Why is becoming a Data-Driven Organization so challenging?
Introduction
Many organizations engage in various activities related to transforming themselves into Data-Driven Organizations, aiming to enable employees to analyze data, make decisions based on that data, and benefit their individual work and the organization’s operations. However, organizations face challenges in this transformation, and these challenges can vary.
Story
Currently, the most significant challenge in making organizations data-driven is not necessarily related to new technologies associated with data analytics. According to the NewVantage Partners Annual Survey, which examines individuals who use data for decision-making, data leadership roles like Chief Data Officers (CDOs), Chief Information and Analytics Officers (CIMOs), and data stewards have identified the most challenging aspect as “changing the organizational culture.” This is a problem that every organization understands and tries to address, but such changes do not happen overnight. Additionally, cultural and operational shifts in recent years have had two major impacts on increasing the difficulty of transformation.
- The outbreak of COVID-19 and the resulting abrupt changes in how work is done have made everyone aware of the importance of data. This has heightened the emphasis on data and its significance over the past two years.
- Self-service capabilities have proliferated, leading to more data usage and generation. Data has become more decentralized, and information now flows from social media, influencing analysis and decision-making. Consequently, there is a growing need for reliable data.
Finally, as we all know, data is growing exponentially, and many organizations have become more efficient in analyzing large-scale data.
Barrier of Becoming Data-Driven
Three main factors currently contribute to an organization’s successful transformation into a data-driven one. However, only 26.5% of organizations have been successful in achieving this transformation. The most significant challenges lie in directly influencing the culture of the organization, which is recognized as a problem by 91.9% of organizations attempting to become data-driven. Therefore, addressing the organizational culture is a significant challenge for organizations and their Chief Data Analytics Officers. Directly related to data, despite the abundance of data and the technologies available for analysis and data storage, many organizational units do not own the data and cannot utilize it effectively.
Step Companies Can Take
To help drive their organizations, leaders and organizations must take three key steps:
- Think Differently: Recognize that people within the organization have different mindsets. Understand how people think within the organization, focusing on critical thinking, human judgment, and innovative perspectives.
- Fail Fast, Learn Fast: Create an environment where people within the organization are encouraged to experiment and make mistakes, allowing for rapid learning and improvement. Mistakes are inherent to innovation, but they should be made quickly and used as opportunities for learning and refinement.
- Focus on the Long-term: Organizations should consider the long-term benefits of transformative changes and how they will positively impact the organization and its employees in the future.
In conclusion, for organizations to succeed in becoming data-driven in today’s landscape, leaders must share their experiences and the importance of being data-driven, relate it to their work, and continually raise awareness among all employees. Moreover, they must be willing to adapt and change.
Source : https://reder.red/data-driven-strategy-saturdaystrategy-25-09-2021/
