Building a data culture to drive data democratization across your ecosystem

As the saying goes, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” And this is particularly true if you want to build an open, agile, data-driven culture that delivers data democratization. Essentially, if you cannot engage users and stakeholders and bring them with you, your data project is doomed to fail.

Changing culture is not easy as it means transforming current behaviors and breaking down barriers between departments. No wonder that just 25% of CEOs surveyed by IDC said they had achieved a data-driven culture. However, it is vital - organizations that put data at the heart of their operations are more agile, innovative, efficient and effective, better able to understand and meet the needs of a changing market.

So how can you build a data culture to drive data democratization across your ecosystem?

Based on our experience working on over 2,000 data projects worldwide, this newsletter outlines the key areas to focus on for success.

🔑 Why data culture is essential to successful data projects

A data-driven culture is one where information flows freely between different departments and is central to how everyone operates. Decisions are made based on studying the available data, rather than on gut feel or because “that’s how we always do it.” 

In a data culture there’s a high degree of collaboration based on data, with teams working together united by key objectives such as improving the customer experience or generating greater innovation. The overall mindset is open and curious, looking at how data can help solve problems in new ways.

However, creating a data culture is often held back by four key challenges:

• Organizations operate in departmental silos, with little collaboration or data sharing between them
• Data is limited or out of date, meaning it isn’t trusted or used by employees
• Staff don’t have the skills or confidence to engage with and rely on data
• Changing any culture is hard - people are naturally conservative and don’t always see the upside of change

Overcoming these challenges requires a concerted transformation, led from the top but engaging all employees. Essentially everyone needs to be educated on the importance of data, and how it makes their lives easier. Provide tailored training to give people the skills to successfully interact with data and build concrete use cases that show them the benefits in their daily working lives.

👉 Learn more on how to achieve this in our in-depth blog post.

🧩 Engaging users with your data: the missing piece of the puzzle

In most organizations, the majority of employees are not data specialists. That means that simply making data available, such as through self-service portals, won’t be enough to get them to use and rely on it.  

What you need is to engage your users with your data so that they can find, access and reuse it in their jobs. This is a four stage process -  start by listening to your users to understand what their requirements are. Then use innovative ways to share relevant data experiences with users. Make sure everyone knows about your project - and finally make your data easy to access, find, and use. 

👉 Discover more about successfully implementing this four stage process in this blog post.

🤝 Convincing your boss to sign-off your data democratization project

Users aren’t the only people you need to win over if you want to build a data culture that serves your data democratization projects. You have to start at the top, and persuade senior management to greenlight your project in the first place. Even if people see the benefits of becoming data-driven, budgets may be tight so you’ll have to create a compelling argument if you want your project to get the backing it needs.

Management may well have concerns that becoming data-driven doesn’t fit with the organization’s structure or objectives, and feel that the whole area of big data, AI and analytics is over-hyped and unproven. And even if they do believe in the power of data to drive change, they may well not know where to start and be worried that projects will drag on, consuming more and more time and resources without delivering concrete benefits.

All of these are genuine potential objections - but they can be overcome with the right approach.

👉 Read our blog for tips and best practice on how to convince your boss to back your project.

Conclusion

Building a data-driven culture is essential to making the most of your data, and transforming how you operate, whatever sector you are in. It’s not enough to put a data infrastructure in place - you need to engage users and stakeholders if your data democratization program is to deliver real value.

Changing culture is never easy, but the rewards for success are enormous - research from Forrester Consulting found that businesses that rely on data to make decisions are 58% more likely to beat their revenue goals. Key to transformation is to understand your users and their needs, show them how shifting to a data culture benefits their jobs, and give them the tools, training and education to effectively harness data. Put these building blocks in place and you’ll achieve an effective, open and flexible data culture that acts as a foundation for future success.

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