Cookies help us display personalized product recommendations and ensure you have great shopping experience.

By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    data analytics and truck accident claims
    How Data Analytics Reduces Truck Accidents and Speeds Up Claims
    7 Min Read
    predictive analytics for interior designers
    Interior Designers Boost Profits with Predictive Analytics
    8 Min Read
    image fx (67)
    Improving LinkedIn Ad Strategies with Data Analytics
    9 Min Read
    big data and remote work
    Data Helps Speech-Language Pathologists Deliver Better Results
    6 Min Read
    data driven insights
    How Data-Driven Insights Are Addressing Gaps in Patient Communication and Equity
    8 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Hailing Frequencies Open
Share
Notification
Font ResizerAa
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Uncategorized > Hailing Frequencies Open
Uncategorized

Hailing Frequencies Open

JimHarris
JimHarris
7 Min Read
SHARE

“This is Captain James E. Harris of the Data Quality Starship Collaboration…”

Clearly, I am a Star Trek nerd – but I am also a people person. Although people, process, and technology are all important for successful data quality initiatives, without people, process and technology are useless. 

Contents
Seek First to Understand… Then to Be UnderstoodSeek First to Understand…Then to Be UnderstoodVulcansBe Truly ExtraordinaryYour Away MissionRelated Posts

Collaboration is essential. More than anything else, it requires effective communication – which begins with effective listening.

Seek First to Understand… Then to Be Understood

This is Habit 5 from Stephen Covey’s excellent book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. “We typically seek first to be understood,” explains Covey.  “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

We are all proud of our education, knowledge, understanding, and experience. Since it is commonly believed that experience is the path that separates knowledge from wisdom, we can’t wait to share our wisdom with the world. However, as Covey cautions, our desire to be understood can make “our conversations become collective monologues.”

More Read

The Mullet Blogging Manifesto
And the winner of Superbowl XLIV is…Google
Book Review: Viral Data in SOA
My Opinion: NYT wants cyber security to be a divisive issue.
BI & Analytic Trends of 2015: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Covey explains that listening is an activity that can be practiced at one of the following five levels … …

“This is Captain James E. Harris of the Data Quality Starship Collaboration…”

Clearly, I am a Star Trek nerd – but I am also a people person. Although people, process, and technology are all important for successful data quality initiatives, without people, process and technology are useless. 

Collaboration is essential. More than anything else, it requires effective communication – which begins with effective listening.

Seek First to Understand…Then to Be Understood

This is Habit 5 from Stephen Covey’s excellent book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. “We typically seek first to be understood,” explains Covey.  “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

We are all proud of our education, knowledge, understanding, and experience. Since it is commonly believed that experience is the path that separates knowledge from wisdom, we can’t wait to share our wisdom with the world. However, as Covey cautions, our desire to be understood can make “our conversations become collective monologues.”

Covey explains that listening is an activity that can be practiced at one of the following five levels:

  1. Ignoring – we are not really listening at all.
  2. Pretending – we are only waiting for our turn to speak, constantly nodding and saying: “Yeah. Uh-huh. Right.” 
  3. Selective Listening – we are only hearing certain parts of the conversation, such as when we’re listening to the constant chatter of a preschool child.
  4. Attentive Listening – we are paying attention and focusing energy on the words that are being said.
  5. Empathic Listening – we are actually listening with the intent to really try to understand the other person’s frame of reference. You look out through it, you see the world the way they see the world, you understand their paradigm, you understand how they feel.

“Empathy is not sympathy,” explains Covey. “Sympathy is a form of agreement, a form of judgment. And it is sometimes the more appropriate response. But people often feed on sympathy. It makes them dependent. The essence of empathic listening is not that you agree with someone; it’s that you fully, deeply, understand that person, emotionally as well as intellectually.”

Vulcans

Some people balk at discussing the use of emotion in a professional setting, where typically it is believed that rational analysis must protect us from irrational emotions. To return to a Star Trek metaphor, these people model their professional behavior after the Vulcans. 

Vulcans live according to the philosopher Surak’s code of emotional self-control. Starting at a very young age, they are taught meditation and other techniques in order to suppress their emotions and live a life guided by reason and logic alone.

Be Truly Extraordinary

In all professions, it is fairly common to encounter rational and logically intelligent people. 

Truly extraordinary people masterfully blend both kinds of intelligence – intellectual and emotional. A well-grounded sense of self-confidence, an empathetic personality, and excellent communication skills, exert a more powerfully positive influence than simply remarkable knowledge and expertise alone.

Your Away Mission

As a data quality consultant, when I begin an engagement with a new client, I often joke that I shouldn’t be allowed to speak for the first two weeks. This is my way of explaining that I will be asking more questions than providing answers. 

I am seeking first to understand the current environment from both the business and technical perspectives. Only after I have achieved this understanding, will I then seek to be understood regarding my extensive experience of the best practices that I have seen work on successful data quality initiatives.

As fellow Star Trek nerds know, the captain doesn’t go on away missions. Therefore, your away mission is to try your best to practice empathic listening at your next data quality discussion – “Make It So!”

Data quality initiatives require a holistic approach involving people, process, and technology. You must consider the people factor first and foremost, because it will be the people involved, and not the process or the technology, that will truly allow your data quality initiative to “Live Long and Prosper.”

As always, hailing frequencies remain open to your comments. And yes, I am trying my best to practice empathic listening.

Related Posts

Not So Strange Case of Dr. Technology and Mr. Business

The Three Musketeers of Data Quality

Data Quality is People!

You’re So Vain, You Probably Think Data Quality Is About You

Link to original post

TAGGED:data quality
Share This Article
Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

data analytics and truck accident claims
How Data Analytics Reduces Truck Accidents and Speeds Up Claims
Analytics Big Data Exclusive
predictive analytics for interior designers
Interior Designers Boost Profits with Predictive Analytics
Analytics Exclusive Predictive Analytics
big data and cybercrime
Stopping Lateral Movement in a Data-Heavy, Edge-First World
Big Data Exclusive
AI and data mining
What the Rise of AI Web Scrapers Means for Data Teams
Artificial Intelligence Big Data Exclusive

Stay Connected

1.2kFollowersLike
33.7kFollowersFollow
222FollowersPin

You Might also Like

The General Theory of Data Quality

9 Min Read

The Quality Gap: Why Being On-Time Isn’t Enough

6 Min Read

Microwavable Data Quality

4 Min Read

Book Review: Data Modeling for Business

4 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

AI and chatbots
Chatbots and SEO: How Can Chatbots Improve Your SEO Ranking?
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Exclusive
data-driven web design
5 Great Tips for Using Data Analytics for Website UX
Big Data

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?