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Ideagen Radio
Ideagen Radio
The Power of Data-Driven Decision Making with Gallup's Ilana Ron-Levy
How do we transform raw data into actionable insights that drive meaningful change? Gallup's Managing Director Ilana Ron-Levy takes us on a fascinating journey through the evolving landscape of research and leadership.
Ron-Levy's path to data-driven leadership began with her natural talent for asking probing questions and seeking evidence-based conclusions. She shares how she discovered applied research as a career – bridging rigorous analysis with real-world business applications. This perfect fusion of scientific methodology and client partnerships has defined her approach across three prestigious research firms.
The conversation explores how government agencies and organizations must evolve beyond simply collecting data to actually using those insights for difficult decision-making. Ron-Levy highlights the transformative potential of AI in democratizing research by dramatically reducing costs, while cautioning that quantity doesn't automatically translate to quality insights. The real magic happens when technology enhances, rather than replaces, thoughtful inquiry.
Perhaps most compelling is Ron-Levy's personal connection to historical understanding. As the grandchild of Holocaust survivors (her grandfather a resistance hero imprisoned in Auschwitz, her grandmother imprisoned in Siberia at 17), she contemplated profound questions about human resilience from an early age. This perspective informs both her research approach and her service with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, preserving crucial historical knowledge as firsthand witnesses diminish.
Looking forward, Ron-Levy reveals Gallup's groundbreaking finding that transcends cultural and economic differences worldwide: hope is the quality people value most in leaders. Those who can navigate complexity while inspiring optimism build the strongest followings – a powerful framework for understanding effective leadership in our increasingly complex world. What research questions are you asking that could reveal similarly transformative insights for your organization?
Welcome to IdeaGen and the IdeaGen Catalyze Impact Podcast. Today I am honored to have with me Ilana Ron-Levy, managing Director at Gallup, ilana welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you, George. It's great to see you. I'm honored to be here.
Speaker 1:Always great to see you, ilana, and we've had the privilege of having you at IdeaGen in the past. It's been a little bit of time and so much has happened, as we discussed in our pre-interview today here in the world in technology and on and on, and so I'd like to first ask you you've had such an incredibly diverse career spanning research, consulting and leadership roles what drew you to this field at Gallup?
Speaker 2:You know it's such an important question. When I talk to younger people about their career trajectories, I always try to think about intentionality in careers versus sort of following your innate strengths and talents and seeing what that all leads to. Sometimes, when you're 18, you just don't yet know which direction you'll go, but I've tried to be both very intentional and sort of taking stock of my own talents and my own strengths, thinking through what would be the best career path. I think I knew from a young age and in college that I was good at asking questions. I was good at having a conversation and really trying to derive meaning and insight from that, looking at a lot of information in a class and, instead of kind of using emotion to dictate what conclusion I would draw, really wanting to look at all sides of an issue and different data inputs and different sources.
Speaker 2:It took me, I think, until grad school and my first job out of grad school to understand, though, that applied research was actually a career and that there was a way to be a professional researcher that was not an academic but was using research and analytics and insights to have real world applications. Real world applications, and that first job really, I think, opened so many doors for me because when you're working in professional services, even if it's about research, there's a lot of other competencies in play about business realities, working with clients that give and take between really high quality research but meeting the objectives of what a client is looking to get out, surprising them with discoveries, maybe sharing difficult truths, but still being a trusted partner and a trusted advisor. And I've had the privilege to work at three different research firms in my career but I think that that really finds that trajectory balancing really high quality, rigorous research that provides insights, but building really trusting relationships with clients to help solve some of their toughest problems.
Speaker 1:Incredible. And so, as you're overseeing public sector engagements at Gallup, what are some of the key trends you're seeing in government and in multilateral partnerships?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, obviously you know the the first few months of 2025 has charted a new course for government, with, you know, a set of challenges. There's also a set of opportunities about delivering cost effective value for the American people, really doubling down on mission, trying to understand what's core versus what might be extraneous. But I think you know, for our clients, what's been really exciting at Gallup is we're continuing to build on that mission of deriving and providing kind of world-class analytics and insights, but moving beyond that to really think about how do organizations use these data, use these insights to derive brand visibility, to deepen their own thought leadership on an important topic, to make organizational decisions, to have insights that can affect their own funding priorities for the future. So I think that that's really been something important to me and to our organization to deliver the highest quality research, but to move and help our clients move beyond just delivering data to using those data to position their organizations and fundamentally change the way that they make decisions.
Speaker 1:You know that's incredible insight and I'd like to drive a little bit more into that because we see you know, like you said, the opportunities with a more efficient government, et cetera. How can governments, ilana and organizations better use data? We talked a little bit in our pre-interview conversation about AI. How can government and organizations use data and insights to drive more efficiency, more impact, et cetera. How is and you must be, you're at the cutting edge of all this, so I'm really excited to hear some of your insights in that world, especially in AI.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's an important question. I mean, I think, before we get to AI, which obviously is a part of it, a crucial part, I think, fundamentally, when government agencies and, you know, public sector organizations are conducting large scale social programs, programmatic interventions, I think that there's an obligation to the public to be using evidence and data to assess are these programs working? And the whole kind of evaluation field, which started primarily in evaluating large-scale government programs at differing levels of rigor, really was born out of that right that if the government is going to be spending millions and millions and millions of dollars on social programs, it's important to understand do these programs fundamentally achieve the outcomes that they are trying to achieve? And, of course, in the private sector and private sector clients, it goes without saying that if you're wholesale, making a huge investment, you want to use data to understand the ROI, and that data can look like so many things. I mean sales information, customer feedback, how employees are responding. There's a whole sort of scale of metrics that you would look at. So I think, on the government side, I think the call to action is not just doing the research and the evaluation but actually using it to make difficult decisions. You know you sometimes read stories about evaluations being conducted for 15 years consistently showing that a program is not working to deliver its intended outcome. So I think that the call to action, of course, is how do you make sure you're not just doing research for research sake, but you're doing research to drive better decision making?
Speaker 2:Now, on the AI side, what's really exciting is AI has the ability to democratize, at very, very low cost, a lot of elements of the data collection and even the data analysis process.
Speaker 2:So, to give you an example, let's say, historically, focus groups or qualitative data collection, the unit cost tends to be high, the sample size tends to be low, but you can learn so much sort of exploratory information about a potential new product or how people feel about issues that can lead you to make really good hypotheses and then test quantitatively.
Speaker 2:Now, with AI, suddenly, you now have this world where maybe you could do thousands of focus groups, but I think that at a very, very low cost. I think that the question for organizations will be how do you not get so awash in quantity that you're losing the ability to really derive meaning and insight, because bigger doesn't necessarily mean that you're learning more, and I think that those organizations that use AI to drive down the costs of the process steps involved in research, and there are many, many, many manual, labor-intensive tasks that go with high-quality research. Those that can use AI to drive those costs down but still are laser-focused on having the right research questions, the right research objectives and truly deriving meaning are going to be those that really are able to excel and succeed. So just because research will become more democratized doesn't mean that it's going to become more high quality, and I think that's going to be one of the challenges and the opportunities ahead that are really exciting.
Speaker 1:That is really exciting, Ilana, and just, you know, incredible to hear what you all are doing always at Gallup and how you're pivoting and always adapting. That's what I find the most inspiring about your work at Gallup is you're always, you know, at the cutting edge of the next thing. In this case, you're staying right, right at tune with everything that's happening with the technology that you know. Many have referred to, as you know, maybe beyond what the industrial revolution was in terms of AI, et cetera, and the impact thereof, and so I'd love to switch gears for a moment and talk about you and your service on the Next Generation Board for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and ask you how has that experience influenced your perspective, specifically on leadership and community service and impact?
Speaker 2:Well, what's interesting is that kind of the specter and the impact of the Holocaust has always been something very important in my life. My paternal grandparents were both Holocaust survivors. They had very, very different journeys journeys my grandfather was a resistance hero who saved many lives but was ultimately imprisoned in Auschwitz, and my grandmother escaped Nazi-occupied Poland into attempting to go to Romania, was caught by the Soviets and was imprisoned in Siberia at age 17. And so both of them had these transformational experiences at an incredibly young age. Both lost their entire families and were the only surviving members of their families. And I was aware of parts of this history at a very young age, of parts of this history at a very young age, I think as early as kindergarten, I was starting to piece together this history and what this meant and how I could have these grandparents, who you know I was so close to, in a normal, you know, grandchild, grandparent experience of you know, go get ice cream and, you know, just hang out, but knowing that they had this other part of their life that I would probably never really be able to fully understand. So I think it had a profound impact. It certainly had a profound impact on my father as well. But I think you know, just thinking about these big picture questions of how do you survive against the odds, how do you retain your humanity, your optimism, how do you trust people again, all of these trust people again, all of these I think very philosophical questions were things that I thought about really young in life. I think it probably did kind of tie into my career of why I like to talk to people and understand their stories and their perspectives.
Speaker 2:So when the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened, my family we were very happy that it opened, supported the museum, visited the museum in its first year of existence. There was more distance from a cataclysmic historical event. There's more and more revision of the historical record. There's more doubting that something so terrible could occur. But fundamentally you're facing a world where those firsthand survivors of the Holocaust who so powerfully shared their experiences in this upcoming generation that opportunity just won't exist anymore. So I was always very inspired that the museum featured so many volunteer survivors who told their story. The majority of the visitors to the Holocaust Museum have no personal connection to what happened. They come from all over the world. It's one of the most frequently visited sites in Washington DC and that's just super, super inspiring to me. I see, you know kids waiting in line, not from school groups but because they want to go, and families who are visiting Washington DC for the first time and want to make this a part of what they're learning about, and I think I feel very committed to being part of that.
Speaker 1:And I think I feel very committed to being part of that. You know, that's just awe-inspiring to hear how it's impacted you, how it's shaped you and how it's affecting and, you know, sort of furthering your leadership and perspective, which I think is all the collective part of this and really drives into your work at Gallup, which I find again incredibly inspiring. And so, ilana, looking ahead, you're looking at public sector research and global polling and we talked about technology what do you think will be the most important item let's just call it an item in the next decade?
Speaker 2:That's a hard question. I think that you know, in the pursuit for effective and authentic leadership in a much more challenging, complex environment challenging, complex environment I think there is a perennial search to understand what makes a good and effective leader, and we released, I think, a really groundbreaking study here at Gallup in February that looked at the global demands of leadership from the perspective of citizens across the world. I think it's the largest study of leadership ever conducted and it asked people in close to 100 countries who do they admire as the most positive leader in their life and what were the attributes to explain why this was such an effective leader. And all kinds of different countries, different economic levels, different religiosity levels you name it and when we were able to thematically look across these thousands and thousands and thousands of open-ended comments and we actually used AI to really accelerate the analysis process and merge AI into our traditional qualitative analysis methods, we were able to see that, loud and clear, what people were looking for primarily from leaders was hope, and that was the attribute that made the biggest difference in people's lives, and I think that that is a really inspiring message.
Speaker 2:I think it says that if you're a leader who has to make tough decisions deliver bad news. There is a way to do that that still provides hope for people to say we're making a tough decision today because that's going to unlock a better future for us moving forward. You know, I think when you think about who wins elections and who loses elections even if the outcome is surprising to certain commentators in the beginning when you take a step back and say who did the population feel provided a pathway for a more hopeful future, it can sometimes help to explain those dynamics. So I think that those leaders who are best able to navigate this really complex environment, lead through disruption, lead through change, but still inspire hope for a better future, are going to naturally build constituencies and followers, and I find that really inspiring that that was based on the perspectives of nationally representative samples across the world from countries and populations that are so different from each other.
Speaker 1:You know, ilana, it's incredible that you know we could, you know, go through an interview for hours and days with all of the perspective and inspiration that you're providing and that Gallup is providing, and so I'll ask that we continue this interview at a later date as well, for part two, because we just, we just there's just too much to to to capture in one interview. But I know that the millions of people that will hear and watch this interview will be inspired by you and your work at Gallup. Ilana Ron Levy, managing director at Gallup. Ilana Ron-Levy, managing Director at Gallup, thank you for all you do, thank you for your inspiration, thank you for your leadership and thank you to Gallup for all the incredible work being done globally.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, George. It was really an honor to be here and I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. Thank you, Alana.