#56 Operationalising strategy: Connecting plans, people and progress
Make Data Talk
In this episode, Dr Selena Fisk explores why strategic plans, annual improvement plans, team improvement plans, and individual professional learning goals need to be clearly aligned if organisations want to make meaningful progress. Using the metaphor of ants scattering after a nest is kicked, Selena unpacks how organisations can become very busy without necessarily moving together. She discusses the importance of connecting strategy to daily practice, aligning improvement work across teams and divisions, and using data to track progress in a coherent and meaningful way. This episode is for...
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#55 How curious leaders build a better data culture
Make Data Talk
What role does curiosity play in building a truly data-informed culture? In this episode of Make Data Talk, Dr Selena Fisk explores why curiosity is one of the most important—and most overlooked—leadership behaviours in data-informed organisations. While many leaders invest in dashboards, reports and data strategies, sustainable improvement depends on creating a culture where people feel safe to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and explore what the data is really telling them. Selena discusses how leaders model curiosity through the questions they ask, why psychological...
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#54 Being a learning organisation means more than good intentions
Make Data Talk
In this episode, Dr. Selena Fisk explores what it really means to be a learning organisation and challenges whether most teams are actually learning or simply saying the right things. Drawing on Harvard Business Review’s work on learning organisations, she unpacks the role of both pre-decision and post-decision data, and why the real test of organisational learning comes when evidence challenges the plan, the decision, or the leader.
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#53 Why outcome and hindsight bias undermine your impact story
Make Data Talk
In this episode, Dr. Selena Fisk explores why perceptions data is essential at the start of any change project. This episode examines how hindsight bias and outcomes bias distort post-change evaluation, and why leaders need baseline feedback from employees, leaders, clients, and other stakeholders to measure change accurately.
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#52 Why we need to separate decision quality from outcomes
Make Data Talk
In this week's episode, Dr Selena Fisk explores data-informed decision making, outcome bias, and hindsight bias, and explains why a disappointing results do not always mean the original decision was wrong. This episode is for professionals and leaders who want to make better decisions, reflect more effectively, and learn how to separate decision quality from decision outcomes when navigating uncertainty, complexity, and change.
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#51 The leadership team sport behind data-informed culture
Make Data Talk
In this episode, Dr. Selena Fisk explores data-informed culture and the leadership alignment required to make it stick. She breaks down why middle leaders and middle management can’t carry data culture change alone, and why executive sponsorship and middle leader follow-through are essential if an organisation wants data to genuinely shape decisions. Listeners will learn what strong leadership alignment looks like between senior and middle leaders, how misalignment quietly stalls change management, and the practical signals that shift data-informed work from a project into “the way we...
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#50 Stop letting Excel choose your charts for you
Make Data Talk
In this episode of Make Data Talk, Dr. Selena Fisk breaks down why “recommended charts” and default visualisations often hide the real story in your data... and what to do instead. You’ll learn how Microsoft Excel’s chart choices can unintentionally mislead your audience, distract from your message, or make insights harder to see, especially when you’re presenting to leaders, clients, or time-poor teams. If you’ve ever wondered: why your chart feels “technically correct” but still confusing what makes a chart persuasive, not just pretty how to avoid common Excel...
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#49 What if you have an epic data story but you're worried people in the meeting won't get it?
Make Data Talk
Most data storytelling advice focuses on the analysis: choosing the right data, selecting the best charts, and building compelling visuals. But in real organisations, the hardest part is often what happens after the analysis — when you have to share the data in a meeting. In this episode, Dr. Selena Fisk explores why data conversations can break down in mixed-skill meetings, where some people speak fluently in metrics, others think in outcomes, and some are quietly trying to interpret the chart (or work out whether what they’re seeing is “right”). Without designing for this reality,...
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#48 Your data strategy and data plan are two different things - get both!
Make Data Talk
In this episode of Make Data Talk, Dr. Selena Fisk breaks down the critical difference between a data strategy and a data plan, and why confusing the two is quietly undermining data-informed decision making in many organisations. Too often, leaders believe they have a data strategy when what they actually have is a collection of dashboards, reporting tools, or technology roadmaps. But a true data strategy defines why data matters, and how it creates value. A data plan, on the other hand, clarifies what data is used, by whom, when, and what responsibility sits behind it. If you care...
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#47 Your data dashboard IS NOT a data story
Make Data Talk
Most dashboards look impressive. They’re packed with metrics, trends, and filters, and yet they still leave people asking, “So what?” In this episode of Make Data Talk, Dr. Selena Fisk unpacks why a data dashboard is not a data story (and why confusing the two leads to stalled decisions, misaligned teams, and “insight” that never turns into action). You’ll learn the critical importance of meaning-making, how to move from reporting to narrative, and the value in leaders translating charts into clarity. If you’re a leader, analyst, or anyone responsible for communicating data,...
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