You’ve Listened. Now What?
Moving Data to Wisdom.
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
-T.S. Elliot
This past year, I’ve had the opportunity to lead multiple churches in western NC and throughout the country through the Spiritual Listening Plan, tailoring the plan to their specific contexts. It’s been an awesome experience and the best part is seeing how the Holy Spirit unveils insights that will have real impact on these churches and their communities.
One of my biggest takeaways this year is that moving from data collection to actionable insights is a process. One of the most helpful tools to visualize this process is the DIKW Pyramid, a time tested model of the knowledge management field.
Defining the Terms
To understand the DIKW Pyramid, we will have to define the four terms. Be warned, all of these words have hundreds of definitions that people have spent their lives arguing over for millennia. If you want to nerd out on definitions go for it in the comment section, but these should work for most of us.
Data is collected observations, facts, numbers, and other measurements that have not been organized or analyzed.
Information is data that has been organized in a way that gives it meaning.
Knowledge is information that has been analyzed and interpreted for a specific context.
Wisdom is knowledge that has been applied in a meaningful and practical way.
The idea is to start with data and move it upward in the pyramid one step at a time. In community listening we start with collecting data, but it can’t end there. We have to move our data towards wisdom.
How I’ve Seen This Work
Here’s how listening moved from data to wisdom in two of the most popular activities of the listening plan: The Congregational Survey, and Neighbor Interviews.
Data: Listening teams at the churches created questions they wanted to ask of their congregation and of their neighbors. One church released a google form survey on a special Sunday morning. Another church passed out note cards with a question and collected the answers after a few minutes. They asked four questions over four Sundays. The churches also conducted 1:1 interviews with various neighbors of the church. Some of the interviewees held important positions in the community, others lived in neighborhoods near the church. The answers to these questions became the data.
Information: Next, members of the listening teams began to organize the data. For the congregational surveys the answers were placed into an excel document where they could see all the answers in one place. The members of the listening teams also wrote out 1-2 paragraphs for each neighbor interview, summarizing how each neighbor answered the interview questions. These paragraphs were compiled into a google document.
Knowledge: Once the information of the listening process was compiled, I met with the listening teams to analyze and interpret the findings. We looked at the most common responses in church surveys and neighbor interviews, I asked what pieces of information stirred curiosity or excitement, and we looked at instances of answers from the church members intersecting with answers from neighbors. From these conversations we decided on our top five takeaways from the listening process. With each takeaway we provided a brief description of the takeaway and what it could potentially mean for the church.
Wisdom: Once the knowledge was compiled, the listening teams then presented their top findings to the wider church. One listening team presented the findings on a special Sunday where they and the pastor created a presentation in tandem with the sermon that week. Another released their findings and the pastor is using the top findings as a sermon series. After the presentation, one church is now in the process of starting an ESL class based on their findings. One church I worked with is using their findings to make decisions about repurposing parts of their building.
An important point to note is that all of this work was rooted in individual and communal conversation with God.
Conclusion
John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island School of Design, once wrote, “Making a process visible makes a practice reflectable.” The DIFW pyramid offers a visible representation of turning listening into action. Listening is not enough. Listening must lead to action. Our churches and our communities are depending on it.
Thanks for some great distinctions.