Data! Numbers!

Last week we had a bunch of grants due, so I skipped posting.  (Writing clearly is really hard and time consuming work).

Our grant submissions got me thinking a lot about data.  When we submit grants, we provide a ton of data on our program -- how many students we've served, how many students get internships, the demographic makeup of our student body, the social emotional growth stats on our program, our partner companies internship satisfaction rates, and so much more.

I like data, and we love data at ScriptEd. I've been using data since I started swimming at age six.  Measuring progress with numbers is a great way to understand where you are, where you are going, and how well you're doing.

Data also allows you to define success in an objective and measurable way. I think this is so important, especially in the field of social entrepreneurship where success can so easily be confused with attention.  ScriptEd has been very lucky to get a lot of media attention and awards, which are crucial to help us attract resources, but are also pretty arbitrary markers of success. Data keeps us focused on what we're working towards.

At the same time, data can be incredibly intimidating. Numbers don't lie.  There might be a million reasons why my swim times didn't get faster in a season, or why we didn't get as many internship positions as we would have liked last summer.  Doing a lot of work and not having the outcomes you hoped for can be disappointing.

When numbers don't move in the way you want them to, you have to change your approach and start working smarter towards your objectives.  When things go better than expected, you have to try to determine what made you successful and replicate those actions if you can.

And finally, sometimes people (and companies) are successful in spite of themselves, or not successful for reasons beyond anyone's control. It's important to recognize the difference between things you can control (and work on improving those things), and things that you can't.