Avoid the “Deer in the Headlights” Reaction: Humanize Your BA Assessment Findings.

by Kitty Hass and Lori Lindbergh, PhD

When presenting assessment findings to clients, we often see a silence come over the audience and experience a blank stare that we call the “deer in the headlights” reaction. What we are finding, however, is that this reaction is not uncommon and can be challenging to overcome. Many business professionals are unable to develop a connection with statistics and data analyses.

As assessment experts and business analysis professionals, crunching numbers, calculating statistics, and thinking analytically are important capabilities we need to be successful in our jobs. We must remember, however, that our passion about the numbers may not be shared by others. So how can we communicate our passion in a way that fosters understanding and movement in our audiences? Well, at the least a little eye blinking and head nodding would be a great start!

In our April 23^rd post about communicating assessment results to executives, we discussed four steps to developing memorable messages. How do you know if you have created a truly memorable message? You will see movement and action, which is how we want our clients to use our assessment findings. Our ultimate goal is to have our clients clearly Visualize the Data so they can make better decisions about their BA performance improvement actions.

What we mean by Visualizing the Data is something called the “Human Scale” Principle. This is a technique used by Covey, Tufte, and other strong presenters; you see this principle used in journalism and marketing, as well. The basic premise is to humanize your data. Make your presentation more than just a series of numbers, statistics, charts, and graphs. This involves knowing your audience and communicating your findings in a way that will have a lasting impact on your clients and guide their behaviors. Humanizing the issue through stories and examples is essential to engage people in the passion of your BA assessment.

Let’s take a look at a generic example. Here is a statistic from the American Council on Sports Medicine:

Only 30% of Americans engage in recommended levels of physical activity.

Sounds pretty bad, right? Bad enough to get you moving? Some of us may have a clear picture of what this means; however, it doesn’t really create a visual image for most. To humanize this finding, we could say this, ”If you walked around your neighborhood and knocked on 10 of your neighbors’ doors, you would most likely find 7 of them sitting on the couch watching television and eating junk food, taking a nap, texting on their phones or iPads, or surfing on their computers. This brings the statistic to life. Your audience can visualize the impact more so than from the statistic.

Here is a BA assessment finding example:

When developing a business case, only 37% of your BAs indicated they have a clear understanding of what the organization is trying to achieve and why.

Again, seems unfavorable, but it’s somewhat of a subjective concept/statement. To humanize this we could say, “If this was the situation for your favorite football team, then only 4 of the 11 players on the field would know which goal was theirs and what to do with it.” The use of this human metaphor gives your audience a visual of the potential chaos in the organization and the impact this finding could have on the achieved business value of their projects.

By now, I think you understand what we mean by Bringing Your Data to Life. Do we use this technique with all of our clients? DEFINITELY NOT. This is where Scalability comes into play.

You need to know your audiences and gauge how they

 would respond to this technique. You have the “Just the facts, ma’am-Show me the numbers” end of the spectrum; these people know what to do with the numbers. And you have those who freeze up like the deer in the headlights and need more than numbers to compel them to act. It took us a little while and several “sleeper” presentations to realize that not everyone is as excited about assessment data and statistics as we are.

Remember, if you do use this technique, be sure to create relevant analogies; you must understand your audience’s desired performance and business outcomes. Presenting your findings in a more creative manner may be the key to helping your audience understand the impacts of their decisions and actions, or non-actions, on the organization. At least you will increase the probability of eliminating the blank stares, stimulating critical thinking and questioning, and creating the movement and action necessary to accelerate your BA performance improvement.