Getting leadership buy-in: Challenges and effective approaches
What we learned from our April nonprofit datafolk club
Every month we host a workshop for our Nonprofit Datafolk Club. It’s a relaxed, interactive online event where data folk with varied roles and experiences get together to chat about data in nonprofits. Each session focuses on a specific topic, and we usually pose three broad questions.
At our April datafolk club, we discussed the topic ‘Getting leadership buy-in’.
We asked attendees about what kind of relationship nonprofit leaders had with data; difficulties attendees had encountered when trying to get leaders to buy into the importance of data; and approaches that they had found effective for getting leadership buy-in.
Perceptions and challenges
Every leader is different
When asked how they would describe the relationship of nonprofit leaders with data, everyone agreed that attitudes to data vary between leaders and between organisations. A leader's relationship to data may depend on their general interest in and comfort around data, the time and money they invest into data, their willingness to ask questions about the data, and how open they are to incorporating data into the organisation.
However, there were some common themes that appeared in our discussions:
Leaders struggle to make time for data
Leaders are busy people and it can be difficult to carve out the time to discuss data, especially if you want to get into all the nuances that data holds. Leaders are sometimes only interested in data if the message is brief and easily relayed to funders and partners.
Leaders can get stuck on data protection
The word ‘data’ often makes people's brains go straight to data protection, which is generally seen as being boring or scary. It also means that leaders may tend towards locking data down, rather than seeing it as an asset the organisation can use to answer questions. This is one of the key barriers people experienced when trying to get leaders on board with data.
Leaders can find it hard to admit that they don’t understand
Being in roles in which they carry a high level of authority and responsibility, some leaders can find it difficult to admit when they don’t understand data that is presented to them; the tools used to collect, store, analyse or visualise that data; or why it is important to collect it in the first place.
Others may have a degree of understanding around data which can make them believe they know more than they actually do, and they then make promises at a leadership level that can’t be delivered on (or not within the desired timeframe).
Some leaders also simply trust in their own experiences, and don’t see why data is needed to back this up.
Participants agreed that the easiest leaders to work with were those who admitted what they didn’t know, and were happy to come to the data team as a first port of call.
Leaders may be invested in telling a particular story
One person observed that often if a leader has a positive relationship with data, that can be a result of data confirming or validating an existing bias or belief. If the data says what the leader wants it to, they see it as a useful tool, but if it challenges beliefs or practices then it can be difficult and uncomfortable to engage with.
Often there is pressure to tell the most positive story, especially if the data is needed for funding purposes, and it can be difficult to resist selective reporting. This links to the difficulty of evidencing impact. We discussed the long-term project that is creating a theory of change, and the complicated task of translating output data into outcome data.
We discussed how, if data is simply used to ‘look good’ or prove a point and there is no background infrastructure, then it will not have a long-lasting positive effect. So there is a difficult balance of looking for truth and looking for what you want to find.
Effective approaches for getting leadership buy-in around data
Delivering quick wins
Quick wins came up several times as a technique to help in securing leadership buy-in. Having a bad experience with data - such as a data product that doesn’t work, or data that tells leaders something they don’t want to hear - can put a person off data discussions.
Sometimes you need to provide something (with a level of integrity) that leaders want to see to get them on board, and then you can lead up to more difficult conversations. It is also useful to have some ‘low hanging fruit’ identified when seeking investment in long-term data collection that requires patience in order to see results.
Building relationships
One key piece of advice shared was to target specific individuals in leadership positions who are key to have on board. Given that leaders are often time-limited, this may require giving the same presentation/pitch several times, rather than being able to get everyone together in one room. Although this may feel like a lot of repetitive work, building these individual relationships means you can work on data solutions for things they care about and may increase your chances of success.
Having these connections can also help to give you an ‘inside scoop’ to what is taking place above your level. It can prevent you from working on something that won’t be accepted or used for reasons that are beyond your ability to influence. One attendee gave the example of creating a brilliant dashboard that then wasn’t used for political reasons that they hadn’t been aware of.
Also - target the ‘numbers people’! Even if their role isn’t directly in data, if they work with numbers they will probably be easy to get on board.
Encouraging leaders to ask questions
Attendees agreed it is important for leaders to be able to say “I don't know” and ask questions - both of the data itself, and of the data-people.
As a data person in an organisation, you can help to cultivate an environment where leaders feel able to ask questions. Different approaches may work to do this - small meetings and workshops, 1-1 conversations. Think about whether it will work better as a casual chat or a meeting people can prepare for.
Attendees discussed how it is difficult as you need to educate people in a way where they don't feel like you are trying to educate them - a tricky balance, especially with those in more senior positions than yourself.
Focusing on the purpose of the data
Once a leader becomes interested in data, they might say “show me everything!” - as it’s exciting to unlock this host of possibilities. But this can quickly result in wild goose chases and an overwhelmed data team. It can be helpful to encourage leaders to focus. What questions do they want to ask? To help them make what decisions? And what data do you need to collect to answer these questions? Data Action Stories are a helpful way to start this dialogue and frame discussions.
Join the Nonprofit Datafolk Club
If you found this resource interesting, or if you have any curiosity in nonprofit data more generally, please come join us on the 2nd Thursday of every month at 1-2pm. Each month has a different topic, and you will be able to find the details on our events page.
Previous topics have included: