How to Make People Care About Your Insights

We all know the allure of diving deep into a dataset and generating some fascinating insight. But all too often, insights end up being interesting without actually being useful. For insights to deliver real value, they must drive action. 

At Worklytics, we’ve dedicated substantial time to transforming passive organizational data into actionable insights. Over hundreds of cases, we’ve learned what makes an insight actionable. Here’s a guide of best practices to help ensure your insights lead to impactful change.

An example

In this guide, we’ll explore a common question we see organizations ask: Are we spending too much time in meetings? 

This question is just one example, but the techniques below can apply broadly. So let’s start with a typical insight: Our teams spend 10 hours a week in meetings. 

Interesting, sure—but how can we make it actionable?

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1. Start with a Real Problem

Before generating any new insights, begin with a well-defined, high-priority problem that needs resolution. The fastest way to ensure an insight isn’t actionable is by providing one about an issue that no one cares about.

Sign You May Have Missed the Mark…

You’re chasing down your stakeholders to get a meeting set.  If this is really a top priority, they’ll be beating down your door to get answers.

How to Do It Right:

• Talk to leaders in the organization.
• Identify their top five priorities.
• Determine if there’s a stakeholder who has the authority to take action.
• Gauge the appetite within the organization to address the issue.
• Ask: What would people be prepared to do if they found they were spending too much time in meetings?

You’ll Know You’re onto Something When…

You’ve identified a leader who’s pre-committed that she’ll do X if you find out Y.  

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2. Build Trust in the Insight

Before an insight can be actionable, it must be trusted. If the insight is unflattering, people are even more likely to scrutinize its validity. If it’s not robust, trust in the entire analysis could erode.

Sign You May Have Missed the Mark…

They’re spending more time talking about your n than your insight. 

Tactics to Build Trust:

• Share details about the methodology used to calculate the 10 hours.  Bonus points:  If you’ve got a known skeptic, seek his/her input early-on as you develop an approach to the analysis.
• Explain how the data was collected and validated for reliability.
• Be deliberate about how you choose to visualize the data. 
• Use social proof: Highlight how other organizations – or other departments within your own company – are leveraging the same metric.

You’ll Know You’re onto Something When…

Your resident skeptic refers to the project as “our” analysis.

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3. Generate Compelling Insights

Knowing that employees spend 10 hours a week in meetings isn’t enough. To decide whether to act, context is crucial. Is 10 hours excessive or reasonable? How does it compare to industry standards?

Sign You Missed the Mark…

You’re hearing crickets.

Ways to Contextualize Insights:

• Benchmark against industry norms: Our team spends 10 hours in meetings, which is 30% more than similar organizations.

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• Highlight outliers: While the average is 10 hours, the top 25% of meeting attendees are spending over 20 hours a week in meetings.

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• Combine multiple insights: We spend 10 hours in meetings, and those who spend more time in meetings have significantly less time for focused work.

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• Humanize the insight: Instead of “10 hours,” say, “We spend one full day each week in meetings.”

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• Link the Insight to a Business Outcome:  Software developers who spend over 8 hours in meetings per week complete 40% fewer tasks.

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You’ll Know You’re onto Something When…

There’s a feeling of urgency.  Stakeholders are pushing you to hustle up & get them answers fast.

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4. Identify Your Greatest Point of Leverage

Knowing where to direct action is vital. This involves understanding who and what are driving the issue.

Sign You’ve Missed the Mark…

You immediately get asked for a bunch of different data cuts. 

Examples of Creating Insights for the Most Important Segments:

• Who: 60% of meetings are created by 5% of employees—primarily project managers and team leads. Instead of asking everyone to reduce meetings, focus on these groups.
• What: Large, recurring meetings make up 50% of people’s meeting time. Targeting these might yield the biggest impact.

You’ll Know You’re onto Something When…

You’re using the same language and talking about the same segments as your stakeholder.  You might even match your font and format to whatever their department prefers – after all, you’re a part of their team.

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5. Take Action

Now that you have a real problem, a trusted insight, a compelling narrative, and a focus for action, it’s time to intervene. Start by sharing this insight with those most empowered to make a change.

Sign You’ve Missed the Mark…

It’s been 4 weeks and nothing’s changed. 

What Good Looks Like: 

Within a week of receiving the insight, your stakeholder sends an email like this to Team Leads:

“We’ve looked into meeting time and found that the average employee spends around 10 hours a week—about 25% of their work time—in meetings. This is 30% more than comparable roles at other companies. We also found that employees who spend over 10 hours in meetings each week complete 40% fewer tasks. Additionally, the top 25% of meeting attendees are logging over 20 hours, which must be impacting their productivity. We’re reaching out because project managers and line leads account for 60% of these meetings. Let’s work together to develop an action plan to address this.”

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You’ll Know You’re onto Something When…

Someone who wasn’t in the original meeting mentions the insight to you.  

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Commit to Continuous Improvement

Taking action is a great first step, but changing behavior takes time and ongoing adjustment. A culture of continuous improvement is essential for lasting change.

Best Practices:

• Track metrics, set clear goals, and monitor interventions.
• Assess impact and iterate as necessary until the problem is resolved.
• Cultivate internal champions who can help you build a playbook for turning insights into interventions.

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