As I meet with companies through my travels, there are recurring themes to the lack of data and analytical success: a lack of data and analytical strategy tied to organizational goals, skills gaps to making smart, data-informed decisions, and workplace culture. These roadblocks must be remedied for an organization to capitalize and truly realize success with their data and analytical objectives.
To help address this, Qlik is now offering a brand-new class where one of our instructors comes to your location to teach your teams how to create a data literate organization. It is focused on three main subjects: 1.) data literacy and foundational knowledge throughout the data literacy spectrum, 2.) culture and key characteristics that will help organizations weave the DNA of data throughout the enterprise, 3.) how to make smart data-informed decisions. Through this new course, individuals and organizations can truly start to empower the organization’s workforce to make smarter decisions with data, moving the needle for true gains in data and analytical strategy. Let’s look at the 3 sections in more details.
Foundational Data Literacy Knowledge
The beginning of the course looks at the foundational thoughts of data literacy, including the 4 levels of analytics, the current data environment we live in, and defining the key characteristics that make up the definition of data literacy. This includes:
- Current state of data in the world
- Data structure and trust within organizations
- Democratization of data
- Data and analytical strategy
- The four levels of analytics and associated roles in data and analytical strategy
- State of data literacy in the world
- Defining and learning data literacy and its characteristics
This first section really emphasizes the world of data we live in and will enable each individual in the class to have a strong understanding of data literacy, its impact on the world today, and help them to start thinking on improving their own data literacy.
Culture
How many of us think it is easy to change an organization’s culture? If you answered ‘yes’ to that question, we need to talk; it isn’t. In fact, it is very, very difficult. Creating a data literate organization does not mean changing the entire culture of an organization, but rather help it evolve and weave the DNA of data into the organization. To do this, there are a few key skills and characteristics organizations should look to adopt and build into the workforce. The second section of the course covers these characteristics, and looks at the following:
- Value of data literacy to organizations
- Role of leadership in data and analytics
- Key characteristics of a data literate culture
- Role of the Chief Data Officer
By adopting key skills and characteristics, organizations will find they have an easier time with data initiatives and strategies. Overall, culture is the number one hinderance and roadblock to data and analytical success for organizations. This course will empower organizations to evolve their cultures for success.
Data-Informed Decision Making
What is the point of data literacy? Data and analytical Strategy? Why are companies investing in all of this data and technology? The point of data literacy, data and analytical strategy, etc., should be for an organization to make smarter, data-informed decisions. We distinctly use the term data-informed, versus data-driven, because data-driven can denote the data does it all for you. In this case, we want to combine the human element with the data element, informing us in our decisions. The final section of the course will empower individuals to make smarter, data-informed decisions, and help them to develop the necessary skills to ensure these decisions become habits and ongoing. In this section, students will learn the following:
- Data-informed, decision-making framework
- Six-phase approach to making decisions with data
- Learning to ask good questions of data
- Applying mental models to decision making
Conclusion
Overall, this new class represents a great opportunity for organizations to get started on their data literacy journey. Not only will it help organizations succeed more with data, this course will empower and help individuals to make smarter data-informed decisions, something that can lead to greater confidence in a career, more credibility, and more. Reach out to one of our training managers here and find out how you can register today.
