How well do your team understand their data?

We’re in the ‘age of the geeks’, data and algorithms hold immense sway over our lives and how we do business.

It’s how Amazon kindly manages to show us the stuff we’re most tempted to buy, and how Netflix always manages to put something interesting on screen.

On the flip side ‘dodgy data’ or misinterpretation of what the numbers are telling us can be used for all kinds of bogus or alarmist conclusions.

A 100% increase in the number of people killed by lightening sounds alarming, but given this fate only affects an average of two people in the UK each year, a big proportional increase would not make much impact on the overall mortality numbers.

Closer to home, everyday of our working lives we are surrounded by data that can help us to make decisions or send us into a tailspin.

So how well does your business use the information it has and how well do your team understand their data?

Are your colleagues scared by spreadsheets? Or simply blind to what their numbers may be able to tell them?

Do your team struggle to use data to make decisions? And do they get bamboozled by statistics?

Getting to grips with ratios, sampling, context, and accuracy may not be the stuff of dreams, but it’s an increasingly essential skill for anyone in a professional, managerial or commercial role.

Building skills to notice patterns in your data can help your team to discern changes in customer behaviour, analyse what constitutes acceptable risk and the long-term impact of seemingly small decisions.

If you would benefit from having a workforce that better understands what’s happening in your business, maybe it’s time to consider equipping them to use data intelligently.