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Shifting to Medium for Blog

Thank you to all of you who’ve followed this blog. I’m not stopping blogging, but I’ve become frustrated with WordPress and am posting my new blogposts on Medium. Please follow me there until I can decide what to do with the content from this site as part of the relaunch of my website.

Leadership is About Influence

Listening this morning to Janice Marturano speak with Sharon Salzberg on her Metta Hour podcast, she articulated something beautiful about leadership:

Leadership is about influence.

A leader embodies the attitudes, habits, and characteristics that comes to define those who follow them. Applying this more specifically to data-driven leadership, something near and dear to me: If we want our…

Putting a Data Leader in their Place

I’ve been interested a lot recently in what it means to be a data leader. I had the opportunity this week to have a wonderful class with the participants in the recent cohort of the Leadership Institute, sponsored by the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services. Called Leveraging Analytics, we were intentionally provocative in asking them what these 25 leaders from across various…

In Praise of Documentation: An Addendum

As I pointed out in a previous post, documenting work is important, and I gave a few tips. One thing I missed, but was helpfully pointed out in class today, is being able to reference the great work you’ve done when you need to do it again. Learn a great technique? Great! Document it and you’ll be able to do it again when you encounter a similar problem. It’s how you grow and develop instead of…

Innovation is an Action, Not a Thing

I’ve been intrigued recently with innovation, particularly in government. I don’t think the nature of innovation is different in different organizations, but my concern is with how government operates (as I believe all citizens should).

The most important point is to recognize innovation is an action not a thing. Something may be innovative, but it isn’t innate in the application, the process, or…

What is a Data Leader?

We talk often about being data driven and I don’t think there’s anyone who sincerely desires to completely ignore all data that comes their way, but I’ve come to learn there are some key defining characteristics of those who are able to effectively employ data in how they lead. These include:

Discerning fact from opinion.Some people see the two as equivalent, but a good data leader will be able…

The Value of Brevity

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s wonderful little blog posts after hearing him interviewed by Krista Tippett. It’s made me re-evaluate how I blog (particularly today’s blogpost), which is very time-intensive and dense. I’m assuming from the lack of engagement that people just don’t have the time to read them or find the content as fascinating as I do, so I’m shifting my approach to more…

Data Driven Government Mini-Lesson

I get asked a lot in my classes what it means to be data driven. And while there are plenty of examples, here’s a little mini-example I hope will demonstrate something of what it means to be data-driven in government.

The Guardian recently had an interesting feature piece on the issue of walkability. A key feature for walkable communities is the presence of sidewalks. In the article, which notes…

Building Empathy with Data

I recently taught several classes with managers from the NYC Administration for Children’s Services. These folks are near and dear to my heart. Coming from a social sciences background and having experience as a social worker, I have sympathy for their hard and often thankless work.

I also appreciate the unique perspective those in the social sciences and social services bring to the debate about…

In Praise of Documentation

Too often we do great analysis but it’s a flash in the pan, a snowflake of inspiration that is almost impossible to recapture. That’s why I’d like to offer a few basic thoughts on documenting analytical work, particularly if you’re using a tool like Microsoft Excel:

Save a clean copy of the data. Note the source of the data and any parameters used to filter the data from that source.

If this is…

The Challenge of Innovation in Government

In my experience, innovation in government is something everyone wants but few actually understand. And doing the work of bringing innovation to government is hard. By design, government is meant to be dependable for the basic essential services that make life possible, collecting trash, educating kids, and enforcing the laws. This stability creates a culture valuing unchanging consistency as a…

My 6 Key Takeaways from the Summit on Data-Smart Government

I just finished a day and a half in the company of some of the most interesting people in government, chief data officers and their performance management peers. The occasion was the first Summit on Data-Smart Government, sponsored by the Civic Analytics Network. While there were many great and interesting discussions, here is a short description of the 6 key things I’m taking away from these…

My 8 Takeaways from the ACS Data Users Conference

As a Census data nerd, I’ve been geeking out with the rest of my tribe during each American Community Survey (ACS) Data Users Conference. Each one has been a fun and interesting experience, with insider experiences about the challenges and opportunities in using Census data. I use this inside information for the benefit of my clients, who often want to use Census data to make better policy and…

10 Takeaways from TICTeC 2017

This was my first time coming to The Impacts of Civic Technology Conference (TICTeC). While I’ve worked around open data and civic technology for several years now in New York City, I only heard about it right before last years conference and didn’t know what to expect.

What I experienced was a community that is not only passionate about the possibilities in leveraging technology to meet the…

Brainstorming: In Defense of Broad Participation

For almost 3 years now, I’ve been developing and facilitating brainstorming sessions for public sector clients to understand data-related problems. In that time, I’ve never seen a person who shouldn’t have been in the room or didn’t have something to contribute, but I’ve always had someone say “We should ask {insert team} about that” or “I wish {insert colleague name} was here.” Their absence is…

Chief Data Officer – Getting Started

I’ve been thinking recently about the job of a Chief Data Officerand what it would mean to come into an organization to perform this role. Whether there has been a previous CDO or not, in my experience helping government agencies get a handle on the data they collect and use, the key first task is to understand the people and the systems the organization runs on. This knowledge is locked up in…

Training Site Now Live!

We just consolidated more of my training material into the new http://training.datapolitan.com. Check it out and let me know if you have any feedback. We’re in the process of migrating our training content online, including lecture slides and other materials. To teach openness and transparency means being open and transparent, and I hope these materials are helpful to others wishing to teach the…