Grant Duncan is a Marketing leader based in the US. He focuses on helping organizations grow and build at outsized growth rates. Based in California, he currently works for Zingtree.
Analytics is an incredibly important part of business today. There is an ever-increasing amount of data, and businesses need to be able to collect and analyze it to make actionable decisions. Using a data visualization tool is a powerful way for organizations to understand their data and their business.
Data, data, data. We hear about it all the time, and its scale is growing exponentially. Dealing with your data can be complicated but can also provide immense value.
Have you ever asked yourself questions like: How do I use all my data well? How do I collect or transform it to the format I need? How do I turn it into something meaningful and insightful? How do I incorporate it into a digital product? Can it help drive decision making? Those are all great questions to ask and shows you’re on your way to being more data-driven.
What other tips do you have for finding value in your data?
Quick Personal Update:
I’ve started my blog again and redesigned my website. Thanks for checking it out! I hope to be posting regularly so keep your eyes out for it.
In case you don’t know, I graduated from Wheaton College last May, backpacked around Europe with my brother for 7 weeks in the summer, and then came back and have been doing “real life” for seven months. I’m working for Slalom Consulting in the Loop and living in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. Those are very different contexts, but I love them both.
When someone asks where I live and I tell them I’m living in North Lawndale, I usually get one of two reactions: 1) They’ve never heard of it and don’t know where it is in Chicago or 2) They know it’s a low income rough neighborhood and they give me the crazy eyes because I, a 23 year old white male working for a management consulting firm, am actually living there, a 92% black community with a reputation for extensive poverty and violence. If I get reaction #1, I tell them it’s on the West Side and near the CTA Pink Line and don’t go into explaining more. If I get reaction #2, people almost always ask why I’m living there and what it’s like.
The short answer is I felt led by God to live here. There is a really great church, Lawndale Christian Community Church, that cares about its neighbors in very tangible ways, and I wanted to get involved in the church and its ministries. This church takes very seriously Jesus’ words to love God and love your neighbor and they’re doing so in very real ways through the church as well as its ministries. They have a legal center that takes a restorative justice approach to help youth who come in contact with the criminal justice system, they a have a program for previously incarcerated and/or substance abuse individuals to get their life on track which has helped 2,500 men, a community arts center, a development corporation to help provide affordable housing, a health center that gets over 150,000 visits annually, a fitness center that has almost 200,000 visits annually, a café that receives more than 75,000 visits annually, and more – all of these are church-based and from a Christian perspective.
One of my housemates, explains another reason very poignantly:
“I feel I get ‘front row seats’ to God’s show being here. In various other places where I have or could live, sometimes it feels like people live perfectly fine without God, and everything’s Pleasantville. But then you read the news and realize things aren’t perfect and you can’t just isolate and ignore it. When people are getting sick at very high rates or dying at 16 by a gunshot wound or inducted into a gang at 12, you need God to act. And He does daily. But it’s hard to see that if you don’t live by it.”
I’ve found there are two discourses to talk about North Lawndale. One highlights the negatives and portrays it as a terrible place to live and the other discourse expresses it as a place that is hospitable and with great community.
North Lawndale takes on many names: the ghetto, the inner city, the hood, a place you don’t want to drive through and especially not ever get out of your car. North Lawndale has the 3rd worst violent crime in Chicago. Just in 2015 alone, there were 34 murders. That happened in a neighborhood of 3.2 square miles and about 36,000 people. 34 – does that register with you? Think about and compare that to other shootings that make the news. Why aren’t 34 murders, in just one Chicago neighborhood (not even looking city-wide), making the news and creating an outrage to instigate systemic change? Just this past month (as of writing) in North Lawndale, there were 92 violent crime reports, 125 property crime reports, and 159 quality-of-life crime reports [link]. 43% of people are below the poverty line. Per capita income is just over $12,000. Over 27% of people aged 25+ do not have a high school diploma. Here are some data visualizations I created (using Microsoft Power BI, woo!) to show more statistics on the neighborhood as of September 2015 [from the City of Chicago Data Portal]: (click on the pictures to enlarge if necessary)
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I could go on but by now you probably understand why it’s ‘earned’ its name as the ghetto or the hood. It’s a much more dangerous place to live than most places.
There’s another way to narrate my experience that is much more elevating to the neighborhood and is also true. The community I’ve found has been great – my housemates are great, I’ve met other young people, I’m going to Lawndale Christian Community Church every Sunday and its Sunday school service, the Kingdom Men’s Bible Study every Thursday morning, I play basketball every Sunday night at the Fitness Center with guys from church, I mentor a youth with the Lawndale Christian Legal Center, and many of these folks are becoming good friends. The neighborhood is filled with beautiful Greystone brick buildings – it actually has the most Greystones per square mile anywhere in the US.
When it was still warm out, I walked around the neighborhood every evening and most people were friendly and would say hi. There is a greater sense of community here than in most neighborhoods – family ties are strong, multiple generations live together, extended families go to church together, people walk to friends’ houses, and there are block associations and block parties with cookouts. People really know each other rather being strangers who happen to live near each other. I live within 100 feet of the state-of-the-art Lawndale Christian Health Center and Fitness Center, and I can walk to my church in less than three minutes. As I mentioned before, my church and its ministries are doing a lot to help the neighborhood as well as other businesses and nonprofits. Chicago’s crime is very block by block and my block is a much safer one. I enjoy living here and I’m learning so much from those around me.
Both narratives about North Lawndale are true. Living in the tension and the reality of both is my daily life. Not to mention the other reality of working downtown which almost feels like another world sometimes. Yet my daily walk to and from the CTA Pink Line station for working downtown forces me to live in the tension and bring the narratives and worlds together. As I look ahead, I’m excited for more opportunities to converge these worlds in greater ways, especially through business and economic development efforts. Lawndale is a very different context than I’ve ever lived in before, but it is so worth it.
I just watched The Social Network for the first time yesterday (yes, that may surprise some of you, but I had just never gotten around to it).
I thought it was a very interesting movie and I really liked it.
As most of you know, Grant Hensel, and I started a business (Backbone Local) this year so this movie felt even more relevant than it would have 6 months ago.
At the end of the movie, I came away deep in thought in a pondering mood. It really made me think and reflect.
Here’s a coupe insights I gleaned from this movie:
Who knows, maybe God will use me to do that. You may say I’m dreaming too big, and I probably am by most standards, but if that’s what He wants me doing, then I am NOT going to underestimate Him. I take him at His word when God says He will do things infinitely beyond what we can dream of or ask for (Ephesians 3:20). I can dream big because I believe in a BIG God. But count me in for whatever success and faithfulness looks like for my life, even if it means a simple day job. I’ll follow Him wherever He leads. Because success is faithfulness.
What did you think about the movie? Do you think we need Christian examples in the business world? Comment below!
Whenever you go to refuel your car, think about how you’re doing on refueling in your personal life.
I recently went on a road trip with my mom up to Wheaton College from home. It was over 2,000 miles, and it was a lot of fun! One thing we had to do a lot was stop for gas to refuel.
This got me thinking. That is a lot like how life works.
When you’re driving, you can only go so far before you need to refuel your gas tank. Otherwise, bad things will happen. You’ll run out of gas, get stuck on the side of the road, and have to wait a long time before you can get gas and get going again. There may have been someone you needed to see or some appointment to go to. But you missed it, because you didn’t take the time earlier in your day to refuel before it got to breaking point of running out. But you must face the consequences of running on empty.
Just as in driving, the same thing happens in life. If we let ourselves get too tired or worn out or push ourselves to our limit for too long, then we will run out of gas too. We’ll get mad at people we care about, won’t act like ourselves, and will hurt the people around us. We won’t perform as well or think as clearly or make as good of decisions, because we’re drained and don’t have any energy left.
But there’s a solution to this. Refuel along the way. If we refuel often, then we will be energized and ready to lead and be ourselves.
You may be thinking: “That’s a great idea, but how can I better refuel?”
Well let me share some of the ways that I try to refuel myself:
Whenever you go to refuel your car, think about how you’re doing on refueling in your personal life.
What are some ways you refill in your life? Comment below your ways!
Well, I’ve realized that my last blog post was unrealistic. My idea I put forth about writing daily about what you have done and what you have learned from it in specific categories isn’t doable. I wrote daily going through this document every day for about a week. But I didn’t maintain it after that. I found it’s just so hard to find time to do it every day and it’s not sustainable.
Now I still believe that it’s important to learn from both failure AND success, but I think there needs to be a better way to do it, not my document idea I created. I mean, if the document works for you, then great! But for me, I need to find a better way to learn from my daily failures and successes.
What I Learned:
So I’m not perfect, and I may post some things on here that don’t work. But I’m admitting this, because I’d like help! I’m interested in finding a better way to learn from everyday life than my document. Do you have any way to try to capture some of your learning? Comment below with any ideas!
Everyone always talks about how you’ll learn more from your failures than you will from your successes.
I don’t think this has to be the case. I think that we usually learn more from failures, because we’re forced to. Either we learn from it or we fail again. There’s often not as much of a choice. But I think we can learn just as much from success, but we never take the time to do this.
Think about it. Last time you failed or did something wrong, you probably thought about it after and you’re going to try to act differently in the future. But when was the last time you reflected on what went well and asked why it went well? It’s probably been a long time since you’ve done this.
My solution: Think about and learn from failures AND successes.
But how? Well I’ve just recently started something to try to capture more of this learning. I want to take time every day and think about what I’ve done and how I can learn from it.
I created an attached document that I am filling out every day. And at the end of the week, I’m going to do a summary of it in each of the categories. See the attached document for my sheet.
My fill-in-the-blanks:
What I Did Today: All activities or things I’ve done in the day. It helps in filling in the rest.
Observed: What did I observe around me. How others interacted, things I noticed, etc.
Learned Generally: This is for anything I learned that wasn’t a failure or success. Could just be an insight or something.
Learned from Failures: What I learned from messing up and failing
Learned from Successes: What I learned from the things that went well and I succeeded in
Action Steps: Pressing things that now need action. Keep this part small or you’ll create a huge to-do list you’ll never get to.
How God’s Character was Revealed: This line was a suggestion by my dad, and I really like it. It’s so important to see who God is and how He’s revealed in all aspects of life. This helps me reflect on how God was with me and gives me new insights into how He cares for me.
Now I should mention that I’m just starting to do this myself, so I may change it in the future. I’ve really enjoyed doing it so far, and I’ve learned a lot. The biggest barrier to me daily doing this is running out of time. My solution: do it throughout the day. Then it’s not too much at once.
I’d really encourage you to try this for ONE WEEK. Give it a shot. Print out 8 copies of it (one for every day and one for summarizing the week).
Do you have any thoughts on this? Comment below!
I ask this question all the time.
“What’s your favorite ____?”
“What’s your favorite salad?” “What’s your favorite book?” “Who’s your favorite professor?” “What’s your favorite class?”
Asking this question to people who know what they’re talking about provides insight that you would otherwise not have. They’re the experts, and you are now seeking advice and counsel from the experts, even if it’s just a normal person. We’re all experts in something. And we need to learn from other experts. That waitress is an expert in the restaraunt’s food, so go ahead and ask her advice.
Seek wisdom in big and little ways by asking this question.
You’ll get deep insight on things from experts, and you will learn about things that you would never otherwise hear about.
So add this to your vocabulary and ask it a lot: What’s your favorite ____(you fill in the blank – on everything)?
What is one of your favorite things? Favorite food, class, website, etc.
Tell me! I wanna learn! Comment below and share with me.
I have been thinking about this one question a lot for the last week and a half.
What do you want to be known for?
Why do you need to ask this?
This is such an important question to ask yourself. Asking and answering this question can define how you live your life. By figuring out what you want to be known for, it allows you to then start living those characteristics out.
You’re going to be known for something. Why not figure out what you want to be known for and then start being known for that through your actions.
What do you need to do?
Ask. Answer.
Now that you know what you want to be known for, go start living it out! Embody those characteristics in all of your actions. In time, others will come to know you by these things as well.
Me:
I thought about sharing what I want to be known for, but I don’t want you to just copy the same things.
But I’ll share with you the #1 thing I want to be known for: Being a follower of Jesus, a man after God’s own heart.
I’d encourage you to make that your #1 as well. (For more info on who Jesus is and why you should follow him, click here.)
What do you want to be known for? You’re already known for something, now define it yourself and go live it!
Why is one of the most important questions that you can ever ask about anything. Asking this will help you to really understand things at a deeper level.
As you keep asking why, you’ll get closer and closer to the root cause of something. Knowing what causes that one thing which causes that other thing which causes that core thing let’s you then be able to really get at the root of something and not just hack at the branches, the things that won’t produce real change.
Try asking why 7 times today. That may sound silly, but you most likely don’t ask it that many times already. Try it out. You’ll see that things will make more sense and you’ll understand more things. You’ll get real change in time.
Why. 7 times. Today.
