Policy and Practice June 2017

locally speaking

By Ronald Chavarro and John Ruthinoski

Challenging Your Assumptions: Using Data to Improve Client Success

H ow do we know what we know? Much of our day-to-day work in human services is guided by conven- tional wisdom—the things we have learned from experience and that we know to be true. For example, one local department of social services was confident that adoptions took too long because of the delays caused by the courts. The facts, however, later revealed that the local department was the one holding up the process, causing it to take more than three years to finalize a termination of parental rights because of paperwork processing delays that were internal to the department, not external. The good news was that this meant they had control over the problem. As a result, they streamlined their business process resulting in decreased lengths of stay in foster care and increased permanency rates. How did they do this? They invested time and resources to look for the root cause of the problem in the data and challenged their assumptions through a vigorous diagnostic process utilizing a “Data Fellows” framework. When senior management at the Fairfax County Department of Family Services (DFS) learned of the Data Fellows program and heard this story, we knew what we had to do. This program was the tool we needed to change our culture to one of data- informed decision-making at all levels. The timing was perfect as the Fairfax County Human Services System was engaged in an ambitious IT integra- tion project designed to break down silos and allow all county human services agencies to share data across programs. The DFS wants to be ready

Data analytics maturity model adapted from FutureProof Enterprise Analytics. 1

to take advantage of these powerful data analytical tools that will enable us to get to the root cause of our cus- tomers’ problems. Last year, DFS adopted Harvard’s Leadership for a Networked World’s Human Services Value Curve as the basis for its strategic planning efforts with the goal of becoming a truly integrative agency by 2020. The DFS recognizes that in order to achieve this vision, we have to invest in our staff and develop the internal capacity needed to not only understand data, but to also be able to ask the right ques- tions in order to get to root causes. The DFS combined a Data Analytics Maturity Model with the Value Curve (see diagram) to articulate the increas- ingly complex data analytics capacity needed by an organization in order for it to move outward on the Value

Curve. For the DFS to progress to an “integrative” or “generative” agency, we needed to invest in our staff and ensure they had the skills to test their assumptions and learn what works best for our clients. The Data Fellows Program was developed as a collaboration between the New Jersey Department of Children and Families staff and a private vendor (Public Catalyst). The program uses a “field and forum” approach that integrates teaching, exercises, and coaching to make sure skills are mastered in a real-world setting. Research has shown that adult learners retain only about 10 percent of what they hear, about 65 percent of what they do, but nearly 100 percent of what they practice in a

See Locally Speaking on page 28

Images courtesy of the Grand Rapids Center for Community Transformation

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June 2017 Policy&Practice