Back in 2019, research advisory Gartner predicted that by 2022, 90% of corporate strategy will mention analytics as an essential competency. And that was back before the coronavirus pandemic caused consultancy McKinsey to declare analytics an essential navigational tool for organizations. However, technology consultancy New Vantage Partners found in its 2021 Big Data and AI Executive Survey that only 41.2% of respondents claimed to be competing on analytics, and only 24.4% have forged a data culture.
What’s taking so long for organizations to grow their data capabilities?
Well, consider how long it took you to learn how to read or start a new language. That struggle is the same for an organization to gain data literacy, but at a much larger and more complex scale.
Data literacy is not a temporary blocker that hiring an expert or two can solve. It is a years-long process that changes the identity of the organization and those within it. So in that respect, every data literacy initiative is a change management initiative. And while many organizations are just now adopting their first formal data literacy initiatives, the practice of change management draws back three decades and beyond.
To see what data literacy leaders might glean from the lessons of change management, I spoke with three experts operating at the intersection of these fields:
- Hondy Hung, Director, Data & Analytics Change and Integration at Scotiabank. Hondy leads enterprise-wide change management services in data to one of Canada’s largest banks.
- Tom Jacobs, Change Management Lead at University of Washington. Tom is currently overseeing a financial transformation project at this top-tier research university.
- Jamison Wicks, Senior Program Manager, Analytics at AF Group. Jamison leads the Analytics Center of Excellence for this Michigan-based insurer with over 1500 employees.
Building the lifelines
Most change management approaches suggest the need for an executive sponsor to legitimize the initiative; data literacy is no different. Everyone I spoke to suggested allying the program with at least one senior leader. Jamison put the reason simply: “People tend not to care about something if their boss doesn’t care about it.”
Executive sponsorship, however, is necessary but insufficient for success; getting middle management on board is a great next step. As Tom explained: “Directors will always listen to their managers when their managers are frustrated… if you can get the lower level managers happy, the directors and their VPs are happy.”
Similar tactics exist to get analyst-level buy-in. But before we get that far, there’s another change management task to handle: establishing a sense of urgency for the change. Without that, management is unlikely to go along such an expensive initiative; they’ll be fine with the status quo. (Given the gulf between expectation and reality in the Gartner and New Vantage Partners reports, respectively, perhaps more organizations need this sense of urgency to take real steps toward data literacy.)
So, how do you frame a data literacy initiative as something seriously needed by the organization and not just a nice-to-have pet project? “I prefer to outline current business challenges (mismatching definitions, lack of actionable metrics, analysis paralysis, gut feel decision making etc.), how they are impacting the bottom line, and how a data literacy initiative addresses each issue,” Jamison explains.
Hondy agrees that framing the initiative as ultimately a business one is the way to gain buy-in: “Data literacy isn’t just about data… it needs to tie back to a business context.” Making the initiative’s intentions clear can help both with executive support and rank-and-file interest.
Making it more than training
A frequent pitfall for upskilling initiatives like data literacy is that it comes to be seen as just another mandatory training session, like the compliance or security videos most employees have to watch once a year. With the right buy-in and urgency, however, the program will be seen for the change that it is; as Hondy put it: “This is not just another incremental course… we are building the workforce of the future.”
Again, done right a data literacy program isn’t just about hiring outside data experts but growing the data skills of everyone in the organization together. A change management strategy is fundamentally about culture, and culture can’t just change when one or two tech-savvy teams are on board. “Many organizations will have people who have been in their roles for many years and are accustomed to a certain way of doing things,” Jamison reflects. “We don’t want to leave them behind.”
Ultimately, participating in a data literacy program changes a person’s identity, in the same way that learning to read changes one’s identity. There can be some resistance to this: “No ones wants to admit to illiteracy,” Tom has found, “so it can create a lot of pushback when they don’t know something.” So, how do you reduce this anxiety about data literacy? Change management tells us to start small, using formal and informal channels to both allay fears and emphasize the initiative is not just a box-checking exercise, but here to stay.
Growing the interest
Often, identifying the right department to start out with and offering consistent outreach is enough to create an informal stir for a data literacy program. “If you can find some high profile teams and hook onto them, other groups will want to emulate it,” Tom mentions.
This relationship could start out as a roadshow where a few tips or tricks are shown, but ultimately you’ll want to involve individuals more deeply. This is where involving data champions and change agents in communities off practice and learning groups can have a big impact: in establishing a bottom-up current as part of the initiative.
There are also more established channels for promoting data literacy in the organization: Tom and Jamison both suggested in particular that performance reviews can incorporate elements of the initiative. Performance reviews have their flaws, but I like the idea of tying them to something based on professional development, without which the organization can’t succeed in today’s economy. Implementing this, of course, takes the support of HR – and once you have that support, including data literacy themes in onboarding is a natural next step.
With these early wins among a particular department, a network of early adopters, and formal HR support, the change toward data literacy is ready to scale to the organization at large. Hondy summed it up like this: “Start small; generate proof points.”
Getting to steady state
The consensus among our experts and others I’ve spoken with is that it takes about 2-4 years to fully establish a data literacy program. At that point, there will be some administrative duties to sort out, such as where the program should officially be located long term and what programs should continue.
But more importantly, the way an organization relates to data at this stage has, well, changed. “At a steady state, the conversation will be different,” Hondy reflects. “The day-to-day language changes when data literacy becomes embedded.” As mentioned earlier, data literacy is fundamentally about identity; getting to this point meant deeply transforming the organization’s culture – not just that of a single team or department.
What gets measured gets change managed
Our experts were not only able to tie change management into data literacy, but the other way around; that is, how can data literacy inform change management? Well, change management is ultimately management; and as they say, “What gets measured gets managed.”
In suggesting how to keep a data literacy program sustaining in the early days, Jamison mentioned: “By giving an employee a target and the tools to track their progress, you give them a reason to engage with data and to use it to help them grow.” Tom mentioned a team that as part of a change management project met weekly to review metrics and reports. The team grew together and improved their line of business. In these cases, data literacy became the medium in itself through which change management was implemented.
Conclusion and resources
I’d like to thank Hondy, Tom and Jamison for sharing their wisdom with me and my readers. I hope these insights and experiences give you some ideas for building data literacy at your organization, whether in a formal or informal capacity. As more organizations build official data literacy initiatives, I hope their participants can learn from these pioneers and from the field of change management.
To learn more from our experts, follow them on LinkedIn:
In addition, our experts recommended the following titles for those interested in learning more on the topic:
- Art of Community by Jono Bacon
- Developing Analytic Talent by Vincent Granville
- Diffusion of Innovations by Everett Rogers
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