Communication is Life! At Home and the Workplace...

The Most Undervalued Analytics Tool: Communication

                            

Communicating with your Team.

Often, analytics teams struggle to communicate even within their group. The communication problem may be a result of the organizational structure, such as decentralized analysts across an organization—or conflicting personality types.

Failure to communicate within a team can lead to inconsistent methodology among analysts, as well as duplication of work. For example, two stakeholders may approach two analysts for the same report or analysis. A failure to communicate may not only result in a waste of resources but also cause duplicate analyses with different results because of an inconsistent methodology. That procedural blunder typically wastes further resources to determine which information is accurate and to uncover why the data differ.

Here are five tips analysts should keep in mind when working in a team environment.

1. Talk to one another

The value of face-to-face conversation is sorely overlooked these days. Far too much communication takes place over email or via instant messaging. However, the complexity of analytics discussions means email is often not an ideal forum. A short, 10-minute meeting can quickly resolve what would otherwise require hours of back-and-forth discussion via email.

2. Schedule short, regular meetings

A quick daily check-in can work wonders. In just five or 10 minutes, analysts can discuss what they're working on, what they're struggling with, or what they've delivered recently. That can spur the "Wait, I completed something similar to that last month. Let me find it for you!" conversation, which can help reduce duplication of work or even allow analysts to help one another with challenges.

3. Keep documentation

Monitor and document your processes, data sets, and deliverables. Yes, doing so is boring and time-consuming; nevertheless, it's important.

4. Maintain a central repository

Having a central place to store analytics work, especially if you can tag the work by topic, allows analysts to search for related analyses. Even keeping a common Google Doc that lists the analyses the team has completed (with a brief description of each analysis) is extremely helpful.

5. 'Share' meetings

Consider hosting regular meetings for analysts to present findings from recent analyses. Such "share" meetings will provide insight into what other analysts are working on and give analysts a chance to practice their presentation skills.

As companies grow; as technology evolves; as consumers become more demanding; and as competitors get aggressive with marketing, staying updated on what your employees are working on becomes more difficult. Share meetings are a great way to get everyone on the same page.

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99.9% of problems (personal or work related) can be blamed on failure to communicate. That known, think about the consequences to making communication your #1 priority!