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.