of data and information!

Analytics and data-driven decision making have become focal areas in business. Leaders are asking for more data and better analytics. Despite this increased attention to big data, decisions don’t always improve. It’s not the data, it’s the way leaders approach it. Many approach “big” data from a “small” data mindset. Dealing with big data requires overcoming three obstacles:

Our brains – our brains have evolved to withhold, fill-in, and reshape data. That’s key for survival, but disastrous for making business decisions.

Our approach – we have been conditioned to take an information-based approach to gathering, analyzing, and communicating data. This leads to having too much data and too little interpretation.

Our reports – our reports are designed to convey information and facts rather than actions and decisions. This creates confusion, undermines our ability to find meaning in data, and ultimately slows down decision making and action.

Rethinking Data is an eight hour workshop that introduces leaders to a new way of looking at data and information. This workshop is not a numbers crunching course. Rethinking Data takes the next step addressing the common pitfalls that leaders (and others) fall into when trying to become more data driven such as shifting to a total reliance on numbers and facts without bringing additional context, interpretation, or judgment to them.

After completing this course, leaders will be more effective at:

Improving fact-based decision making and actions by:

Compensating for the brain’s limitations in processing information

Proactively managing biases that cause misinterpretation

Differentiating relevant data from related data

Drawing greater meaning and insight from data

Developing and selecting metrics that clarify problems and drive action

Creating hypothesis-driven arguments and analyses

Improving the clarity and efficiency of reports

Developing business-focused, fact-based, and logical presentations of data

Participant feedback

• This course will transform the way you look at and report on data! Anyone expected to report data to leadership should take this course.
• Brad has worked with our senior executive team to move us from reviewing volumes of reports in the hope of understanding the core problem, to clearly identifying root causes and executing specific tactics for improvement. Our improved business discussions and performance results speak to the impact of Brad’s work with our team. We now have a common language for identifying and correcting problems using data. (Senior Executive, Fortune 50 Financial Services Company)
• The timing for the course couldn’t have been worse as we are in the middle of our budgeting process and have several other “crises” that need managing.  I was not looking forward to attending and considered cancelling.  I am so glad that I came.  This was one of the most valuable experiences I’ve had and will change the way that I look at and use data.
• The course is simply awesome. I sincerely enjoyed the course. We should have these kind of learning courses more often. The interaction was amazing.
• As Brad walked through the session with my leadership team, the light bulbs were going on and smiles were elicited as the data (and its utility to the managers) was being unveiled. He helped us take data that we see routinely and transform it into meaningful, actionable information that could shape practice. (Chief Nursing Executive, Presence St. Joseph Medical Center)
• This is probably one of the most relevant trainings I've attended and I hope we can cascade this to more people in the organization.
• I love the simplicity of what you taught us while appreciating how complex it can be underneath the data! I am excited to start planning my report from the reverse order and then communicating in the same way! (City Manager, City of Champaign, IL)
• This is one of the best classes I have taken. What I learned will help me use a better approach to making decisions and determining the best direction going forward. (Director, Systems Department, Fortune 100 Company)

Item Special Note

Workshop will be customized using your organization’s data and reports

Up to 25 participants

Travel expenses are not included.  Winner is required to pay for travel, lodging, and other expenses associated with the delivery of the Rethinking Data workshop.