Empowered by Data

Chapter SixAddressing Potential Risks for Your Community

Not everyone appreciates the idea of being surrounded by people, an image that comes to mind immediately when we think of community. You might be wondering how you can ensure that the community you want to build is constructive, productive, and inclusive. And yet, whenever people work together, there is also potential for difficulties. In group settings, people can easily get distracted. There also is a risk for groupthink or, as it is more commonly described these days, for an echo chamber to form that rejects new ideas and is impacted by confirmation bias. Management and the leadership team might not buy into the idea of an analytics community and may withhold their support. And what if someone goes rogue with their own approach to the detriment of the wider community? How do you prevent and control the negative disruption and the possible destructive energy that someone can bring?

In this chapter I explore the different challenges and risks that threaten the success of your analytics communities and the potential negative impact for people. I offer suggestions for avoiding negative outcomes and for building an environment where analytics professionals can thrive, whether they flourish in a team setting or prefer to work by themselves.

Distraction

There is a genuine risk that people feel distracted from their work in a community setting that features instant communication channels, heavy reliance on social media, ...