data literacy is gaining mainstream acceptance as more than a talking point. It’s quickly moving to a strategic initiative for chief data officers (CDOs) and other C-level executives. As to why now, that’s not a big mystery -- data is everywhere and growing. Making sense of data and putting it to use across the organization means everyone must be able to use data effectively everywhere for business actions and outcomes.
Gartner has been heavily focused on this topic over the last six months. I’m a regular reader, and in going through some of the recent posts, there’s a thread I think is important to call out: the role of both the individual and the organization when it comes to the intersection of data management/availability and data use.
In one piece, the analyst firm states, “As data and analytics becomes a core part of digital business and data becomes an organizational asset, employees must have at least a basic ability to communicate and understand conversations about data. In short, the ability to ‘speak data’ will become an integral aspect of most day-to-day jobs.”
This is squarely on the individual upskilling. In a previous post, I discussed the need for the business to meet the individual halfway to make data literacy an achievable and scalable goal. This is the skills gap conversation, and notice there isn’t a focus in this quote specifically on the data piece of the equation. It assumes data is available and structured in a way that business users should be ready to use to its maximum value, and what they need is more and better-refined skills.
In another article, Gartner states, “Still, many companies continue to struggle under the weight of traditional business models and analog business process that discount the potential of data and analytics. Others recognize their potential but cannot make the cultural shift or commit to the information management and advanced analytics skills and technology investments necessary to realize that potential.”
This gets to the heart of a major issue that I see most organizations face in the rush to deploy data literacy programs. Even if everyone is data literate, many organizations need to consider if they have the data management piece aligned. CDOs need to assess if they are set up from an IT, data management and governance stance to make the best use of these now highly trained staffers.
As a former chief information officer, I know the challenges in making big shifts in technology and data management infrastructure improvements and user enablement. It’s never a quick fix, but from a technical perspective, it can be done strategically with a thorough plan and the right budget and time frame.
But what’s just as big a hurdle is the mindset of IT and its historic data guardian/ownership role in the organization. Simply put, IT’s function has rapidly changed over the past decade from managing boxes and data centers to managing the data supply chain and user enablement. This evolution to a delivery-focused role and moves to the cloud and software as a service (SaaS) can be scary for IT professionals, as many of their livelihoods and skill sets were developed and honed to serve the organization in a much different way. This also plays out in the “traditional” model of data management IT usually executed: limited availability, batch management, heavy approval processes and blanket access policies.
When these issues compound -- traditional focus/limits versus enablement from IT and data skills gaps in users -- the organization ends up hamstrung in its ability to maximize data’s use and value. This is especially prevalent in highly regulated industries like financial services and health care, but I see this happening across every industry, ranging from manufacturing and e-commerce to retail and professional services.
The good news is that CDOs, by and large, have embraced the need for data literacy.
