Data Literacy for Leaders

One of the key process blockages in undertaking digital transformation is data literacy. A particular challenge is understanding the needs of data literacy for leaders.  

Recently, I was invited to participate in a brainstorming session hosted by the Canadian School of Public Service to articulate an approach to promoting data literacy for leaders.  Our target group is senior managers and above.  It is an interesting target audience.  Many of these individuals have been promoted because of their experience and domain knowledge.  In policy and service areas, much of that may not have much in the way of data requirements.  These folks rely on their experience and knowledge to inform their decisions.  It has been a process that works for them.  

These are busy people, with a lot of distractions and responsibility.  They are often data reluctant both because they often don't have the time or the training to assess data and the insights it gives and because they don't trust data analysis.  They recognize the value of data, but the time and seeming complexity of understanding data can be a barrier. 

In my work to understand organizational data culture and data skills, we desperately need leaders who understand the strategic value of data, understand how data can have a positive impact on results and transform the organization.  We don't need leaders who are data scientists, we need leaders who are informed data consumers and data advocates.  

So what can we do to become better informed data advocates and leaders?  I believe we can become better data advocates and leaders if we take three or four hours and do the following activities:

1.  Begin to understand the true strategic value of data in your organization.  Go talk to your data people who work with your organization's data every day.  Go have coffee with them and get them to show you what they are doing, what they can do for you and the impact it can have on your business.  By understanding what they do, a bit about how they do it and the strategic value it can bring to your organization, you will begin a really fruitful conversation. 

2.  Create and launch a  Data Values Statement.  See an example here: https://www.datadrivenimpact.com/2021/12/a-data-culture-values-statement.html

3. Begin your own data literacy journey. Tableau has a free online course called Data Literacy for All that is software agnostic to promote individual data literacy.  You can find it here: https://elearning-samples.tableau.com/page/data-literacy

4. Become a data leader/advocate.  Whatever your most pressing business challenge - define the data that underscores that challenge and find out what the data is telling you.  Start insisting on data being presented in decision meetings.  Defined the three or four Key Performance Indicators that drive your results and get a dashboard built on those KPIs.  Then use, share and rely on the insights those dashboards give you. 

Finally, understand that data is at the heart of everything we do in managing people, processes and technology.  Knowledge and experience are important and when linked to the relevant data and insights can create amazing impact on your results.  Isn't that part of what being a great leader is?

Data Culture Enablement Project

 

About eight months ago, a proposal for a Data Culture Enablement Project was granted funding from a Natural Resources of Canada departmental special projects fund. The objective of the project is to develop a series of tools to promote a vibrant data culture and to enhance data literacy and skills within the Department. The project was sponsored by the Canadian Forest Service with the CFS acting as the pilot site. I have the privilege of being the project lead.

 

Over the past eight months a number of core deliverables have been created including:

1.      a draft corporate data values statement as a foundation for a vibrant data culture

2.      four unique Data Personas that can be applied to any position within the organization

3.      a data culture/skills assessment tool based on the Open Data Institute Data Skills Framework

4.      analysis of where the CFS is on a data maturity framework

5.      a matrix to crosswalk combining data personas with a corporate data maturity model, including characteristics, capabilities, recommended data skills and associated sources of training.

 

As we started analyzing the data from the assessment survey, some preliminary observations have emerged.

 

1. Promoting and developing a data culture is more complex than it originally appeared. The technology part is easy - it is the people part that requires thought, patience and perseverance.
2. If you bring 10 people into a room and ask them to define what data is, you will get 15 answers.
3. Data literacy and skills is the operational side of data culture. You cannot promote broader team data literacy and skills without a supportive data culture, hence the need for a corporate data skills values statement.
4. Ultimately, promoting a supportive data culture requires senior leadership buy-in and a strong commitment to change management and ongoing communications

 

There is no question of the positive organizational value that comes from promoting a corporate data culture and the affiliated data literacy and skills. It is not, however, a quick fix. Data culture is a journey, not a destination.

 

More to come, as we work our way through this project. 

Comments and thoughts appreciated....

Data Literacy- the why

I was recently asked to do a briefing note on the what, why and benefits of promoting data skills and data literacy.  This post is based on some of that briefing note.

Background/Considerations

There are three major trends influencing global development that impact organizations of all types:

1.  The Fourth Industrial Revolution – broad scale technological innovation and disruption
2.  COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery – building a global health care system and local economic recovery
3.  Global Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability – to meet the competing issues of global climate change, democratic challenges and a sustainable economic system that meets the needs of all within a net-zero climate.

Data is the lubricant in all of these areas that contributes to the ability to manage these trends with insights that contribute to informed policy making and operational decisions.  Data is now a key organizational strategic asset, second only to people. Leveraging the value of data is now a core strategic advantage.

Today’s largest and most successful organizations use data to their advantage when making high-impact decisions. Corporate investments in data skills and literacy is essential to increase the organizational ability to manage data, derive meaningful and reliable insights, and communicate results to decision makers and stakeholders.  Companies that are more data literate experience 3 to 5% greater enterprise value, which translates to $300 to $500 million greater total market value (The Human Impact of Data Literacy, Accenture, 2020). The higher the enterprise data literacy level, the greater value the business can generate (Deloitte, 2020).

As we come to the end of 2021 and look into the future of 2022; how do the three major trends influence what you and your organization is doing?  What is the role data can play in that?  How can you leverage data as a core strategic asset to discover the insights you need to innovate?

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Feel free to contact me by email or follow me on LinkedIn.  

Digital Transformation

I recently had a discussion with a colleague on the concept of digital transformation and what a successful digital transformation process would look like.  My email reply suggested the following:

Successful digital transformation focuses on the people issues.  The technology (hardware and software) is just the enabler. Successful digital transformation starts with leadership - the C-suite has to understand and support the digital transformation journey - and it is a journey.  Secondly, you need to look at your data culture:

• How are you using data now?  
• How do you need to use data in the future?  
• What are your near term and longer term goals for the transformation effort?  
• How are you going to communicate the process?  

Start with one key business process where digital transformation would make a major difference.  Work on that project alone to demonstrate that digital transformation can work.  Make lots of little adjustments - not a big moon shot.  Engage the participants that have a stake in the digital transformation as key enablers and team members.  The key here is to help them understand the benefits of using digital tools to do their work better.  

According to the experts (Deloitte et al) 80% of transformation projects fail.  The number one reason for failure is lack of C-suite support and ignoring the people side of the equation.  There are lots of successful digital transformation projects.  Look for the smaller examples - not the big huge ones.  Good Luck.

If you are engaged in a digital transformation project - you might want to ask yourself the same questions and focus on one project that can move the needle in a significant and positive fashion.  Don't try to boil the ocean - make incremental changes over time.  This is really a form of digital Kaizen.  

Feel free to contact me with questions or comments.  Sharing is caring!  To see my recent presentation to the Open Data Institute on Leveraging Data for Impact see the video here.

Telling our Story - 1

 It is good to be back from vacation feeling rested and refreshed. One of the joys of vacation is having that "ahaa" moment when something you have been puzzling over in your mind suddenly becomes clearer.  It seems like taking time away from the desk and computer, letting the mind relax and letting go the synapses suddenly line up and you get the new moment of clarity.  For me, coming off this vacation the clarity moment was about how we tell our performance stories in the public sector. 

It was one of those moments as a facilitator/trainer that I knew would come, but never expected when it happens.  I was doing a two day seminar on results-based performance measurement.  We had learned the basics of building logic models and designing relevant indicators. One of the participants then asked The Question: if you only had two indicators to report on - which would you choose?  It was one of those moments where I could weasel out ("It depends!") or I could do the hard work and really try to answer the question with some insight.  I took a deep breath, paused for a moment ("Great question, thank you for that!) and thought about it. 

As senior managers of public sector programs and policy, we take tax payers money to invest in activities and produce outputs that contribute to outcomes and impact.  In the final analysis there are only two things that matter: efficiency (did we use the resources wisely - did we do things right) and effectiveness (did we do the right things) that contributes positively to the impacts we are looking to enhance.  

If we are restricted to just two performance indicators to tell our results-based performance story then those are the two: an efficiency indicator that helps explain how well we used our resources and and an outcome indicator that tells us how well we contribute to desired impacts. 

So often we get caught up in designing several dozen indicators for a program. We know full well that we do not have the time, capacity or the data available to tell a full story on all of those dimensions.  If we just started with two indicators: one on efficiency, and one on outcomes we would have 80% of the performance story we need to tell. That makes live a lot easier.

Taxpayers and our elected officials want to know how well we are using their money.  We have a responsibility as public sector senior managers and executives to use the resources given to us wisely.  We also have a responsibility to measure the contribution and impact of that investment - so that if the results are not positive that we can make better policy and investment decisions to ensure that the expected results can be produced. The ability to get the resources we need to make a difference in our work is totally dependent on our ability to tell compelling and authentic performance stories.  Efficiency and effectiveness is the foundation of that story. 

Luckily, it was a good answer!  It resulted in a valuable discussion with the participants on focusing on the relevant few indicators, rather than the comprehensive many. Looking at the projects and programs under your management - if you could only have two indicators - one efficiency and one effectiveness - what would they be.  In future posts we'll explore how to use Service Delivery Models to identify the best indicators. 

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Feel free to contact me by email or follow me on LinkedIn.  For further information on data driven impact and data driven government, visit my website at www.datadrivengovernment.ca.

The Importance of Impact

Photo by Nadir sYzYgY on Unsplash

Impact is the recognition that our activities contribute to some enhancement of the community and the world around us. As humans, and within our organizations, there is a fundamental desire to make things "better".  We want to make a difference from our contribution to the world around us; at home, work and in the communities we belong to.  While getting paid is important - the ability to see that what we do contributes to the greater team effort is an important motivator.  

When I was in business school we talked a lot about the difference between efficient and effective.  Efficient was doing things right.  Effective was doing the right things.  Impact is all about doing the right things well.  Results-Based Management uses a tool called a Logic Model that articulates the effectiveness and efficiency connection really well.  The logic model is a hierarchy that takes Resources (people, money, data, etc.) and converts those resources into Outputs through Activities.  The outputs have a technical name; we call it "stuff".  That stuff contributes to Outcomes or Expected Results.  A Logic Model can have several levels of Expected Results.  

Efficiency is the capacity to convert resources, through activities, into outputs/stuff.  The better able we are to do that - the more efficient we are.  That being said effectiveness is more important.  It doesn't matter how efficient we are if we are not being effective! The Logic Model gives us the ability to understand both of those dimensions and how they connect. 

Impact is the correlation between our planned expected results and what we actually realize. Impact is a journey, not a destination.  Impact can happen at the personal, professional and organizational level. The role of data driven impact is the ability to use data to inform our capacity to be both efficient and effective. Data driven impact uses key metrics that help give us the insights we need to understand our impact. We need data to provide the feedback evidence to make informed decisions on our next steps, our strategy and activities.  We need data to help us understand our world. 

The good news is that there is data all around us and it is growing at an ever increasing pace.  The other good news is that there are now software and data analytical tools that allow virtually anyone to utilize that data without being a computer or data scientist.  The democratization of data is upon us.  On other words, all of us can experience data driven impact. 

Leveraging the Value of Your Data

Over the past year, I have been working on a special project to develop a Data Integration Strategy with a focus on leveraging the value of organizational data to promote data driven impact with both internal and external stakeholders. The project has been an amazing journey of learning and connecting with subject matter experts to absorb their best ideas and approaches. The project recently reached a major milestone and it was a good opportunity to reflect on what I have learned over the past year. So some thoughts that might resonate with others on a similar journey.

The project was designed to address the following three data challenges: Data is hard to find, hard to manage and hard to share. This situation is blocking innovation, adaptation and impact. In talking with other colleagues in diverse other organizations, it seems that these challenges are common. In looking to address these challenges, here are some of the things that I have learned through this project;

1. Digital transformation = data transformation. Digital transformation is fundamentally a data challenge that can effectively promote better data driven impacts and data driven decisions.
2. Data is a critical strategic asset and is often the second most valuable asset in any organization, the most valuable being people. Most organizations recognize the need to invest in our people, less so in our data management strategy. To our detriment.
3. Both of these assets are intangible and will not be found on the financial statements or on the balance sheet, yet both are critical to fostering organizational impact. During this project, we discovered innovative ways to measure and describe the value of our data assets to help focus attention on the magnitude of the issue.
4. Data challenges are 80 % people issues and 20% technology issues. The easy way out is to only focus on the technology - but the digital/data transformation comes from understanding the people-oriented data processes. In particular focusing on fostering a vibrant corporate data culture and investing in data literacy: the ability to understand, manage, share and manipulate data.
5. Data culture is a real thing. Solving the data challenges unleashes the potential for true innovation, agility and organizational responsiveness that contributes to organizational impact.
6. The solutions are a fraction of the cost of the value of the data and the potential disruption-losing mission critical data can cause. A number of studies by major consulting companies suggest that we spend approximately 20% of our time searching for data. That alone justifies the investment in better data management, data literacy and data culture.
7. Having an organizational data strategy has enormous corporate strategic benefits in providing; focus and direction, promoting data-driven decisions, enhancing the value of organizational data through integration, increased access, use and collaboration, all while promoting a culture of innovation, leadership and partnerships. All of which leverages the value of data and impact.
8. Lastly, is the recognition that data driven impact and the capacity to leverage the value of our data is not the job of the CIO and/or the CDO, but is a core strategic management responsibility for everyone in the C-suite on down. The CIO/CDO can provide support and guidance, but the day-to-day action comes from understanding, commitment and active investment of real resources (people and budget) from all of senior management.

Are there risks in undertaking the development of an organizational data strategy? Of course there are. There is a need to build commitment and consensus. To understand where you are and where you need to go. To create a sense of vision and mission that links data to culture and ultimately build community and excitement around the implementation. This is not new stuff - what is new for many organizations is focusing on data culture, data management and data literacy as core organizational capacities. We understand the need to focus on people to enhance organizational impact with our stakeholders; however we now need to understand and focus on how to leverage the value of our data to create truly remarkable data driven impact.

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I am sure there are a lot more lessons to be learned from this project - but these are the ones that come to mind as I reflect on the past year. I would not have missed this for anything in the world. To have come to an understanding of the intrinsic and extrinsic strategic value of data, the ability to leverage that value and contribute to data driven decisions and organizational impact has been transformative for me. Data Driven Impact - the next frontier!

 

Welcome

Welcome to the Data Driven Impact Blog.  My name if Francis Loughheed and I look forward to sharing my ideas, thoughts and observations around data, the use of data and the ability to contribute to organizational impact. There is information about me on the side bar and feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/loughheed/   

For the past decade or so I have been working within Federal Departments and Agencies developing and deploying performance measurement systems and linking them to advanced analytics and dashboards.  Over the past few years I have become adept at using Tableau, Tableau Data Prep, Power BI, KNIME and Orange to complete visualizations, data mining and data analytics.  I am now working with cloud computing on Microsoft Azure and Databricks, collating and blending data for advanced analytics around science citations and social media mentions. 

Data is now a key strategic corporate asset and needs to be managed with strategic thought. A major project has been developing a corporate data strategy that has given me a lot to think about regarding data culture, data literacy, data management and the intrinsic value of data as a strategic asset. All of that and more will be shared on this blog.  

Feel free to join in the conversation, share ideas concerns or questions.  

Cheers,

Francis