Data, data, data, everyone keeps talking about data. And for good reason. It’s an incredibly useful tool for understanding our world, responding to it and even changing it. As always, there are good and bad ways to view and deal with data. Data can be used to figure out the best way to get fresh food into the inner city or it can be used to convince you that a diet based on mac and cheese out of a box is a good thing. Data is merely a tool, a neutral entity that can be used to accomplish whatever the user desires, good or bad.
The difference in how one uses data depends a lot on one’s particular perspective on what that data represents. It is easy to view data only as a collection of ones and zeros that can be shuffled around in whatever way you deem necessary to get what you want. When dealing in the digital realm, it is extremely easy to view it all as abstract, not connected to anything except what you want.
TARTLE has a different way of looking at data. It only seems abstract, in truth, it is incredibly real and concrete because at the end of every string of ones and zeros is a person. When you realize that, you undertand all of that data you are taking in and analyzing represents real people, their actions, their thoughts and desires. When you realize that all of that data is inextricably connected with real people, it should fundamentally change how you treat it. Rather than something to manipulate for your own ends, it should be treated with respect, something to help improve the lives of others.
That’s why TARTLE operates on a Sherpa model, we use our gifts and a talents not first and foremost to build our business but to help people achieve their own goals. Does that actually work though? Won’t that depress the bottom line? First, that is the wrong way to look at it. A company needs to make money, obviously. But the rate of profit doesn’t have to keep going up exponentially. That kind of outlook leads to exactly the kind of manipulative and short term thinking we are trying to change at TARTLE. Second, focusing on people first can actually increase the bottom line. When WD-40 had a change of leadership in the recent past, their stock wound up shooting up in value. Why? Because the new CEO saw problems in the culture of the company, it was focused on squeezing what it could out of what it already had. Instead, he put people first. That meant changing the way employees were treated and it meant making WD-40 available to more people around the world. He genuinely believed in the product and saw no reason it wouldn’t sell as well in India as it does in the US. Before long, the company’s value and profits started going up.
So, how does one change this mindset within a company? A recent article by S. Renee Smith has some thoughts on this.
Increase empathy – Remember that at the end of all that data are people, people with thoughts, feelings, and stories of their own. When you see people rather than numbers, it’s easier to exhibit basic virtues like compassion.
Engage listeners – Leaders are often caught up in their own bubbles. They spend time in meetings with peers or people directly working under them, or just at their desks buried in paperwork and phone calls. Even with the right mindset, they are still disconnected from the others in the workplace. They need to get out of the office and talk to the people out on the floor. They should learn those personal stories we mentioned above. This goes a long way to building credibility and more importantly keeps the leaders grounded in reality.
Inspire mission – It isn’t enough for leaders to be grounded. They need to lift people up. That means getting out there and working to inspire them. Remind them what the company’s mission is. If it doesn’t have one or it’s a bad one, then make a new one. One that isn’t focused inward but outward towards the greater world.
TARTLE is focused on this every day, working to build a world in which everyone recognizes that data is more than a tool, it’s a connection to people. A connection that when treated with to proper respect can be used to change the world.
What’s your data worth?
