This article is written by Yvonne Rinkart, a UK civil servant

Data has been a hot topic for public servants for some time now. Our understanding of what data can do for policy-makers has grown massively in the last years, and so has our awareness of the challenges that we may encounter when using data to inform our work.

We know that data literacy is a key skill for public servants. We recognise that information gained through data analytics gives organisations the power to transform their services and deliver better outcomes to their customers.

Nevertheless, there are some serious concerns about the role of data in decision- and policy-making. While there is evidence that the public trusts government organisations with their data more than companies, driven prominently by the knowledge that there are strict rules and regulations, it is imperative to continue to build public trust in the ways we use and share data.

There are also some worries about the data itself. For instance, some have raised concerns that the way we collect ethnicity data can erase certain identities, others have lamented that we don't collect it systematically enough to adequately address discrimination and systemic racism and we also need ensure that this sensitive data is collected and used within the appropriate legal constraints. There is also the wider worry that data insights may get lost in translation before they can deliver value, and the even greater fear that data analysis is replacing professional decision-making.

Consequently, some have argued that public services need a clear data strategy, which brings together data from different sources and guides how it is used. In that view, it is encouraging to see that local governments are developing data management best practices.

With all of this in the background, a report by the UK’s Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) recently identified three key barriers to successful data sharing in the public sector: Technical barriers, legal confusion and cultural and organisational barriers.

I want to focus here on cultural and organisational barriers; these are the barriers which we must tackle first because they take the longest to overcome. I argue that we need to change our culture alongside our data and I suggest that triangulation as a tool for building such a culture.

What is triangulation? An example from the great outdoors

Before I became a business transformation project officer, I was a geographer. The desire to get into nature has stuck with me and I hope that you will forgive the brief excursion into the outdoors to really get to grips with the origins of triangulation:

Imagine you are in an open field. You have a map and a compass, but they aren’t very useful, because you are off the path and you can’t tell where you are. What should you do?

You look around you and find three objects which are also on the map, for example a windmill, a mountain and a hut. You look at the compass and face north, drawing a mental line from your shoes and straight ahead. Then, you look to the windmill and draw a second in that direction. Using your compass, you then find the angle between those two imaginary lines. Well done! Now, you know that you are somewhere along that line of your map. To narrow down your location, repeat the same process for the mountain and draw another line. Add a third line for the hut, just to be sure.

The three lines will meet somewhere on the map, and you can be sure that this is where you are. You are no longer lost; and I hope you enjoy the rest of your walk.

Triangulating in government

As I sit in my office, I think about triangulation often. My work supports large scale transformation projects, such as digital transformations and workplace wellbeing initiatives. These kinds of culture changes are difficult to measure at the best of times, and this has only become more challenging now that many of us are working from home. In that situation, it’s easy to start feeling lost… as if you were on a large field, off the path.

Thinking back to the cultural and organisational barriers for data sharing discussed by CDEI, the important thing about triangulation for public servants is that it’s inherently collaborative. To triangulate your data, you’ll have to reach out to colleagues.

For example, you could reach out to colleagues in the communication team to find out the number of clicks on a news item, and that might become your metaphorical windmill. Colleagues in your transport team may be to provide traffic data, which could become our metaphorical hut. The mountain, finally, could be comments collected by your public engagement team. You might be able to reach out to other public services to find out more. By putting data from different sources together like this, we are getting a much better sense of the complexities of the communities we serve.

Triangulation encourages us to break silos, connect data, explore gaps, and enhance findings. For this to be as useful as possible, triangulation should be part of a larger cultural shift in government. Each time we triangulate, we have to have some detailed conversations about what data can tell us and where its limitations might be. We need to understand the context of each data set carefully. We should work hard to make sure we understand where we could capitalise on overlaps between our data, and where there may be gaps even triangulation cannot fill.

This kind of collaboration, of course, goes far beyond mere data analysis, and taps into communication, collaboration and trust as hallmarks of our culture as public servants. In that way, triangulation is one important first step for starting to build a culture for sharing data safely and confidently.

What’s next for data?

We have come far in our thinking about the role of data for public servants. We understand that well-analysed data can lead to better decision-making, transform frontline services and even save lives. Getting our data analytics right is absolutely crucial for delivering public services in the twenty-first century.

To really make this turn towards data really work for us, our enthusiasm for data analytics needs to be matched by a change in organisational cultures. Practising triangulation is a key tool for affecting this culture change. By creating conversations about data across silos, finding connections and enhancing what we know, triangulation demonstrates one first step towards a new and trustworthy data sharing culture for public servants. — Yvonne Rinkart

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