Where Does Your Organization Fall On the Data Literacy Curve?

We are awash in data. "Big data" is too small of a description. By 2025 an estimated 463 exabytes of data will be created globally each day.

Well aware of this, companies are ramping up their abilities to analyze data to make good decisions. A 2020 Research and Markets report put global spending on big data analytics at $180 billion, and a New Vantage Partners 2021 survey of executives said 92% say the pace of investment is accelerating, up from 40% the prior year.

Yet investing more money isn't resulting in an equal return in results. Long-term progress on corporate data initiatives has declined, according to the New Vantage Partners study. Cultural challenges persist.

But balancing your employees' knowledge of data while providing them the right tools to make the best use of that data plays a role, too. To move your organization forward, you need to take stock of where you now fall on the learning curve of data literacy.

Why data literacy is critical

"In a word," says Ben Jones, author of Data Literacy Fundamentals, "the chief goal of data is wisdom."

Data — or, more correctly, our interpretation of data — sheds light on what's working and what's not. It guides us into better decision-making.

That opportunity is lost, however, when we stumble amid the process. Employers need to help all of their employees, not just the data experts, learn how to analyze data. Part of that responsibility lies in providing more training. The other part lies in providing better tools.

Knowledge workers yearn for user-friendly analytics with simple navigation. They want an easily customizable tool to infer the insights they need. A TDWI Research report further highlights what is needed: visual analytics. Visual analytics is based on research into human perception and cognition. "A key objective," the report said, "is to apply data visualization and new forms of computation to reduce the time it takes to interpret relevant data and perceive meaningful patterns, data relationships, structures, and outliers."

So the obstacle before data literacy in this respect is twofold. Nearly nine out of 10 knowledge workers use analytics to guide business decisions. They want — yet many still lack — a quick and integrated analytics solution. Meanwhile, many solutions offer only basic charts and graphs with limited functionality rather than dashboards and other interactive features that afford better data discovery. The right embedded analytics tool solves both of those challenges.

Once you have the tool, you can set out on the training. Your first step is a frank assessment of not just where your employees are on the data literacy curve but where your organization is, too.

How you become data literate

The New Vantage executives survey notes that the biggest impediment to the successful adoption of data initiatives remains cultural challenges. Key metrics in its survey provide a good barometer of where your organization is on the data literacy curve:

• Does your company drive innovation with data?
• Does your company manage data as a business asset?
• Does your company forge a data culture by creating a data-driven organization?

Successful use of data in guiding decision-making isn't a task to assign. It's a mindset to embrace. Leadership cannot expect employees to excel with the tools unless leadership has fully bought into the realization that data analysis is now an integral part of doing business.

How to improve data literacy skills

With data awareness cemented as one of your organization's linchpins, set out to plot each team member's place on the data literacy curve. Doing so helps pinpoint where training is needed most.

The authors of a 2020 Harvard Business Review report on data literacy conducted a focus group of 20 companies to better understand the data skills they were missing. The shortcomings in the following areas help place employees on the curve:

• Do employees ask the right questions?
• Do they understand which data is relevant and how to test the validity of the data they have?
• Do they interpret the data to achieve useful results?
• Do they run hypotheses through A/B tests to see what results work?
• Do they create easy-to-understand visualizations so leadership can better understand the results?
• Do they tell a story to help decision-makers see the big picture?

The right tools can help, but critical thinking skills and visual storytelling are necessary to drive lasting and effective data-driven problem-solving.

Embrace data literacy or falter

The explosion of cloud computing and Internet of Things devices will only add to the voluminous amount of data available for organizations to collect, analyze and use to guide decision-making. Leading organizations will do this well. The rest will quickly fall behind.

Leadership needs to provide the tools and training so all stakeholders, not just the data experts, can make the best use of data to guide decisions. Leadership also needs to take the steps to make data an integral part of the corporate culture. Organizations should assess where they and their employees are on the data literacy curve and set out with the additional training and resources to elevate their skills and understanding.

Author

Charles Caldwell is the VP of product management at Logi Analytics, which empowers the world's software teams with the most intuitive, developer-grade embedded analytics solutions. He has more than 20 years of experience in the analytics market, including more than 10 years of direct customer implementation experience. Charles writes and speaks extensively on analytics with an emphasis on in-app embedding, optimizing user experience, and using modern data sources.