# The Organizational Othering of Analytics By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2022-09-23 People attempt to make sense of things. The human experience is vast and becomes manageable as unique things are categorized. Organizationally, people attempt to make sense of analytics and analysts. Who are they? What is it that they do? These are common questions, as different levels of management and functional departments attempt to incorporate analytics into the execution of existing organizational work. This is the “bolt-on” approach to analytics. The idea is that analytics exists as a distinct entity, “[[Organizational Outsiders|out there]],” and it can be affixed to the “real” organization. In existential-sociological terms, this is an act of othering that places analytics at a distance. Such an approach produces limited results. Sure, an analytic study can be accomplished. When it is, assuming it is compelling, it might even be incorporated. The structural [[reality]] of analytics as the organizational other makes it all too often easy to ignore. One can quickly marginalize analytics as being too academic, esoteric, complicated, or removed from operational reality. The organizational structure legitimates the action. Building analytics into the organizational brand necessitates a different organizational structure. The “bolt-on” approach is used, not because it is advantageous, but because it is easy. Analytics is arriving late to the game. The organization likely predates the incorporation of analytics. As such, it is easiest to simply take what exists already and superimpose some analytics between the functional seams within organizations. With time, organizations can start to resemble Frankenstein’s monster as various parts are added. In the absence of a coherent brand, the application of analytics makes little sense, which is suggestive of why so many organizations fail to capitalize on its application. In general, building analytics into the organizational brand gravitates towards becoming a thinking organization. Of course, an organization would want to tailor this concept to create a specific value proposition, but in short, an organization that effectively leverages analytics will be forced to think perpetually. This road is risky. It is not merely coincidental that the Enlightenment brought with it the radical redefinition of power and authority. Becoming a thinking organization is more egalitarian and harder to control. Perhaps this betrays the underlying reason organizations tend to other analytics. #### Related Items [[Analytics]] [[Organizational Analytics]] [[Business]] [[Enlightenment]] [[Structure]] [[Thinking]] [[Authority]] [[Power]]