Suffering From Excel Ennui? Why It's Not (All) Your Fault

I’m now fairly confident with Excel, but I remember the times when I was not. It was frustrating and I can fully emphasise with people who are struggling today; don’t worry – plenty of people out there feel the same and, by reading this, you’ve actually taken the hardest step – acknowledging there is a problem and looking for help. I can commend you for that – and I’m here to tell it’s not all your fault! It’s my aim to help make things better - at least a little bit - by pointing you in the right direction. So let’s quickly get started…

A General Frustration – The Excel Ennui

Go into any office and you’ll find somebody struggling with a spreadsheet. The story extends beyond the office these days; into micro-sized businesses (like mine) and homes across the world people are trying to use Excel to get to grips with data. People even talk to me about their Excel problems at dinner parties! I actually fixed a spreadsheet for my uncle-in-law over the weekend (don’t worry, I didn’t charge him.) The problems seem to be ubiquitous, pervasive – not confined to a particular sector or demographic. 

It seems people fall into one of two categories: you are either frustrated with Excel (90%); or you’re an Excel ‘geek’ (10%). There appears to be no room for somebody who has a healthy attitude towards Excel! You’re an evangelist or a refusenik (which are you?)

Why the frustration, and why the dichotomy? There is so much (free) information out there about how to use the software. The internet (and YouTube in particular) is full of it. Moreover, most organisations offer some kind of in-house training, and provision in universities is gradually getting better. Microsoft itself is improving Excel by adding new functions and boosting computational power. It seems you would have everything you need to learn, so why the Excel Ennui?

A Counter-Productive Narrative

It’s something I’ve reflected on at length during my career as an Excel consultant, MBA lecturer and content creator. I know the real source of the ennui and, as always, things are more complicated then they appear. But, something that has been happening this year that brings it into sharp focus. It makes me think it might not all be the learners’ fault!  Let me tell you about it.

Excel Updates Are Coming. Microsoft updates Excel periodically. If you are subscribed to Office 365, your system probably automatically updates your version of Excel – so you get the new stuff without even asking for it, hurray! You probably don’t usually notice the updates, however.

There has been a buzz in the Excel ‘community’ this year about new functions that are about to be released. In particular, a bundle of so-called ‘dynamic’ functions are included, and the so-called ‘successor’ to VLOOKUP – XLOOKUP. My YouTube feed has been clogged up with creators queuing up to eulogise about how these updates ‘change the game’. To be honest, the clamour has irritated me, and it always does.

Yes, the new stuff is interesting and it’s great we get updates; but, for the average user, the new functionality doesn’t change much. The old frustrations will remain. That’s why I don’t think it helps that the Excel community claims everything will change after the updates; for most people, Excel will feel very much ‘the same’. If we really want Excel to have more of an impact on people’s lives (do we?), we need to manage expectations better and avoid ‘cashing in’ on fads to create a few views for our YouTube channels.

For most people, the new functions won’t change much and the Excel ennui will remain.

I view the problem as follows: promotion is offered where education is needed. People are offered soundbytes and promises of quick improvements since this helps promote the new functions. But is this actually what they need?

A Failure In Expectations Management

Excel is supremely powerful but also complex. I compare learning Excel to learning a skill such as a sport or musical instrument: I learned the drums in my 30s, from scratch to a competent level, and I would say the level of difficulty is comparable – I have sunk a similar amount of time into both in the last decade! One has earned me some money, the other has been something of a money drain – I will let you work out which is which 😊

The first step is to understand this: Excel is a ‘skill’ (like drumming.) Then, what is needed is motivation (this article?), a guide, good materials, a structured learning path with assurance that things won’t make sense straightaway and encouragement to keep going. Users need a teacher! But what they are getting is Microsoft’s promotion, amplified by (parts of) the Excel community. 

The effect is profound: rather than creating a serious (but not at all ‘exciting’) learning environment around the new releases, users are presented with a ‘this changes everything’ (it doesn’t!) narrative to whip up interest in the new functionality. This ultimately compounds the frustration (Double Ennui!) as, once the user inevitably realizes that nothing significant has changed in their daily Excel experience, it’s even worse. You could call it (rather generously) a failure in expectations management.

You could less generously observe that co-operation between Microsoft and content creators (that is well-meaning) in the long run serves to make Excel seem even more difficult – solidifying both the position of the ‘experts’ and the frustration of the average user. Yes, that’s a less generous and somewhat conspiratorial observation but I believe there is some truth in it. So the geeks get better at geeking and the refuseniks get better at refusing!

For most Excel users, the problems remain – as they did after the previous set of updates. Since most have never covered the fundamentals (or ‘rudiments’ in drumming), their knowledge base is built on sand. But is it the users’ fault? By offering solutions that are immediate and superficial (designed to spark interest in a product, video or influencer) rather than long-term and profound, the Excel community, in my view, is short-changing the average user.

A Change In Mindset

The truth is that few Excel users have ever been offered a learning path, or had access to a guide or a set of materials to allow them to really understand the platform. The Excel community should probably be worried about that – I am! Users are muddling through data problems day-to-day, as and when they occur, in an ad hoc manner with the occasional Google search (or phone call to someone like me!)

The lack of a systematic approach at the industry, organization and individual level, coupled with marketing initiatives that can be counter-productive, means we are locked in a cycle that serves to make things worse over time. Only a change of mindset at those three levels will improve things; until this happens, in my view, the Ennui will continue and the future of Excel is not completely secure.

Your Parents Were Right

So, should you be interested in the new updates? Probably, particularly if you are a confident user. They are going to speed (some) things up and allow you to do (some) tasks more efficiently; the functions are not fundamentally ‘new’ or ‘game-changing’, however, at least in my view. You have to see them for what they are.

If you are in the 90% suffering from Excel Ennui, don’t worry about the updates and, if you are interested in actually improving your data analysis skills in 2020, try a different approach. You see - as your parents told you – ‘what you want and is not always what you need’! You want bitesize tutorials, top 5 tips videos, easily consumable, Instagrammable content and a promise that one formula ‘changes everything’. That would make everything easier! What you need is a serious, steady and systematic learning approach that will only work with hours of effort on your part. 

The results, however, are career- and possibly life-changing. Trust me, it is 100% worth the effort.

What Next?

Obviously I would love to have you on our channel. But, I don’t really care who you follow, as long as you shift your mindset and commit to really ‘learning’ Excel – with all the ups and downs, and massive rewards, that it entails. Find a teacher (not a promoter) - somebody you like and get into their material. Beware of unnecessary clamour around Excel updates and the ‘this changes everything’ rhetoric. I’m sure we’ll meet at some point on your Excel learning journey – good luck!