The Power of Questions
Why are people analytics professionals so inquisitive?
This post is directed to users (stakeholders) of people analytics solutions and insights rather than those who are building them.
Let’s start with an analogy. Can you imagine going to the doctor and telling them what medicine and procedures you need? Telling them exactly the treatments you need and what they should include in the prescriptions? Not a chance.
Rather, we trust their judgement and extensive experience. We describe our symptoms and problems so that the doctor can make a proper diagnosis. I would be very suspicious of a doctor who didn’t ask any questions and simply gave me whatever I asked for. I want them to have all the facts so that I get the best treatment.
This analogy describes what you would want from an expert people analytics professional (the doctor in this case). When I have a stakeholder who comes to me with a very prescriptive list of the exact data (prescriptions) they want, I feel like a doctor who has a patient telling them what to do.
Rather than tell me the data they want, I want stakeholders to describe the business questions that they have or the business problems they are trying to solve (the symptoms). I need to ask a lot of questions to understand the context, how the data is being used, and the decisions they are trying to make. All the questions are necessary to arrive at the best possible solution using the data.
I’ve had situations where colleagues are annoyed when I want to slow things down and ask a series of questions. They want me to provide data or throw an analysis over the fence as quickly as possible. On the other hand, I’ve had countless situations where I’ve been able to provide a solution far more powerful and efficient than what the stakeholder had in mind. They didn’t even know what was possible to do with the data.
The probing people analytics professional is not being intrusive, just as we would not say the probing doctor is intrusive. It may be uncomfortable at times to answer all the questions, but it is necessary to get to the best possible solution.
So rather than being annoyed at all the questions your people analytics professional is asking, see it as the sign of a true expert at work who wants to help you in the best way possible.
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