You Work With Data, But You Still Work With People

An interesting question came up during one of my recent training sessions.

But before I get into that, if you personally know me, or have followed me on LinkedIn for a while, you probably already know that despite having spent most of my career in data, I've always had a strange fascination with the study of people, cultures, societies, behavioural science, and the many strange ways in which people can look at exactly the same situation and somehow end up with completely different interpretations.

And in many places I’ve bragged about how anthropology, sociology, and psychology have always been my favourite subjects in college. Ohhh look, I just did it again!

So the question was:

How does anthropology fit into data? And do we really need it? (I'm paraphrasing the question here.)

My short answer - No, you don’t need to study anthropology to work in data. But having some curiosity about people, cultures, and different ways of thinking can help you far more than you might realize.

Data Is About People Too

We often talk about analytics as though it is primarily about codes & numbers - SQL, Python, dashboards, statistics, data modelling, KPIs…etc. But you know what? Eventually most of that work ends up in front of a person.

Someone has to read your report. Someone has to interpret your recommendation. Someone has to challenge your assumptions. And someone has to make a decision based on what you’ve presented. And that person doesn’t come with a standardized operating system.

They come with their own experiences, expectations, personality, cultural background, communication style, professional history, and personal biases.

That’s where understanding people becomes incredibly useful.

You Don’t Learn Culture Only From Books

I don’t think you necessarily need to read ten books on anthropology before you can become better at understanding people. In fact, some of the most useful lessons I’ve learned about cultures and societies didn’t come from books at all. They came from having different conversations with different people.

Of course in highschool and college conversations were random and useless, but once I put my foot in the corporate world, those conversations started becoming a lot more interesting.

I’d talk to people, ask questions, listen to their experiences, and all through that try to understand why saw certain things differently. You’ll be surprised how simply spending enough time around people from different backgrounds teaches you things that no textbook can quite capture.

You start noticing how people communicate.

How they express disagreement.

How comfortable they are with direct feedback.

How they react / respond to good and bad news.

How they approach hierarchy.

How much detail they need before making a decision.

And perhaps most importantly, you slowly realize that your way isn't necessarily the default way.

Growing Up Around Different Perspectives Helped Me

In some ways, perhaps I consider myself slightly fortunate because I grew up in a super-duper multicultural country (born and raised in Dubai, UAE), and I’ve probably mentioned that more times than I should’ve. But honestly, that exposure had a huge influence on me.

Having the opportunity to study, work, travel, and spend significant periods of my life around different people from different backgrounds genuinely shaped how I interact with people.

Infact, throughout my career in data, working with management, executives, colleagues and other stakeholders from completely different parts of the world really prepared me for something that I didn’t even realize I was learning at the time - How to communicate the same message differently to different people.

And I’m not talking about changing the truth. The data remains the same, the insight remains the same, but the way that insight is framed makes all the difference.

The Same News Can Land Very Differently

Imagine you have to tell a senior manager that their department has significantly underperformed against target. The underlying message doesn’t change, but how you communicate it can be adjusted.

Some people appreciate very direct communication:

“We’re 18% below target. Here are the three main reasons…..”

Others might respond better if you establish the context first, explain what changed, and then gradually move towards the problem.

You see, neither approach is inherently better. It’s simply about understanding the person sitting across from you. And knowing that can be incredibly useful when you have to deliver difficult news.

Sometimes, you might even anticipate some strong reactions to a particular insight. Not necessarily because the insight is wrong, but because of how the information is presented or what it represents to them. And that little bit of anticipation can prevent you from overreacting to their reaction.

Instead of thinking: “Why are they reacting like this?”

You can think: “Okay, I expected this might happen. Let’s understand what’s behind the reaction.”

That changes the entire conversation.

But….Be Careful With Cultural Stereotypes

Now, despite everything I've said so far, there is an important caveat you need to keep in mind - Understanding culture does NOT mean putting people into boxes. I don’t believe that because someone comes from a particular country or background, I can automatically predict how they’ll behave. That’s dangerous!!!

Two people from the exact same culture can have completely different personalities.

One might be extremely direct. Another might be incredibly diplomatic.

One might love public debate. Another might prefer to discuss disagreements privately.

Culture can influence people, but it doesn’t define them.

That’s why I think cultural awareness should be used as a starting point for curiosity, not a shortcut for judgement.

Instead of thinking: “People from this culture always communicate this way.”

Think: “I’ve noticed this communication style before. I wonder if it applies here?”

And then ask. Listen. Observe. Adjust. It’s that simple. Well, maybe not always that simple. But it’s certainly no rocket science either.

Why Does This Matter in Analytics?

Analytics can sometimes create difficult conversations.

You might have to inform management that performance is declining. Or, you might have to point out a gap, or challenge some manager’s ridiculous assumption, or present numbers someone may not particularly like…..the possibilities are endless

The point is, when your work is connected to someone’s performance, budget, team, reputation, or strategic decision, you’re no longer just presenting data, you’re communicating something that matters to them. And that’s why, understanding your audience can be just as important as understanding your dataset.

You've probably heard some version of this from many different people - your absolutely perfect analysis can still fail if the way you communicate it creates unnecessary resistance.

So now the BIG question is: How do you actually get better at understanding your audience?

The answer is below…….

Start Networking

The more people you’ll meet, the more you’ll learn.

When I was handling an analytics team, one of the things I strongly encouraged my team to do was to get their heads out of the spreadsheet and simply talk to more people.

I’d tell them to talk to managers, teamleaders or even people outside our department. Have informal conversations, ask questions. Sometimes, many of those casual conversations would turn into surprisingly useful brainstorming sessions.

But those little interactions helped my team understand how different functions operated, which KPIs mattered to different teams, how managers described problems, how they reacted to certain situations, and why they saw things differently. And ultimately, all those conversations taught them something incredibly important:

Your own assumptions aren’t as universal as you think.

The good news is, you don’t need to have grown up in a multicultural environment or spent twenty years working with people from different backgrounds to develop this skill. You can deliberately practice it.

Start by becoming more curious about people. Once you have a decent idea of what people care about, the kind of decisions they have to deal with, what concerns them…etc, you can then get a better idea of how you want to frame your communication.

Eventually, before presenting any insight, you might naturally start asking yourself: “How can I communicate this in a way that helps them understand rather than simply proving that I’m right?”. And, if you ask me, that's a pretty powerful question for any analyst to start with.

So, Do You Really Need Anthropology to Work in Data?

No. But I do think you need some curiosity about people.

Because eventually your numbers are going to leave your spreadsheet and end up in someone’s inbox, in a meeting, in someone’s whatsapp business conversation, in a boardroom, or simply in a conversation between two people trying to decide what to do next. And for those interactions to go smoothly, understanding the person on the other side of the table can become incredibly valuable.

Honestly, I never deliberately set out to become better at cross-cultural communication. It happened through exposure, through conversations, through mistakes and through observing people. And that’s something all of us can continue to improve in our own ways.

You don’t need to become an expert in every culture. Sometimes all you need is to be curious about the person sitting across from you. Start from there.

And soon enough, you’ll notice how understanding people can improve your interactions with stakeholders and your data communication, ultimately elevating you as an analyst.