Accidentally in Code

Tag: graphs

Org Survey Part 2: Analysis
This is the second part of running an org survey. You can find the questions in part 1.

What Does The Data Look Like?

First step is color-coding the spreadsheet to show trends in the numbers. I made a sample spreadsheet and generated random data – so it looks a little chaotic – but you can see how patterns would (hopefully) emerge if it was data from you know… actual humans.

I used conditional formatting and the colors matched the scale used – so green is good! And red is… not good.

This is all set up in the template spreadsheet. This is in the Google Docs folder with all the templates – including the survey templates from part 1.

My random number generators are not particularly happy with Management

How Does the Data Break Down By Team?

Now we can break out the answers by team! For each question you need a new sheet. The spreadsheet has a template one.

This might look like a lot of work, but it’s all automated. All you need to change is the B column and the chart title. If you pull in a different column, everything will regenerate and you’ll get a nice new graph.

There’s programming in this spreadsheet 😂

How Do Managers Compare?

In the graph above we can see that bunnies are either very happier or very sad, raccoons look to be least happy, and owls are somewhere in the middle. This allows you to see whether some teams seem happier than others, and it’s a good conversation to have with the manager of that team about why they think that is.

You can also use this spreadsheet to generate graphs for just individual managers by deleting some of the data. Make a copy, delete the data for other teams, and everything will regenerate. I make a master sheet for the overall team, and then I make a copy for each manager and delete the data for other teams so that they can focus on their own results.

You can also compare your overall graphs with the ones generated by the manager survey. Because the first set of questions are the same, this can be a really helpful way to see what managers aren’t feeling great about – and if they’re not feeling great about something, it’s pretty likely that filters down to their team.

Now What?

This is all just data. What’s next?
- Think about the relationship between your manager results and your skip level results – does this give you any ideas of things you can focus on?
- Think about your team breakdown – what’s the variation like between teams?
  - Are there ways that some teams are more set up to be successful than others?
  - Are there things the managers of less happy teams can work on?
  - Are there things that happier teams are doing particularly well that could be socialized better?
August 3, 2017
Chart Showing Number of Cliques / Follower / Following

You can change around the axis etc however you like. Suggestion:

Color: unique colors

Size: Number of Cliques

Y-axis: Followers

X-axis: Following

Now press the “play” button at the bottom left of the chart. You’ll see the bubbles change in size. I know it looks like a year, but it’s not – 1903 means number of cliques of size 3, 1904 is number of cliques of size 4, etc (haven’t figured out how to fix this yet, if anyone knows please let me know in the comments – thanks!)

December 11, 2009
TouchGraph

This is kinda awesome – check out the demos here.

Screenshot for “Social Networking” from Amazon:

"social networking" on Amazon – created by TouchGraph

My Facebook network (zoomed out):

My Facebook Network (zoomed out) – created by TouchGraph

Zoomed in:

Facebook Network (zoomed in) – created by TouchGraph

And finally, this adds a whole new dimension to Vanity Searching!

Vanity Search – created by TouchGraph

November 2, 2009
Tracking Things

For a while now, I’ve been tracking something I’m describing “day in one word” on Mycrocosm. Thing is, by the end of each day I’m judging myself harshly and finding myself inadequate so looking at the data it seems I’m pretty miserable – and yet I think I’m fairly happy. After a good sleep, I wake up eager to do it again.

So now I’m tracking “morning mood” too. And, as I’m finally able to exercise (kinda) as my knee is a lot better I’m tracking that as well. I’m really out of the habit, so hopefully the shame of having to write “none” will get me into the pool!

All my datasets are here.

November 2, 2009
Mycrocosm

Last month, I read a paper on Mycrocosm – briefly a site that facilitates “microblogging through stats”. So for the last month I’ve tracked everything I drank, see the graph linked below.

Drinks

So – big who cares? Well, I found it interesting! For instance, there was a big jump in liquid consumption when our heating broke, and I could see that I tend to drink more when I work from home, etc. However tracking what I drank did not require much thought or effort on my part. A couple of times a day I just go to mycrocosm and add whatever I’ve drank lately – so it was a good (easy) thing to start with.

If you have a hankering to track things (I do, hence Wakoopa, last.fm, and 43places) or a need to track something it could be useful. For instance, if you were on a diet you could track everything you ate and your motivator could check up on you. You could even track everything you ate as part of a group data set, so if you were trying to lose weight with friends that might be cute. Or, if you’re training for something you could track that. Triathlon training, for example, you want to balance your training between swimming/running/biking and mycrocosm would easily allow you to track that.

And then people are using it to track more abstract things like “mood”. For the next month, I’ll be tracking “My Day in One Word”. You can see it here: Day in One Word.

October 16, 2009