Many associations have a love/hate relationship with data and research. While recognizing its importance in providing insights for decision-making, staff may also feel overwhelmed by the challenge of collecting, understanding and interpreting the key information. However, incorporating a data strategy into your management approach does not need to be difficult or expensive. It does require forethought, planning, and sensitivity to the organization’s culture around decision-making.
Data is widely available to individuals and organizations. It can be gathered inexpensively from a myriad of secondary sources, such as government statistical portals, social media and universities, or your association’s database. You can also directly collect data to answer specific questions through surveys or interviews with your audience. Most associations tap into one or more of these sources. However, many forgo these valuable opportunities because they lack an organizational culture that supports data-driven decision-making.
How do you best fit data and research into your unique organization? To identify the best path forward to develop your data strategy, a loose typology of associations is presented below.
When an association avoids the use of data, sometimes this is due to a lack of comfort in the underlying meaning of the information. Or, the culture may be more oriented towards using instinct and experience for decision-making. In this case, strategic and tactical decisions often rely on the anecdotal experiences of volunteers and staff.
Out of all groups in this typology, the data-disdaining association may have the most to gain from strategically incorporating research and data. They frequently come around to the need for data to help validate a major decision facing the organization.
Tips for success
Most associations fall into this category. They tend to conduct research occasionally, either as part of a defined timetable, such as a needs assessment survey every three years, or on an as-needed basis, perhaps to inform a planning or goal-setting process. They may use the data and research purposefully or as an afterthought, but they tend to value it as a decision-making tool.
Data-informed associations place merit on objective information but may not have a well-defined data strategy. This could be the result of a lack of staff expertise or capacity, or simply because they have not yet prioritized mapping out existing and future data requirements to meet their research needs.
Tips for success
These associations integrate clearly defined data collection strategies and rely on data to inform decision-making. They devote greater staff and financial resources to their data collection efforts and benefit from having empirical evidence readily available when making decisions.
Unlike data-disdaining and data-informed associations, data-driven organizations typically have a high awareness of their institutional knowledge and the industry that it represents. Notably, this includes the ability to distinguish between what knowledge is strongly supported by empirical evidence and what is based on assumptions and anecdotes.
How does the data-driven organization succeed?
Data is widely available to associations. However, the key to its effective utilization frequently hinges on the organization and its comfort level with research—rather than the expense or effort of data collection itself. Understanding your organizational culture can help your association maximize its research efforts to make informed decisions that drive success.
Are you interested in creating or revitalizing your association’s research and data strategy plan? Get in touch to learn more, and find out how we can help deliver a research solution that works for you.