---
title: Data is More Than Just a Four-Letter Word
description: Deb Halliday discusses how data is viewed from people working in the community sector and how data-light, learning-heavy approach is effective.
---

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# [Data is More Than Just a Four-Letter Word](https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/latest/data-is-more-than-just-a-four-letter-word)

 Written by [Deb Halliday](https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/latest/author/deb-halliday) | May 2, 2017

I recently spoke with a very experienced, very frustrated community organizer. She had just come back from a meeting with a funder who repeatedly admonished her to provide measurable evidence that her project is making a difference. 

“For me, *data *is a four-letter word,” she stated, only half-joking. “Some things we do aren’t easy to measure or prove, but I know they work, and I’m not going to stop doing them just because I can’t measure them!” 

I can relate. Though a lifelong community builder, I have often avoided the data question. “We don’t need more data, we need more money to do what we know works,” I would tell myself. More recently, I’ve come to understand that building complex initiatives without using data is akin to Yogi Berra’s quip: “We don’t know where we’re going, but we’re making good time.” 

Before launching a new initiative, I often advise groups to ask three questions: *Where are we now? Where do we want to be? How will we know if we are getting there?  *For example, in the early learning collective impact work I’m doing with Montana communities, I ask: *What’s a good-enough estimate of how many kids are coming to kindergarten under-prepared? How does that measure up to our hopes in our community? *

The term “good-enough” is key. Many times, practitioners get frustrated by the limits of what data can tell us, and so they either jump down the rabbit hole, looking for a level of specificity that is unrealistic to the resources at hand, or they throw their hands up in the air and vow to boycott data for evermore.

There’s a great phrase to describe the limits of data: “a yardstick made of Jell-o”, which was coined by Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert. Gilbert is describing the importance of being able to extrapolate a reasonable amount of insight from an imperfect world of data.

For instance, at the first communitywide meeting we convened to launch Montana’s early learning collective impact initiative, we created a data gallery of four “good enough” data points – one estimating the number and percentage of kids coming to kindergarten under-prepared; one describing the under-utilization of important public health services, such as home visiting, and one describing the tightening market for affordable child care. The fourth data point was a national trend, and we asked participants if it reflected what we see in Montana.

The value of the data gallery was three-fold: it helped participants see how the worlds of education, health care and child care are interrelated; it allowed people with differing levels of expertise and experience to share their perspectives; and it gave the steering group insights into potential areas of focus. In other words, we had a starting place!

This May, I’ll be traveling to Kitchener, Canada to participate in the Tamarack Institute’s Collective Impact 3.0 conference. “Collective Impact 3.0” is a reference to a paper that Mark Cabaj and Liz Weaver released earlier this year in which they seek to upgrade the five conditions of Collective Impact into a movement building paradigm.

Concerning shared measurement, Cabaj and Weaver suggest that a “data-light and learning-heavy” approach to data and evaluation can result in more effective collaborations. This has certainly been my experience, and I look forward to learning more about what’s working in other communities as we continue to evolve our understanding of our approaches and impacts.

[View full post](https://www.tamarackcommunity.ca/latest/data-is-more-than-just-a-four-letter-word)

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