Resources Roundup: So... maths is cool now? A dive into data literacy.
Inspiring and informative resources to help you build data literacy for yourself, your coworkers, and your organisation.
My last two resources roundups were packed with interesting, useful tidbits about data visualisation (see Making graphs that donât suck) and storytelling with data (see Using data to make people care, listen, and act). Closely related to this, and the theme of todayâs post, is data literacy. Iâm including some of my recent favourite resources on this topic (plus shareable tweets, if thatâs your thing). Enjoy!
Article: Why Becoming a Data-Driven Organisation Is So Hard (For: everyone working in data, from the scientists and engineers, to the strategists and leaders)
This article from Harvard Business Review summarises the challenges many companies face with becoming data driven, and outline some essential requirements for success:
Data leadership
Cultural change
New roles, e.g. Chief Data and Analytics Officer
Ability to think different
Willingness to fail fast, learn faster
A focus on the long-term
Podcast: Data Literacy versus Business Literacy (For: anyone wanting to become more effective at data leadership).
This episode of @LeaPicaâs The Present Beyond Measure Show introduces business literacy, how to become more business literate, and why itâs key for success for both data professionals and their organisations. This includes points like:
How to describe whatâs at stake in the data to identify opportunities
How to explain this in the data in the language of the audienceâs needs
Strategies for handling objections and cognitive bias in stubborn stakeholders
The processes for adopting the perspective of a CEO
Shareable tweet.
Article: Data Storytelling Is the Conduit for Modern Data Literacy (For: data leaders hoping to successfully implement data opportunities)
Company-wide data literacy is essential if businesses are to have any hope at turning data opportunities into successful products. Without it, one of two blockers will always arise: either data science and engineering teams wonât be given the go-ahead to try out their proposed PoCs, or theyâll try it, but wonât be able to get company buy-in to develop the ideas further. In this article, Mara Pometti, Associate Design Director at McKinsey, argues for building data literacy through data storytelling. She lists concrete actions businesses should take, and how to enact them:
Disperse data competencies throughout the business
Teach data literacy through data storytelling
Communicate data visions that bridge the divide between analytics and business
Breach organisational guardrails: infuse data storytelling into everything you do, regardless of whatâs considered âtraditionalâ for your role
Catalyse a digital mindset
Shareable tweet.
Video + Blog: How to run a company Data Literacy program? (For: anyone wanting to champion data literacy in their organisation)
You donât have to be a leader already to champion organisational data literacy. In this video and accompanying article, Bethany Gripp of Talend (Qlik) presents a 6-phase plan to help run a data literacy program. This includes real, practical hurdles that might come up, and concrete tips on overcoming them: for example, how to provide employees with trusted, quality data while adhering to access policies and still enabling them to experiment and learn. Shareable tweet.
Podcast: Bridging the data literacy gap (For: people confident with data, who want to enable that confidence in others)
In case you canât tell already, I love podcasts. Hereâs a great episode from Data Camp, which talks about helping people break down their own mental barrier of believing âIâm not a numbers personâ. I also particularly liked the argument for being 'data-informed' and not only 'data-driven'. And Dr Selena Fisk's levels of Data Literacy are also very useful for thinking about the data maturity of businesses and their employees. Shareable tweet.
Webinar: The Power of a Team-Oriented Approach to Data Literacy (For: anyone whoâs especially interested in practical advice for implementing a data literacy program)
Iâll finish with one of the best data literacy talks Iâve seen yet: this webinar by NASAs David Meza. Itâs full of value insights, such as:
Why data literacy matters, and its benefits
Concrete questions for assessing a companyâs data literacy
How to develop a data literacy vision, once youâve assessed where youâre at and where you need to go
Plus the four levels of analyticsâDescriptive, Diagnostic, Predictive and Prescriptiveâand what they actually mean for the organisation. For example, in the âPredictive levelâ, not everyone can generate the data. However, they should be able to understand conceptually how the predictions were generated.
And if youâve gotten to the end of this post and still arenât convinced of the value of data literacy, here are some closing words from Mezaâs talk:
100% of employees in the organisation should have a data role. They need to understand how to read, work with, analyse and communicate with data (the common definition of âdata literateâ). Why? Because weâre living in a data-driven world. Furthermore, this data isnât just 1s and 0s, or an Excel spreadsheet, which we only view between 9-5 each day. Instead, we are all exposed to data, all of the time. Our senses are constantly taking in data, and hence, we need literacy in daily life. For example, even when shopping for groceries, we can compare prices per 100g in the supermarket, but sadly not everyone is comfortable doing this.
If you check out this talk and find it useful, once again, hereâs a shareable tweet.
And if youâve enjoyed this post, you know what to do. đ