Role of Leadership Towards Building A Data-Driven Culture

Big data has become a catchphrase owing to its massive potential and exponentially increasing digitalization in all spheres of business. It is among the top priorities for organizations today. Virtually whatever we do today amounts to the generation of data that increasingly gets collected and analyzed. It is changing the way organizations do business. As much as data is important, it is necessary to harness this ocean of data in order to stay afloat. This requires prompt decision-making strategies and directional leadership to steer the businesses in the right direction.

As digital revolution matures, data-driven strategies will become an increasingly crucial point of competitive differentiation. To bridge the gap between fast-changing technology magnified by human potential and human adaptability, organizations have to be flexible and fast-adapting. The faster the businesses adapt to this new culture, the sooner it will reap the benefits.

In order to utilize the big data to its full potential, it is important that complementary efficient leadership roles are required. Efficient leadership can make way for a new and much required data-driven culture to fully adapt to this new digital transformation. The following list suggests some changes that organizations can undertake to move towards a data-driven culture.

Change in Organizational Structure

With the increasing speed of digital transformation, it becomes imperative to shift continuously towards a better organizational design by discarding the previous one.  The top businesses today are the highest performing since they have adapted to the changes quickly. The system in which these businesses carry out their daily operations today is much different from how they used to function even ten years back. This continual adaptation has sustained them in the long run. Other organizations which were weighed down by age-old hierarchical practices have either lagged behind or perished.

However, redesigning an organization is costly and risky, so, effective leadership and decision-makers are required in the forefront. It is also important to fully realize the nuances of the objective, requirements, and strategy to successfully implement these changes.

Employees, especially in the human resources department should be updated of the new strategies in the organization they are in. Letting them get an HR degree online can help them get the right training on organizational development and hone their skills for the betterment of the company.

Investment of Resources

The businesses should invest time, money and other resources in building proper infrastructure, adopting new technologies and providing different kinds of leadership training to the employees. To create a more data-inclusive culture, hiring more people with technical skills is not always the solution. It is important for the employees to have the necessary soft-skills and to keep upgrading their technical skills as traditional skills may become redundant in this fast-paced transformation. In this new structure, communication tools will become very essential. Standardised training should be implemented to make communication a priority. To bring about this flexibility, re-designing the organizations with more investment of resources in these areas become necessary.

The high-performing businesses have started both forward and backward integration for learning by securing tie-ups with online platforms, universities and other institutions to provide a more dynamic approach to training and learning. So reskilling the adjacent skills combined with leadership training and infrastructure will pave the way to a more data-driven culture. These new business models also need a new approach to leadership mindset and demand some specific skills like negotiation, resilience to lead the network of teams.

Network of Teams

In this drive towards a data-oriented culture, there needs to be a hierarchical shift from traditional business operations. The modern view is that the companies should be viewed as a flexible network supported by well-balanced teams, empowered leaders and decision-makers.

Successful organizations today are moving towards this team-oriented approach. A team-centric business model accounts for more flexibility and durability than the age-old hierarchical model with expertise in specific areas. Smaller and well-connected teams are easier to work with. The different network of teams can specialize in different areas of expertise and thus transparency in decision-making also improves. It also helps the businesses to stay nimble as teams can be formed and disbanded quickly and job roles and titles can be changed accordingly. High-performing teams should be analyzed regularly and other teams can be modeled after such teams. Moreover, there should be diversity in the teams to maintain team fluidity.

Accountability and Data Exposure

With specific expertise teams, accountability also becomes more transparent. Individual, as well as team goals, should be set and shared throughout the network. This creates a sense of accountability and boosts productivity. The top business leaders must understand this new flexible and agile model and support processes to increase team fluidity so that transparency and efficiency increases.

Data exposure and accessibility increases as more teams handle the data. This, in turn, helps the organizations to deal with the plethora of data and derive meaningful insights from them. So, this shift from isolated data platforms to multi-team access is necessary. This also helps the team to have more first-hand knowledge of the business processes.

The teams dealing with data should be governed by management teams that should also be well-acquainted with data. Data should not be limited only to specific teams. There should be an entire network which deals, governs and manages data.

Conclusion

So, with these changes undertaken, the possibilities become endless as the companies can venture into new areas with more efficiency and security. The complete democratization of work will break the hierarchical order in favor of a power-balanced network of teams with more project-oriented approach. This, in turn, will keep the businesses ahead in the race.