Improving data quality can feel overwhelming. There are so many things to fix and so many processes to improve. Where do you even start?
Surprisingly, the answer may come from an unusual place—flossing your teeth.
Start Small to Build Better Habits
In the book Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg, the author suggests a simple way to build habits. If you want to start flossing your teeth, don’t aim for a perfect routine right away. Instead, start with just one tooth.
At first, this sounds silly. Why floss just one tooth? But the goal isn’t perfect flossing right away—it’s about building the habit. Once flossing one tooth becomes easy, you naturally start doing more.
The same idea applies to improving data quality.
The Problem: No Follow-Through
I recently worked with a data team struggling with production data errors. They started holding quality circle meetings to reflect on problems and find solutions. But there was an issue—after listing their action items, they never followed through.
Without follow-up, the meetings felt pointless, and eventually, they stopped having them altogether.
The Solution: Make It Easy
I used to advise teams to:
- Hold a retrospective or quality circle.
- List action items.
- Add them to the ticketing system and implement them.
What if, instead of tackling everything at once, they just picked one thing that was easy to do?
So, I simplified the process:
✅ Pick one small action to implement.
✅ Choose something easy to do, don’t worry about impact.
Instead of overwhelming themselves with a long to-do list, they could focus on one easy change and start forming a new organizational habit. Once the habit is formed, and the team is proficient at following up on actions, they can move to addressing more significant issues.
Why This Works
- IIt builds momentum. Just like flossing one tooth leads to flossing them all, completing one action makes it easier to do the next.
- IIt’s realistic. Teams are busy. Small changes are more likely to get done.
- IIt leads to visible progress. A quick win shows that improvements are possible, motivating the team to keep going.
The Takeaway
If your team struggles with follow-through, don’t try to fix everything at once. Instead, start small. At your next quality circle, choose just one action item that’s easy to complete. Once you build that habit, bigger improvements will follow.
Just like flossing one tooth, small steps lead to big results.
