So you want to know what makes high performing companies different?
It comes down to one thing.
The best-run companies don’t treat data like an individual effort… they treat it like a team sport.
Collaboration on and around data allows winning organisations to move faster, make smarter decisions, and deliver incredible results. But siloed teams struggle to keep up with the speed of today’s business.
Only when data teams prioritise collective results over individual goals can the entire business thrive.
What you’re going to learn:
- Why Data Silos Are Destroying Productivity
- How Collaboration Supercharges Data Teams
- Building Blocks of a Data-First Team Culture
- Making Data Accessible Across the Business
Why Data Silos Are Destroying Productivity
Here’s the dirty secret most companies don’t want to admit.
Data silos are bad, but did you know they are destroying productivity?
Employees spend 5.3 hours per week waiting on other people for data or recreating information that already exists elsewhere. That’s over a half of work day each week wasted on redundant work and slow wait times.
Stop and let that sink in.
Instead of working on high-value tasks, team members are Googling spreadsheets, sitting on conference calls, running back and forth to the water cooler asking “who has the latest numbers?”, and recreating charts and reports that someone else has already built last week.
Not only is that time poorly spent… but bad data caused by silos is estimated to cost companies $12.9 million dollars per year! That’s direct costs from avoidable errors, mistakes, and lag time.
Yikes.
Data team productivity doesn’t have to be this way.
When data teams take the right steps to collaborate effectively with one another (which includes investing in the proper data collaboration tools), everyone wins.
How Collaboration Supercharges Data Teams
Okay but what happens when companies really excel at collaboration?
Companies with collaborative cultures are five times more likely to be high performing.
Teams that work together grow together.
Data analysts, engineers, and everyone who interacts with data benefits immensely when there are no (or limited) silos between teams. Everyone has access to better information which allows them to do their jobs more efficiently.
When data teams really come together, here’s what’s possible:
- Accelerated insights. Nobody has to wait for another department to share a new dataset. Everyone has access to everything in one centralized place.
- Improved data accuracy. More sets of eyes on the same information means errors can be caught earlier.
- Informed business decisions. Executives have more context when reviewing reports, so they can make better decisions for the business.
And when data teams are more productive, the entire business improves.
This sounds great but how do you actually do it?
It starts with creating a data-first culture and encouraging everyone to think about data as a team sport.
The Building Blocks of a Data-First Team Culture
Guess what…
Not every company really understands what it means to be “data-driven.”
Having a culture where data is valued is important, but it takes more than flipping a switch and having weekly data meetings. Having a true data-first team culture starts with leadership setting the example.
If executives don’t treat data as a shared objective across teams, then why should everyone else?
For those wanting to start thinking about data as a team sport, here are a few things to focus on.
Data isn’t owned by any one team. You’d be surprised how many times the phrase “my data” comes up. Data should be everyone’s data. If everyone who works with and around data takes ownership in keeping it accessible to others, data will begin to flow freely.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Data teams should have processes in place to share what they’re working on, call out issues, and coordinate on larger projects. You can have all of the tools in the world but without clear channels of communication, you’ll never establish a data-first culture.
Everyone should be aligned on shared goals. Data analysts should not be sitting in their own little bubble. They should be meeting with marketing, sales, product, and operations on a regular basis to make sure the work they’re doing is actually useful.
Awesome, right?
Information is only valuable when it’s accessible to those who need it.
Making Data Accessible Across the Business
Did you know…
Teams are spending 27% more time collaborating on joint tasks.
Wait, there’s more collaboration?
Yeah. As a result of relying less and less on email, teams are actually collaborating more with one another. Whether it’s using the right tools to communicate in real-time or meeting in person to solve complex problems, there’s more work being done together.
While collaboration is important, data also needs to be accessible to everyone who needs it.
If you have an Excel ninja sitting on your data team who knows how to manipulate spreadsheets like a wizard, but no one else can access those files… ask yourself, how productive is that team really being?
Here are a few important things to consider.
Standardize how your data is stored. Everyone should be able to understand the same data point the same way. That means deciding on your team which terms should be used and what units of measure should be applied. Stop exploding your DataFrame.
Create a single source of “truth”. There should be one place where your team can find clean, enterprise-wide data. Arguments about where data resides should be eliminated by having a centralized location.
Give analysts and stakeholders what they need. Remember that Excel wizard? Great analysts and technical stakeholders should be able to easily access the data they need without jumping through layers of permissions.
When data is accessible to everyone, data teams will be more productive. Businesses with accessible data will grow faster.
That’s why the best-run companies treat data like a team sport.
Wrapping Up
Highly productive companies don’t make data work. Data works for them.
By eliminating data silos, thinking of data as a team sport, creating a data-first culture, and making sure data is accessible to everyone who needs it… data teams will flourish and the business will follow.
Want to see what happens when your data team stops guessing and starts collaborating?
