Human Capital Analytics: How to Harness the Potential of Your Organization's Greatest Asset

CHAPTER 8

Share the Story

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

—Leonardo da Vinci

“Make it as simple as possible. But no simpler.”

—Albert Einstein

Well, congratulations. You have now designed a study, gathered all of the disparate data, and run the statistical modeling, and you have a pile of results that is more or less interesting. There are actionable results in here, but it still may be pretty complicated. So how do you work with them? The final part of the job will be communicating results around the organization. You should already have some ideas about possible plans of action, especially if you followed our advice in the earlier chapters. We compare the development of an action plan early to “follow-through” on a golf or tennis ball. It should be part of one continuous smooth motion that consistently aims for the right spot.

First, consider what documents you need to deliver. We use a “spearhead” approach, as shown in Exhibit 8.1.

Exhibit 8.1 Spearhead Approach

The elevator pitch is exactly that: A concise statement of what was learned from the analysis, short enough to be delivered during an elevator ride.

The executive summary is a brief document that tells the “story” of the study, focusing mostly on the impact of the results and the optimization steps recommended for improvement. It is written at a memo level (i.e., what an executive needs to know about the ...