Effectively Welcome New Team Members into your Data Culture

As you seek to embed learning into the everyday workflows of your higher ed team, one of the biggest challenges your organization likely faces is onboarding new people effectively.

Your programs are made up of many moving parts.

The background knowledge is complex.

How can you bring new people into the fold faster… for everyone’s sake?

Think back to when you were the newest member of a staff. There is always so much to learn. There’s all the new names, titles, acronyms, and dynamics of any office culture. (And no one loves acronyms more than higher ed, eh?)

If your team is aiming to create social change for students at an institution or non-profit-- think of all the knowledge about student development, institutional culture, local networks, logistics of different programs, theories behind how change occurs, and on and on.

Traditionally, onboarding focuses on procedural knowledge and specific tools. However, a more impactful approach empowers new hires to become active participants in your data culture.

Here are 3 tips to for bringing a new team member into your organization’s data culture.

1.     Make the basics easy to learn.

Create explainer slides that offer an invitation to understand the basics for key projects.

I trained as an academic where I learned how to make basic concepts infinitely complex. These days I’ve come to believe the most valuable skill is explaining complex ideas in ways anyone can understand. When I support organizations with their knowledge management, I look for aspects of their mission or programs that everyone seems to have a hard time explaining and try to create a visual or metaphor to bridge the understanding gap.

If you work at an organization where onboarding new team members requires too long a lead time, consider creating a series of explainer videos or slides. Taking the time to clarify important programs will benefit everyone on your team. You may think Bill in accounting knows how the community-college support program works, but he could probably use a refresher as much as the new team member. And just think of the benefits to your team when they can more easily explain a program to community members, funders, and even their friends at a cocktail party.

In a PowerPoint or an infographic, answer five questions for each program:

1.     Community. Who do we serve?

2.     People. Who works on this project?

3.     Context. Where does the work take place?

4.     Aim. What are we working towards?

5. Outcomes. What has happened with the program thus far?

Even better: record a 3-minute video of the person who knows the program best describing these slides, using a platform like Loom. The hardest part will be avoiding the weeds. At all costs: keep it simple.

2.     Learn alongside the newest team member.

Map out the entry points in your data culture.

Mission-driven teams can make learning easier for new team members by cultivating a data culture-- a culture where everyone on the team is always asking questions, seeking new knowledge, and learning together at intentional intervals how the work of the organization is unfolding.

If you jump into a team that has already clarified their mission, goals, and how they are measuring program outcomes regularly, your roadmap towards understanding what the heck is going on will be infinitely clearer.

As you map out an onboarding plan for your newest hire, at what points in the first week, month, and even six months will the team already incorporate learning from data? How can the newest team member be invited to participate intentionally?

·      Do you have a weekly staff meeting where data-informed decision-making will be modeled?

·      Is there a quarterly “data party” or brown-bag lunch where the team will be inviting others to discuss data?

·      After an event your team is hosting could the new team member be included in creating a “learning artifact” that will be shared with participants to continue the conversation?

[If you’d like to see examples of any of these, please reach out.]

A new hire is the perfect time to map out when and how your team is engaging with data in ways that contribute to continuous improvement.

Encourage a culture of open communication where new hires (and everyone else) feels comfortable asking questions and seeking clarification on data concepts

3.     Invite the newest team member to contribute their fresh perspective.

Treat new team members as learning partners.

Welcoming a new hire offers a golden opportunity for existing team members to refresh their knowledge, gain new perspectives, and strengthen their teamwork abilities.

·      A new team member offers fresh eyes and new ideas, untainted by establish routines. They might ask questions or suggest approaches that challenge the status quo, sparking innovation and creativity within the team.

·      Encourage new team members to share their expertise in areas where they might have specific knowledge or experience. This fosters a two-way learning street and leverages the diverse strengths of the team.

·      If your newest team member doesn’t understand a concept, it is likely that you need to develop a simpler explanation for others as well. Rather than proving how much they already know, encourage a new hire to offer insight into areas where ideas could be simplified for outside audiences.

·      By embracing a learning mindset and viewing new hires as valuable knowledge resources, you can transform onboarding from a one-way street to a collaborative learning experience. This approach benefits not just the newest team member, but the entire team.

Sure, a new team member might not know all the specifics of your organization’s programming yet, but sometimes that’s a strength. A new team member not only brings skills and knowledge based on their own lived experiences; they also often offer a fresh perspective that should be lifted-up for team learning.

---> Share your experiences in the comments below! How do you integrate new staff members into your data culture?

For more tips on embedding data into the existing workflows of higher ed teams at institutions and non-profit organizations, subscribe to my newsletter. I’m so glad you’re here.