Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The Value of Sharing Data

Should you share your performance data throughout your organization?  This can be a vexing question, and all too often the answer is ‘only when absolutely necessary’.  Fortunately, organizations are slowly coming to the realization that while data is power, shared data is powerful.
There are many reasons for taking a position of secrecy regarding performance, some of which include:
  1. I’m not meeting my goals, and I don’t want this to be generally known.
  2. My performance goals have not been clearly established, so I don’t really know if I’m performing or not.
  3. I know I’m performing well, and I don’t want other managers to hire away my best talent.
  4. In general my team performs well, and I don’t want the emphasis to be placed on the few areas where we are underperforming.
Certainly all of these are real concerns.  The good news is that there is an answer for each of these situations that leads to great solutions for all involved.
The first major shift an organization can undertake is to move away from using data as a tool for punishment, and towards a mentality of inspect what you expect, and train for success.  Each area of underperformance can be successfully turned around when an organization takes a positive stance on identifying, deconstructing, and resolving problems.  Let’s face it – we all have places we can improve.  This is not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of healthy recognition.  Using data to punish your team makes everyone want to shy away from the realities of doing business, whereas having an open conversation focused on specific ways to improve is good for everyone.
Another key use of data is to more tightly integrate the various levels of management in an organization.  If you don’t have and share the data related to performance throughout the various tiers in your organization, you won’t be able to identify best practices and share them ubiquitously.  Sharing performance data allows you to know which players are top notch in various areas, so that under-performers can seek out over-performers, and learn from them.  If I’m having trouble with something, it’s very reassuring to know that I can reach out to a teammate for assistance, especially when that teammate has a proven track record of success that’s verified by the data.  But I can’t identify my potential mentors if performance data is kept a closely guarded secret.
Performance data can also expose areas of uncertainty, so that you can dig deeper for root cause.  Poor performance may be very difficult to explain, and putting that performance under scrutiny should allow for better research into the exact causes.  This requires a culture of openness to discussion, sharing, and true problem solving.  The benefit of understanding root cause is that you can then bring resources to bear directly on the previously unclear problems.
One of the most powerful results of sharing performance data is healthy ‘coopetition’ which is the combination of cooperation and competition.  Organizations that both compete and cooperate can bring about tremendous transformations in surprisingly short periods of time.  Again, this requires full exposure of performance data so that teammates can share expertise in their areas of strength, and learn from others in their areas of weakness.
It should be known that truly sharing performance data is more of a cultural issue than a technical one.  Today’s software will easily allow you to share your data, but can your organization survive the honesty?
In today’s global economy, perhaps you should ask yourself if your organization can survive anything but honesty.


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