In this episode, we spoke with Sanne Hombroek. Sanne is the Chapter Lead Data Analytics @ ING Netherlands. We discussed how ING adopted the tribe and guild model (the Spotify model) to expand data literacy at the enterprise. Spotify’s agile organization model has been a great source of inspiration for many companies. Sanne walked us through some of the data literacy activities that happen at ING such as mentoring programs, gamification (data escape room), and seminars.
Here is the part 1/2 of the Spotify Agile Organization model:
Helena Sternkopf developed a maturity and competency model to define data literacy. Helena’s work has been a great source of inspiration for us. You can discover the Enterprise Data Literacy Program that we developed here: www.axisgroup.com/axis-academy
Helena’s definition of data literacy is unique and a game changer in the industry where vendors and market research firms try to over simplify definitions to sell more of their product and services:
“Data Literacy is a continuous learning journey that creates the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute pieces of information(data), to develop knowledge and the ability to participate fully in our society.”
Removing the silos and collaborating on data projects in organizations are crucial parts of the data literacy programs. Games can be an effective means to bring this understanding to teams. In this episode, we talked to Simon Bullmore about Datopolis, the board game that was designed by the Open Data Institute. As you play the game, you need to collaborate with other players to maintain the health of the fictional city of Sheridan while plotting your path to victory.
A facilitated Datopolis session stimulates lively debate, learning, and action. Complex concepts like data strategy, data infrastructure, and the data spectrum are brought to life through collaborative gameplay, negotiation, and decision making. This sparks new insights and helps players think about data differently. It’s a fun way to catalyze change.
In this episode of the Data Literates, you will hear from Farbod Nasiri. Farbod is the Senior Human Capital Transformation Director at PWC. He summed up his experience around enabling organizations with thousand to hundred thousand employees through designing employee experience programs. We focused on how data and data literacy initiatives will transform the way HR organizations operate and make decisions.
In this episode of the Data Literates, you will hear from Fi Gordon. If you are a member of the data viz fam, you know Fi for sure. Fi’s energy and charisma are contagious. We had a ton of fun talking to her about her successful implementation of The Tableau Quest at CommSec. The Tableau Quest is a gamified data literacy program to improve speed to insights, increase adoption of Tableau, and expand the awareness around the art of possible with data. Here is a link to The Tableau Quest: https://www.vizchic.com/tableauquest/ Learn more about Fi and what she is up to:
In this episode of A Ride with Data Literates, we cover 4 highlights and 3 lessons learned from 2018 as well as 3 things to remember when you think about data literacy in 2019.
Three Highlights from 2018 :
1.Enterprise Data Literacy Program
With all the attention that the topic of data literacy got in 2018, we were able to launch and implement our Enterprise Data Data Literacy Program. Most of the discussion around data literacy was focused on individuals’ data literacy improvement, but we were able to introduce a framework that works for organizations at different analytics maturity level.
2. Data Literacy Foundation
Jerry and Milad established a new nonprofit organization called The Data Literacy Foundation. The goal of this foundation is to provide support to other nonprofits to take advantage of their data and optimize their business processes or find new ways to increase awareness or donations.
3. Data Literates Podcast and Vlog
We launched the first podcast and Vlog about data literacy to share our experience with others who either would like to grow their career in this field or are considering to build a data literacy program at their organization. You can subscribe to Data Literates on Youtube and wherever you listen to your podcast.
1.Implementing a data literacy program on its own may not be successful.
There are prerequisites to build a data literacy program. We recommend Analytics Enablement to organizations. This includes both Technical Enablement and Business Enablement.
To get more information about our 5C of Data Literacy click here.
2. There is not one standard definition for data literacy.
While some vendors and research companies such as Gartner and Forrester subscribed to MIT’s definition of data literacy (The ability to read, write, and argue with data), we believe the definition is good at individual level and lacks some other key components. We subscribe to Helena Sternkof’s definition:
“Data literacy is a continuous learning journey that creates the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, and compute pieces of information (data) to develop knowledge and the ability to participate fully in our society. “
3. Data Literacy is not just about data competencies
Many companies come to us to explain their efforts to grow data literacy at their organizations, but these efforts are mostly focused on improving individual competencies. It is important to improve data competencies, but in order to have a data literate organization all the 5Cs should be considered.
3 Things to remember in 2019
1.Focus on Analytics Enablement
By creating a Center of Excellence for analytics, you can enable the technical teams to be more efficient and lower the down time. Moreover, business users also need to be enabled by understanding standards and have proper access to the data. There is no point in making a user data literate if she can’t even get her hands on the data and tools.
2.Focus on blended learning and social learning
Most of the need to data literacy is being met by classes. In our experience, sitting in a class does not create knowledge retention. Your data literacy program should be continuous. Utilize different activities such as workshops, face to face meet ups, and other blended learning tools to increase knowledge retention and make the program relevant to users’ day to day operations.
3. Create a community for analytics
Creating a community for analytics provides the opportunity for your users to learn from each other and share knowledge. Pick a platform and create an online community to generate demand by creating awareness around your analytics initiatives vs just responding to the demands.
On this ride with Data Literates you will find about the 3 conferences that Data Literates attended and spoke at.
The first conference that Jerry spoke at was The Strategic Analytics Summit (SAS) in Las Vegas, Nevada: https://www.strategicanalyticssummit.com/
We raised awareness around data literacy among managers and executives at this conference.
The second conference was The Data Literacy Conference 2018 in France: http://dataliteracyconference.net/2018/english/
We unveiled our 5Cs Data Literacy Model and the Data Literacy Canvas as well as our Enterprise Data Literacy (EDLP) Toolkit.
We also made an announcement about The Data Literacy Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that enables social ventures and other nonprofits with data literacy solutions as well as creating standards around data literacy best practices and tools: https://dataliteracyfoundation.org/
Why are Data Literacy Programs part of a CIO’s agenda?
Is it enough for the CIO to provide the data to users?
In a lot of the cases, CIOs are tasked with providing the data to users, so that they can make better data-driven decisions to achieve a competitive advantage or optimize operations. But if users are not data literate, just having access to the data is not going to solve any business problems. Data Literacy should be a shared responsibility and must be in Chief Information Officer’s agenda. If CIOs fail to do make users data literate, things may not look great for the CIO because the business cannot make data-driven decisions and everyone will go back to the CIO and her team to understand the problem. We may call this a data analytics myopic view when the IT organization does not keep the end goal in mind which is users being able to make better business decisions. Users need to understand the sources of the data, the validation process, and the definitions of metrics.
The more data literate the users, the better they can make decisions using data.
A Ride with Data Literates is a series of Vlogs that we record as we travel to client sites or go to events. We talk about our practical experiences and tips and tricks for building an Enterprise Data Literacy Program (EDLP).
On this ride with Data Literates you will find out how Data Literacy Programs are dependent to Analytics Centers of Excellence.
Can you start a Data Literacy Program without having an Analytics Centers of Excellence?
Does the level of analytics maturity at the organization matter to start one of these two programs?
Which one of these 2 programs should you pick and start with?
How to prepare your employees to get ready for a Centers of Excellence?
How to equip your change agents to bring effective change by getting buy in from leadership?
A Ride with Data Literates is a series of Vlogs that we record as we travel to client sites or go to events. We talk about our practical experiences and tips and tricks for building an Enterprise Data Literacy Program (EDLP).
In this episode, we are on our way back from a client site where we started a new CoE or Enterprise Data Literacy Program. On this Ride with Data Literates you will find out the similarities between these 2 programs.
Can you have a data literate culture if people don’t have access to the data?
Can you democratize data without a Center of Excellence?
What is the role that data ethics plays in a data literate culture?
Watch part 2 to understand whether an Enterprise Data Literacy programs can be effective without centers of excellence or vice versa.
