Leveraging shadow data resources: the role of psychological safety in enhanced data utilisation
Data-driven decision-making processes have revolutionised the way organisations approach problem-solving. With the right combination of technical and human skills, companies can use data to optimise their operations, improve customer experiences, and drive growth.
In 2023, a typical organisation with approximately 1,000 staff will have a data team of 56 people, a smaller data science team of 5 members, and 3 data stewards spread across the organisation. Additionally, 240 employees are identified as shadow data resources (DataTick, 23), meaning they utilise data in their roles without being part of the dedicated data team. This implies that 30% of the organisation uses data in some capacity within their day-to-day functions.
A critical realisation for senior leaders spearheading transformation must be the untapped potential of these shadow data users, who, interestingly, make up 24% of an organisation. These under-the-radar data users are evident across all organisations. Ignore them, leave them untrained and detached from the core data team, and the transformation will fail.
Creating an environment that prioritises psychological safety within teams is essential to foster this transformation.
Building on Google's Project Aristotle, which emphasises the importance of psychological safety, leaders must cultivate an atmosphere where team members feel safe to take risks, admit mistakes, ask questions, and propose new ideas without fear of embarrassment or punishment. This sense of psychological safety encourages employees to actively engage with data and contribute to evidence-based decision-making processes.
To create an environment of psychological safety, your leaders require critical human skills, which are fundamental to successfully achieving digital transformation goals. By embracing these management skills and encouraging psychological safety, organisations can tap into the data skills potential of their workforce and create a culture that values evidence-based decision-making. This will enable them to make more informed choices, uncover new insights, and drive continuous improvement across their entire business ecosystem.
Implementing a data-driven culture
Creating a data-driven culture starts with fostering a mindset that values data and its role in decision-making. This involves encouraging employees to use data in their day-to-day work and promoting a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
To bridge the data skills gap, senior decision-makers suggest focusing on training programmes that cover the evolving technological landscape (31%), upskilling and reskilling employees (28%), recruiting the best talent (27%), encouraging an accessible data culture (24%), acceptance of change (24%), and understanding the importance of data skills (23%). These recommendations highlight the need for a multi-faceted approach combining training, talent acquisition, cultural transformation, and change management to address the data skills gap effectively.
Employees call for on-the-job training and practical experience to bridge the data skills gap
Employees, on the other hand, have identified specific measures that they believe would be most beneficial in closing the data skills gap, including on-the-job training and practical experience (53%), online courses or tutorials (43%), and access to data analysis tools and software (39%), and formal data training programmes (39%). These findings underline the importance of providing practical learning opportunities and accessible resources to enable employees to develop and enhance their data skills.
Over two-thirds (68%) of employees believe there is a need for increased investment in developing data skills from their organisation. Organisations must respond to this sentiment by investing in training programmes, resources, and infrastructure that empowers employees to develop their data skills. Additionally, higher education institutions are essential in reducing the data skills gap. They can help by developing new training programmes as new data skills arise (41%), providing practical experience opportunities (35%), promoting lifelong learning and upskilling (34%), expanding the data science curriculum to offer data science certifications (28%), fostering industry partnerships (26%), and developing AI competencies and skills (25%).
Employees identify on-the-job training and practical experience as a way to bridge the skills gap
Employees believe in a need for increased investment in developing data skills.
Caroline Carruthers
CEO, Carruthers and Jackson
Caroline Carruthers, CEO of Carruthers and Jackson, provides an insightful reflection on the acceleration of technological evolution. Carruthers acknowledges the radical changes we've seen in our lifetimes, with technologies emerging and disappearing rapidly. She emphasises that our world is an intricate blend of the physical and digital realms, underpinned by data - a bus timetable or social media use. In her view, proficiency in data utilisation has morphed into an essential life skill due to this relentless pace of change.