Try this and let me know how it goes for you.

Getting clear on why you’re collecting data shifts your organization from being reactive to proactively data driven.

You know why you’re collecting data. You may even have data. What do you do with it?

Let’s try data sense making.

Data sense making is a partnership, guided by listening, collaboration, curiosity, and perspective sharing. Gather around and let’s try this activity.

This activity is ideal for:

What you’ll need:

  • A setup conducive to capturing ideas (laptop, pen and paper, whiteboard, etc.). Make sure your notes are kept in a place where you can refer back to
  • Depending on the size of the evaluation, allocate between 1 – 3 hours of time for your session
  • Consider the time of the session and the lives of the participants

The steps:

  • Pick a date: Your session should be after you’ve collected and analyzed the data AND before you draft the evaluation final report
  • Invite participants to join: Identify the different stakeholder groups you want to attend. Ideally, each stakeholder groups will be equally represented. Also, offer ways to increase engagement, such as travel reimbursement (if you’ll be in-person), childcare, etc. if you plan to have a virtual session, take into account virtual considerations. For example, you’re engaging students and parents, so consider times and settings that are more conducive to their circumstances
  • Have the dataset ready: It’s important to have the data summarized for key themes beforehand. If possible, send the dataset out so that participants can see it before the session begins
  • State the purpose: In the session invitation and during the start of the session, explain the purpose of the sense making session and expectations for everyone’s participation. Also, mention how their perspectives will be used for the development of the final evaluation report
  • Plan out the engagement: If you have more than 8 participants, consider break out groups of 4-5 participants. Also, consider mixing stakeholder types in each group to highlight different perspectives. Have a staff member or an evaluation team member facilitate the discussion and take notes in each group  
  • Keep everyone engaged: From data placemats (document showing quantitative and qualitative data using visuals, graphs, word clouds), to rolling the dice or a World Cafe, use various approaches to share the data’s main findings

During the session, participants will respond to the following questions using the data:

  • What is the data telling you?
  • Is there anything about the data that surprises you?
  • Does the data confirm what you already know?
  • What is missing that you thought you would see?
  • Name an action you would take as a result of this data?

What other questions would you ask?

Let’s process:

A data sense making session is an opportunity for diverse stakeholders to collectively analyze data.

Sometimes called a “data party”, this session improves quality of how we interpret data, along with understanding what we’re looking at from various perspectives.

In most cases, the evaluation team collects, analyzes, and interprets data with minimal involvement from program staff or participants, which can lead to gaps in the interpretation and a missed opportunity when finalizing recommendations. Using a sense making process, the evaluator gives the data back to the stakeholders for their interpretation.

While there are no right or wrong ways to interpret data. If disagreements occur, consider probing to clarifying meaning. The goal is to encourage authentic co-creating and exploring new perspectives, and not gathering support for how the evaluator interpreted the data.

Key takeaway

Data sense making is a partnership between your organization, its stakeholders, and the evaluation team.

When stakeholders are included and actively engaged in analyzing data, it’s promotes evaluative thinking and helps your organization explore new ways of becoming data driven. Keep it fun and engaging, and make sure you highlight the session in your evaluation report.

As always, try this activity and let me know how it goes for you (or if you need support.)

Raise Your Voice: Do you facilitate data sense making sessions? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.

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