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8 OUR LIFE • March-April 2023 Imagine we are playing a word association game, and I call out the word "data." What is the first thing that comes to mind? Do you think of numbers, spread - sheets, or databases? But what if I challenged you to imagine that spread - sheets and databases of rows and columns hold the potential to be transformed to tell a story of human behavior, help drive change, and speak to the impact of an organization? The reality is that data encompasses many aspects of our everyday life. For example, we walk into a super - market to pick up a carton of milk. As we scan the carton at checkout, the inventory system records the purchase, which alerts the warehouse manager to replenish the product on the shelf. For decades, transaction information stopped there, as it was pri - marily used for back-office record-keeping. But today, our purchase record travels beyond the inventory sys - tem to singlehandedly shape every aisle of our stores, from assortment to strategic product placement. Supermarkets study their patrons' purchase history and shopping habits to make informed decisions in stocking their shelves with products of preferred di - etary specifications, brand types, and price points – ultimately catering to their customers, ensuring that we return not only for our carton of milk but also for the other products we discovered along the way, thus cultivating a lasting customer relationship. Whether we are buying milk, selecting a movie on a streaming service, or liking a post on a social me - dia platform, each action is a piece of information, a valuable data point, recorded by companies to (1) continuously learn about their customers and (2) use insights to improve services, simultaneously enhanc - ing the user experience while driving brand revenue. Today, it is difficult to name an organization that is not leveraging data to gain a competitive edge in making informed decisions, responding to change, and driv - ing innovation. A data-driven organization has two characteristics: (1) it recognizes the value of our in - formation and (2) it uses that data as an asset to seek new opportunities. Now, you may be thinking, what does my milk pref - erence have to do with the UNWLA? Just like leading corporations, non-profit organizations are pivoting toward developing a data-driven culture to better serve communities, evaluate resources, and strate - gize for the future. The UNWLA is no different; we hold the potential to employ gathered information to grow our membership, identify opportunities to establish new Branches, and illustrate the everlasting impact of our national initiatives. Socializing the Path to Becoming a Data-Driven Organization While membership growth, the establishment of new Branches, and better reporting sound great, we have to take a step back. Becoming a data-driven or - ganization requires a gradual mindset shift toward understanding how small changes in how we collect and view information will align with our organiza - tional goals and objectives. Therefore, before any organization can develop new reporting processes, it must first seek to educate members and leaders on how enacting any change will impact the organiza - tion's work over time. For instance, we are hosting an event and have a sign-in sheet at the entrance. This is a simple idea, but it holds great potential to gain detailed insight into the event’s guests. For example, depending on the fields created for the sign-in sheet, we can learn (1) which attendees are current members and (2) whether there are potential new members in the mix. And (3) if we collect emails, we have a point of contact for the future and the opportunity to culti - vate a relationship with new friends of our organiza - tion. Moreover, (4) tracking event attendance more diligently will allow us to compare participant num - bers among events; we will be able to see whether more or fewer individuals are attending, and thereby strategize for future events. The sign-in sheet is an example of how vital infor - mation collection is to the organization. To offer a comparison: We host an education event with 20 at - Roksolana Sheverack , Chair, UNWLA Research & Data Management Committee Rethinking Data What Іt Means to Be a Data-Driven Organization
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