Conscious Endeavor

The Democratic Iowa Caucuses turned out to be a disaster. Apparently, a coding error in a hastily produced app made it hard for the data to be reported. While Caucus goers and the nation waited for the results, it occurred to me that this was a good example of the need to consider the pace at which we expect to be able to produce data that leads to action steps.

It reminded me that the fast, impactful results from programs that I have evaluated. Many years ago, while working for an evaluation group, I had a client who wanted to prove that her short-term program had an impact on an outcome that required data to be collected longitudinally. Another consultant and I spent many meetings explaining what could be shown and demonstrated with the available data. I recall my words, “In order to show that you would need to collect data for a longer period of time.” The truth is that the client was doing great work with the children in her program. However, because she was invested in being able to present the work as being impactful in a particular domain she could not see the value that did exist in the existing data. She simply didn’t want to tell that story.

So, we return to Iowa, two candidates declared themselves the winner. I learned that the Iowa Caucuses involved a weird electoral system and that weighted rural counties more than urban ones. Every pundit speculated that this would be the end of the already problematic Iowa Caucuses. Far from being a bellwether, we were looking at a huge undecided mess.

Design, Data, Analysis, Narrative.        

Maybe we all needed to take a breath. Maybe this was just a thing that should have happened quickly, but we can accept that it doesn’t always happen quickly. I would argue that the speed at which we can produce information has not necessarily increased the quality of that information. In the case of Iowa, the app that was built was built without enough time to test it and fixed the errors that had been flagged. The teams on the ground were also not properly trained on how to use the technology. Here is the thing. If you want to know things quickly, you must design for it. If you want to spin a narrative, you must be able to actually address those questions with the data.

I think about everyday voters, volunteers and organizers who might have become disenchanted with the electoral process after the problems of Iowa. I also think about  how my colleague and I tried and failed to convince the client not to tell a story that she couldn’t support. We could show so many wonderful things about the way that their time had been spent and the gains they had made. In the case of both the Iowa Caucuses and my fraught children’s program there was a silver lining. The community and the participants showed up and did what they were supposed to do. The worked for months or weeks committing the resources of their energy. I have found that when the call to be speedy instead of deliberative comes, it helps to look to those on the ground. Those who will be impacted by my work. This is usually where I have gleaned the most meaningful insights into where to go next.

Sometimes, the thing you need is simply time.