Using Data to Persuade: State Your Case & Prove It

1. A S S E S S M E N T Using Data to Persuade:State Your Case & Prove It Denise Troll Covey Principal Librarian for Special Projects Carnegie Mellon LAMA Preconference: Got Data, Now What? June 2004 – Orlando, FL

2. Administrators want • Satisfied users who are lifelong learners • Peer comparisons that look good • Cost-effective management • Fund raising What Do TheyWant? • Users want • Easy, speedy, convenient access to quality resources • Affective, effective service • Comfortable, aesthetic space

3. What is a “Culture of Assessment”? • Beliefs, behaviors, & assumptions that drive an ongoing cycle of data gathering, analysis, interpretation, organization, presentation, & use • Demonstrate contribution & accountability • Identify problems that impair or impede contribution • Monitor & facilitate continuous improvement • Provide evidence of need

4. Assessment Scene Investigation (ASI) • Academic libraries (2002) • Denise Troll Covey: Usage & Usability Assessment: Library Practices & Concerns (CLIR report 105) • Public libraries (2002) • Larry Nash White: Does Counting Count: An Evaluation Study of the Use and Impact of Performance Measurement in Florida Public Libraries • CRIME: “orphaned data & knowledge” • Negligence: Intentionally created, but of little or no use to library & its stakeholders because of ineffective processes that result in delayed analysis & presentation • Harm: Waste resources; reduce benefits; raise costs; veil challenges; obstruct opportunities; hurt morale

5. Allowing a gap between our current culture & our objectives; the current culture is winning CURRENT Beliefs Behaviors Assumptions Transition DESIRED Beliefs Behaviors Assumptions Conner, D.R. Managing at the Speed of Change. NY: Villard, 1992. What Are We Doing? • Muddling through: using short term solutions to solve long term problems Project for the Future of Higher Education

6. What do we need to do? • Need to transform higher education • Create a vision focused on student learning, quality of faculty work life, & reduced cost per student • Gather & USE data to create deep change • Implement the vision via creativity & collaboration • Improve effectiveness, efficiency, & value • Promote operational culture of evidence EDUCAUSE National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII)

7. Assessmentis like teaching pigs to dance. The results aren’t pretty & it just irritates the pigs. No pain, no gain Assumptions • No assessment, no transformation • No transformation without resistance

8. Assessment Requires Persuasion • Problem or opportunity exists • Need to conduct research • What kind of study • Who should be involved • How to interpret the data • What to recommend based on the data • Getting support for your recommendations

9. Persuasion is an Art • Using discourse to effect thought & action • Convince – agree that your argument is reasonable • Persuade– motivate action based on conviction • Elements of the rhetorical situation • Problem or opportunity that invites change • Audience capable of mediating the change • Constraints that can be manipulated to effect change

10. How You Begin . . . • Problem or opportunity is WHY you gather data • Controls audience to be addressed • Controls change to be effected • Audience is WHOM you gather data for • Those with power to mediate the change you want

11. Problem + Audience = Purpose • What research questions must be answered to • Solve problem or take advantage of opportunity? • Focus, facilitate or demonstrate achievement? • Decide WHAT data you need to gather to answer THESE questions for THIS audience given your CONSTRAINTS

12. http://www.csus.edu/portfolio/ Gather WHAT Data? • Good enough data for your purpose • Inputs – potential to provide service • Outputs – actual service provided • Outcomes – what good you do • Performance – how well you do Efficiency Effectiveness Satisfaction Quality Usability

13. Examine Your Constraints • Time, money, people, & skills • Constrain research & sampling methods • Commitment to use the results • Incentive, motivation, & credibility • Audience (see handout) • What’s their culture? • What do they know or think they know that’s relevant? • What do they need to know or care about? • What triggers their sense of urgency?

14. Time – to state your case & prove it • The higher up the food chain you go, the less time you seem to have with your audience Other Constraints • Rhetoric – discourse designed to engage & motivate the audience to mediate change • Rhetor – who creates & delivers the discourse

15. Got Data, Now What? • Analyze – compile & examine for tendencies • Interpret – decide what the data mean • Tentatively plan how to use the data & knowledge • Organize & present the data & knowledgeto tell a story that will engage & motivate your audience to confirm the plan & mediate the change you want

16. Tell the Right Story to the Right People • Data are part of the story • The rest is rhetorical argument • Convey the urgency of the situation • Start with premises accepted by the audience • Use data, knowledge, & strategy to build your case • Persuade the audience to accept your conclusions • Strength of case is determined by audience

17. Tell the Right Story the Right Way • Beginning – State your case in their terms • Middle – Prove it in a crescendo of evidence-based arguments (plot) that convey urgency, address objections, & build a case that fits or alters their worldview • End – state proposed plan & your “ask” • By the time you reach your “ask,” the audience must be persuaded

18. Leverage Existing Data & Knowledge • Develop & strengthen your story using all available evidence • Previous internal assessments & visitor reports • Standards, guidelines, & best practices • Comparative data with peers • Environmental scan • Relevant research

19. Fundamental Strategies • Association – connect your data & knowledge with what your audience knows & cares about • To be persuasive, your data & claims must be consonant with your audience’s knowledge at the time • Dissociation – separate your data & knowledge from what they mistakenly believe or assume • Predict & address resistance & objections

20. EXAMPLE • Problem requiring discourse to change: Undergraduate students are using inappropriate resources for their coursework • Audiences able to mediate change • Faculty • Provost • Reference librarians • University Advancement

21. Undergraduates • Want easy, speedy, convenient access • Remote access to full text resources • More & easier to use online resources • More books • Library web site is problematic • Physical library & ILL are inconvenient • 43% never use reference service • 14% never heard of reference service

22. Undergraduate Behaviors & Beliefs • Value efficiency more than effectiveness • 96% believe info on the surface web is adequate • 80% prefer remote access to information • 72% begin with a search engine • 48% use online resources all or most of the time • 46% believe other web sites are better than library • Spend 33% of their study time in a library Research by Outsell, OCLC, Pew Foundation, & the EDNER Project (UK)

23. “Ask”: Digital Reference Automated Resource Finder • Email & chat reference • Web based tool to easily locate appropriate online library resources Initial funding from private donor

24. “Ask”: Million Book Project • Digitize & provide open access to a million books on the surface web Initial funding from NSF & the governments of India & China

25. Thank you! An ounce of pretension is worth a pound of manure. B. Holton. Leadership Lessons of Robert E. Lee. NY: Gramercy Books, 1995. Denise Troll Covey troll@andrew.cmu.edu