Follow these 6 tips to maximize your data in NCSY and make informed decisions.
Despite what your mother and kindergarten teacher always told you, there are such things as stupid questions.
1) Ask Smart Questions.
Especially when it comes to data analysis, this holds very true. The key to using data to solve problems is to make sure you have the right data, but more importantly that you are asking the right questions.
Before going anywhere, running any report, or contacting anyone in the Data and Evaluation department, make sure you know first what you are trying to figure out and what you are trying to solve. You will discover that in many cases, the data that you're asking for won’t actually answer your question.
2) Ask questions that don’t require rocket science to quantify.
If you’re asking for numbers and metrics that are too complicated to explain to someone else, then you are probably doing something wrong. Any one metric should take no more than two sentences to summarize. Very often, you'll need to pull in a bunch of relatively simple metrics, look at them at once, and then realize which ones can work together to help you tell a story.
3) Consider your data in a global context.
Data cannot sit in a vacuum. You always need to take into account what facts might cause the data to be impacted. The sources of this tainting are often incomplete data, or just facts that haven't been considered. Failing to realize the significance of those variables will lead to wrong conclusions.
4) Consider your data in a local context.
The next step for our data is to dissect it with an eye towards detail of individual ‘units’ as opposed to the overall collective. This enables us to think of ideas that would explain the observations; enough such similar ideas would develop trends, that are necessary for action.
The key is to look at individual teens and events, and try to understand the numbers about the individual data points.
5) Practical action starts locally.
You need to start reacting to the individual observations. Test your theory on a case-by-case basis, and try to develop a pattern.
If a teen is not showing up to programs in between shabbatonim, try to call the teen right after the shabbaton and invite them to a Shabbat meal at your house. If that works, then try another teen, etc.
More important than the teens who agree to come to your program are the teens who do not want to come. Is there a unifying pattern among those teens who do not want to come?
6) Transform local action into policy decision.
Take the pattern of individual observations and create a program or policy around it.
If enough teens respond "yes" to the Shabbat meal invite, then create a policy that each advisor needs to invite teens to a Shabbat meal within the first two weeks after a shabbaton.
Then, “Rinse and repeat” - While the initiative is relatively new, ask for feedback from advisors to see if they can sense any patterns. If there are, then try to think of a new policy or plan to get the kids who are saying "no" to come.