Minna Karha, Contributing author at CODEX
This article was originally published at CODEX Steward VOL-I.
Minna comes with 15+ years in Data & Intelligence domain and has led various data & analytics teams for both Media industry and Aviation. She gained experience on managing projects providing better information for decision making and creating business value with data. Off late, she has moved to the consulting space, helping companies from different industries to recognize the potential and utilize data better for their business.
Many advanced organizations have started to expand their transformation focus from analytics utilization and data management to data culture. According to Gartner, by 2023 data literacy will become an explicit and necessary driver of business value, included in over 80% of data and analytics strategies and change management programs.
But what does a successful data culture look like? I think it makes sense to look at Data Culture through the same elements that cultures in general consist of language and literacy, values, organization, and customs (behavior).
I like to think that data culture consists of the same elements that we find in the more common human cultures: (a) language & literacy, (b) values, © organization, and (d)customs (behavior).
Language enables to understand each other. For data culture this means there needs to be common language of data and clear understanding of different terminologies. Literacy makes utilization of language meaningful. Being able to listen, speak, read, and write means being able to find useful content, understanding how the content was formed, how it should be interpreted, explain it to others and being able to create one’s own content as well. These all apply to data literacy.
Values guide people to reach for and do the right things that are best for all and benefits all. For data culture this means that everyone values and appreciates data being created, collected, protected, made available and usable for all. It is about making sure data is available and shared to all, not keeping it only for one´s own benefit.
Organization provides us a structure: common understanding of the different roles and how they collaborate, complementing and supporting each other for success. In a good Data Culture, this means that every role in the organization has their responsibility and accountability clarified for managing and utilizing data. This enables individuals to act on their roles, develop their competences, and everyone to work together in a fluent manner. No-one expects someone else “to fix it”, everyone is devoted to work together, using their competences, and the organization empowers this.
Customs are the built-in behavior as to how we as individuals act naturally in different situations, and how we expect others to act. This behavior enables us to take actions that represent the values we all believe in. In data culture, this means gradually building and strengthening the activity that enable the right kind of behavior for creating, collecting, protecting, and utilizing data throughout the organization. Ensuring the systems and processes to create the data we need, empowering by sharing the data with others and managing it as valuable business asset. Being active and accountable.
A successful data culture means all decisions are based on intelligent facts, data is consciously and continuously generated to enable these facts to be formed, and everyone can be heard and understood through common language. However, this seems to be a challenge for many companies. Harvard Business Review has been surveying Fortune 1000 companies for several years. Their latest finding is that for a fifth consecutive year, executives report that cultural challenges — not technological ones — represent the biggest impediment around data initiatives. In a 2021 survey, 92.2% of companies report that they continue to struggle with cultural challenges relating to organizational alignment, business processes, change management, communication, people skill sets, and resistance or lack of understanding to enable change.
This is why the C-level and other key leaders have a great impact in succeeding (or failing): they need to show the example, give visibility and direction to the transformation, give time and space to adopt new behavior, learn new language and guide with the roles and responsibilities. Successful culture is not built in a day!
