I’m The Number
Chantel Wilson Chase - Science-based Insights Professional for the Human Experience, HX, CX, EX
photo credit: Mikael Blomkvist
It always comes back to a person, doesn’t it?
As someone who has spent decades in data, I’ve acquired a sixth sense, if you will, in reading data. I can do all sorts of fun correlations in my head in record time. When I was little, I used to do tricks with numbers. Add time, or page numbers, or the odometer – anything really – down to a single digit. I would play in different bases in my head (in addition to base 10). And of course, there is the magical number 9. You could have loads of fun with just that one number.
And for years I thought everything revolved around numbers - there were metrics, KPIs, and ROIs. I just had to get the number right. Whatever I perceived that was. The process stopped there. With the number. And in a small way, that’s still how I operate. I still think in numbers. I still translate everything I work on to data. I NEED a number to be involved. Only now, I translate my numbers back - to people.
There is a greater denominator (if you will pardon the math term). It’s people. It’s always been the people.
They affect the numbers. They impact the ROI. The KPI. The NPS. People not only calculate the metric – but shape the final number.
In a world where there can be real worry of being automated right out of a job, take heed. It always comes back to you. To me. To us. And I can give loads and loads of example on why – in a data driven world – people still must come first.
Here’s just one of thousands of examples I could offer up:
You want better patient care? Who doesn't? This feels like a universal yes. Well, did you know that as employee engagement improves, so does patient care AND, so do profits? In fact, hospital ratings and profits climb with better employee engagement and nurse communication (Press Ganey analysis of 2017 HCAHPS data). Harvard Business Review tidies it up nicely.
I used to think of my numbers as rather distant and impersonal. I could calculate and recode in a world void of people. I could code for hours without ever thinking of a person. Not for a minute.
As the years go by, I realize just how off base I was.
We are the common denominator.
Please keep listening and looking at data in ever-evolving ways.