By Todd Benson
A provost at a COACHE partner institution recently asked me about the best strategies for disseminating data to faculty. Her team was weighing the risks and benefits of sharing all of the comparative data available in their COACHE report. Some in the group advocated for providing all of the data in the spirit of transparency. Others felt that too much data dissemination would drown out the story in the data or worse yet, create analysis-paralysis.
When it comes to making change — this provost rightly realized — leadership, communication, and transparency are always crucial elements for success. But too much information without the right context can be distracting for some and overwhelming for others. It’s vital to strike a balance between transparency and simply dumping all of the data into the laps of the faculty.
COACHE doesn’t have one specific practice that we deem best for dissemination. The decisions about transparency have to be rooted in the values and culture of each individual institution. For example, in a community where trust is a concern, I would lean toward greater transparency as a tool to assure faculty that nothing is being hidden from them.
However, from COACHE’s work with diverse institutions, I find these four principles serve as a framework for thinking about data transparency with faculty at your institution.
Principles for disseminating data
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Give faculty access to enough data to have robust conversations about the results. That can swing both ways — again, too much data can create distraction and too little data can cultivate a culture of mistrust, so strive for a balance between the two. Useful data points, and data comparisons or visualizations that tell a story, inform opportunities for progress or prompt useful discussions or reflections deserve the most focus. Sharing a whole lot of data without context largely creates noise — remember that most of your faculty won’t be statistics professors! This is a time to think about the conversations you hope to have with your faculty; let that guide the areas of focus in your dissemination.
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Explain your rationale to faculty. Let faculty know that your approach is intentional so that they understand your choices. That does not necessarily mean they will agree, but they will be able to see the process for how decisions were made. Unclear rationales create opportunities for conspiracy theories.
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Have a process for faculty who want to dig deeper. If faculty want to explore the data at a deeper level, ask them to help you understand why. In the best-case scenario, you’ll learn more about a faculty member’s interests and perhaps they will become your ally. You may find others ask, but don’t necessarily follow through. Knowing it is available is enough for them.
- Talk to your Institutional Research folks about their policies/practices for sharing data. In addition to being analysts and problem solvers, IR offices understand the culture around data at your institution. Your conversation with them won’t be their first rodeo in these spaces and they may have policies specific to your institution. Plus, they will most likely be responsible for implementation.
As you determine what data to disseminate, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Jeannie Kim or Todd Benson for further guidance and support.