Data culture programmes are designed to help organisations leverage their data to drive business transformation. However, to achieve the desired outcomes, it is crucial to structure the programme effectively, measure its success, and tailor it to specific targets. In this blog post, we explore the key insights from a recent discussion among CDAOs on how to implement a successful data culture programme.

Data Leaders Members can access the downloadable infographic of the 7 key insights from this discussion.

Stop Talking Data Transformation and Start Talking Business Transformation

To effectively communicate the intent behind data culture initiatives, D&A professionals need to directly link activities to preparing employees and stakeholders to work in new data-enabled ways that will lead to better ways of working, innovating, and creating revenue for their companies.

Build Momentum and Advocacy from the Bottom Up

Creating proofs of concepts with measurable value that can be used to justify new pockets of investment is an effective way to build advocacy. To achieve this, it is important to let internal customers showcase the projects, creating good word-of-mouth among peers.

Tailor Training to What Makes Them Tick

Tailored training to specific targets or personas in the company is more likely to change behaviours than an “en masse” approach. When designing tailored training, it is important to consider personality types and what piques curiosity among the target audience.

Use Embedded Analytics as a Driver for Investment

Narrowing the focus to enabling embedded analytics and AI into operational processes where there is measurable, concrete value is an effective way to drive investment. The approach is to then work backwards, partnering with business stakeholders to define the developments, skills, planning, and investments required to execute at scale.

Use Data Governance and Data Stewards as Ambassadors

Data governance and data stewards are effective in cultivating a data mindset among business and operational teams. Teaching and evangelising good data practices is integral to their role, and CDAOs and data practitioners should use their organisational networks to support key messages and practices.

A Diversity of Communities Feeds into a Broader Data Culture

A variety of community types and formats that complement one another can create a broader data culture. For example, business leaders with data scientist teams find they receive great value from centralised technical communities. Online communities are important to cater to accessibility needs, but face-to-face meetings play a key role.

Explore KPIs with Business Partners

Identifying KPIs that meaningfully demonstrate how data and analytics are supporting better decision making can be a challenge. One approach is to understand what business KPIs business leaders want to influence, and then take two steps backward to identify the question they need the data to answer and the KPI that will demonstrate they have that answer.

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