Analytics Overview

In any organization, there are multiple problems and various challenges of different timescales and competing priorities. Tackling these problems using the proper methods – whether it be measured by stability, growth, or another measure – is one of the keys to organizational success. In the past decade or so, one method to solve these issues are “analytics”. This technique is the application of mathematical, statistical, and in some cases, computer science methods to business issues. Recently, analytics has been the purview of data scientists, the profession that straddles the field between statistics and computer science. Data scientists typically wrangle large amounts of data from a variety of sources, prepare these data (correct, clean, fix, etc.) for analysis, develop and apply myriad analytic techniques (sometimes statistical, sometimes computer science, but usually both) to the data, and produce insights that illuminate the crucial components of the challenge.

These insights can be statistics. They can be textual. They can be simple or complex. They can integrate simple statistics with complex text. The fundamental component, however, is that these insights must be able to directly address an organization’s problems and challenges. Merely throwing more data scientists at the problem has been tried many times and does not work. The data scientists must first understand the problems and challenges the organization faces, and then craft analytics that deals specifically with them. Neither the most complicated machine learning algorithm that levers the latest advances in nonlinear dynamics nor a large table containing dozens of numbers means anything if they do not address the organizations’ fundamental issues and lead to actionable insights.

Most importantly, however, is to realize that analytics is not the last stage in the solution. Instead, analytics are most effective when they support the story, solution, or strategy that the organization is trying to promote. Analytics, and the data that underlie them, are the framework on which success can be built – they are not an end result in themselves.

We have developed analytics that supports the measurement of successful learning management in our online structured learning environments. Through structured dialogue, we have created and delivered the premiere platform for leadership development and executive education. Our analytics are designed to understand and improve both change and organizational learning and provide the framework for data-driven solutions to organizations’ challenges. We help you answer critical questions:

Do your leaders have the right skills?
Are we getting future leaders ready fast enough?
Are leaders aligned around a common vision and moving in a synchronized way toward the most critical objectives?
Are we building the leaders we need?

What We Believe

Dialogue is the key

Dialogue between leaders produces not only shared understanding, alignment, and buy-in, but a rich data stream from which to tell whether your leadership team is prepared to lead or not.

Unobtrusive is better

“Smile sheets”, surveys, and completion rates can be useful. But multiple sources of data drawn from conversations, behavior over time, and outcomes ‘on the ground’ are better.

Track over time

The only way to truly know whether leadership is changing or improving is to measure, track, and encourage it over time.

Connect the dots

The ultimate goal is to ‘connect the dots’ between what a company is doing to develop its leaders, how strong or weak they are, and business outcomes. We help clients measure those relationships so that they can allocate resources better while gaining peace of mind on their most important asset- their leadership teams.

What We Measure

For a leadership team to succeed in implementing a new idea (or an even an old one), a number of things must be in place: Engagement – They must engage with the idea—reading about it, analyzing it, reflecting on it, discussing it. Understanding – They must understand it—deeply—and have the knowledge and skills to implement that understanding. Advocacy – They must believe in it, changing their hearts and minds and becoming advocates for change. Barriers and Solutions – They must see problems and preemptively identify their solutions as an integrated unit. Follow Through – And finally, they must act as an integrated unit- implementing the game plan over time as one team. We measure each of these factors using multiple methods and sources of data so that our clients can see whether or not their programs are creating these conditions, and in turn, whether those conditions are moving the company forward. Learn more about our measurements.

Leaders in Learning and Development and HR are tasked with demonstrating the value of training programs and understanding the effect of learning across the business enterprise. Measuring the business impact of learning is essential in knowing whether your intended model for training is working; being able to report on training effectiveness; providing the basis for decision-making and continuous improvement in learning transformations, and laying the foundational elements to promote continued organizational change. Learning impact measurement and analytics represent a tremendous opportunity for differentiation in work-based, online learning.

Because most online learning is taken alone, there is rarely discourse (verbal or written exchange of ideas: conversation) to analyze. As the underlying theory of our company is sociocultural, the dialogue can take forms such as problem-solving, idea generation, and knowledge sharing. Our Analytics are a pioneering approach to learning impact measurement; its most powerful innovation comes from discourse analysis performed by machines and humans and is at the core of our differentiation in the marketplace.

While driving new organizational capabilities at scale, building competence while strengthening commitments and changing cultures, Our learners are solving complex business problems, creating and sharing new knowledge, spanning geographical and divisional boundaries, and aligning and working together.