Using Data Visualization to Improve Decision Making

Using Data Visualization to Improve Decision Making

This past course I took with Brandman University for my school administrative credential dealt with data driven decision making. Part of that process was reviewing data from my school to create a school growth plan and visually representing the data for more efficient review and identification of needs. Although I am accustomed to data visualization and data discovery tools, I had never needed to create my own data visualization. Now that I have been through the process, I truly understand how powerful data visualization is to the improvement of decision making.

Humans are natural pattern detectors, and much more so with visual information. We process visual information exponentially faster than printed text, which is understandable considering our brains are designed to receive and process a visual world. Gutierrez (2014) states that 90% of information received by the brain is visual, we can process visual information in less than a tenth of a second, and our brains can pick up on visual information that it saw for only 13 milliseconds.

Studies and business application show that data visualization improves decision making in various ways. A study by the Aberdeen Group (White, 2013) indicated remarkable improvement when businesses utilized data discovery tools, software that allows individual users to interact and manipulate data. Organizational members were 22% more likely to initiate projects and drive solutions, and 48% of users were able to access information without the assistance of IT staff (White, 2013). Additionally, 74% of organizations reported data discovery tools allowed the organization to make changes to their analytic environment, and managers of companies that utilize data discovery tools were 47% more likely to share data through annotations, charts, and reports (White, 2013).

Gentile (2014) and Gutierrez (2014) discuss the various ways data visualization improves decision making, which essentially boils down to this: appeal, patterns, language, interaction, and speed. Data visualization represents the data graphically or pictorially, so the information becomes more narrative. It also allows the brain to digest the information much more quickly than in text form, so trends can be quickly identified and acted upon. Data discovery tools allow users to interact with and manipulate data, again making data decision making quicker and more relational.

Overall, I'm sold on data visualization. As a future administrator, I will make every effort to utilize these tools to empower my staff and our data driven decision making.

Kick Out Complacency and Begin to Change

I started my fifteenth year of teaching in August at a crossroads. For several years I have become complacent with my career, but I've been debating whether complacency is a bad thing. It seemed somewhat comforting to be able to do my job so well that it's automatic, although upon further reflection I knew deep down that I'm not really doing my job that well anymore, especially since full implementation of Common Core in our district. Honestly, I've just been hanging on to the hope that all those strategies and skills I had successfully developed as a teacher under the old California standards would transfer over to teaching Common Core, but proof is in the pudding, and my students' SBAC scores are far from the scores I saw with STAR testing. Taking testing out of the equation, I just haven't had the fervor for teaching I had in the past.

At some point between August and November, I realized I can't continue this way--that I need a change, and that prompted me to enroll in Brandman University's Educational Leadership and Administrative program. Now, my ultimate goal is to become an administrator, but "in the meantime" is really important because I'm shedding the complacency and looking at my effectiveness as a teacher in a critical and response way. Complacency doesn't allow me to do that, and what I'm finding amazing is that it only takes one leap of faith to make others start questioning their complacency.

In finishing my first two courses for this program, I've revisited the concepts of leadership that I packed away after undergraduate and graduate studies in psychology and education. Two concepts that really stand out for me are change and leadership because in a complacent environment both are really difficult to make happen. In his book Leading Change, John Kotter (2012) points out nine sources of complacency in the workplace: no visible crisis, too many visible resources, low overall performance standards, focus on narrow goals, focus on the wrong performance indexes, lack of sufficient feedback, a low-confrontation culture, human nature, and over-optimism from senior management (p. 41). I have to say that in August I could personally identify with the majority of these reasons, and although they are reasons that complacency exists, they are not reasons that complacency should continue.

So how do you go about creating change for yourself and ultimately your environment?

Take a look at this quick video about creating change:

Now, I know this may seem a little drastic, but it outlines the point I'm going to make, which is creating change means creating a vision for yourself, a vision that goes beyond the comfort of complacency. Two ways to overcome complacency are to "embrace creativity" and "help someone else achieve" (Hanley, 2014). Vision needs creativity, and if complacency has a stronghold, you may need to latch on to someone else's vision and help that person achieve. Leadership is a by-product of both methods of overcoming complacency, which leads back to my decision to enter the MAELA program and making a change for myself as a professional. I have created a vision of my future and how I can impact education, and I want to help other educators be successful so their students are successful. The best way to do that is to kick out complacency and begin to change.

Hanley, R. (2014, January 08). 7 easy ways to overcome complacency and make good on your resolutions. Retrieved March 05, 2016, from http://murraygrp.com/7-easy-ways-overcome-complacency/

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Kulbokas, T. (2011, April 6). How to start a movement. Retrieved March 05, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olAnAxAz9RE