In this weeks Five Question Blitz we focus on Data Literacy. In order for an organization to achieve the goal of data driven decisions all members must be equipped to read, comprehend, and execute on the information available.
The Five Question Blitz was created to answer five questions relevant to Data & Analytics. Topics will be broad and answers will be simplified. Our goal is to promote common definitions and increase the general knowledge of individuals with interest in Data & Analytics.
Data literacy is the ability of individuals to read data, comprehend its’ meaning & relevance, accurately communicate to others, and leverage in meaningful ways.
Data driven decision making has become an important standard by which organizations hold themselves accountable. As data is transformed into information and disseminated across an organization all employees must possess the skills necessary to read, comprehend, and take action.
Over the past 10 years the hurdles of collecting data, storing data, processing information, and sharing information with stakeholders have been significantly eroded. Cloud systems have lowered costs allowing all organizations access to scalable information systems. There has been a consistent trend of data saturation from the products and services organizations use creating a high level of opportunity to consume and leverage information. Having a workforce equipped to take action on this information is critical to remain competitive.
All members of an organization must be data literate. This includes leadership all the way down through the ranks. The goal of data literacy is for all individuals to make data driven decisions throughout all aspects of their job.
As with learning most new skills the perceived level of difficulty typically outweighs reality. Taking steps towards becoming data literate does not have to be a difficult journey. Start with the basics which many of us are already comfortable with. Things such as calculating percentages, measuring variances, finding averages, reading graphs, and identifying correlations. From there take steps to learn about your organizations data environment, information systems, and information technology. As knowledge progresses data literacy quickly moves into grasp.
Click here to read last weeks article, Five Question Blitz: Hiring Data & Analytic Professionals.
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About the Author: My name is Ion King and I am the Chief Executive Officer at SimDnA. My focus is on helping others passionate about growing careers in Data Science & Analytics achieve their goals. Connect with me on LinkedIn or find more of my articles on medium.
Header image by Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.
