Create a Culture of Data Literacy
“Data is the new oil” is an overused metaphor that describes the potential value of data in the modern economy. Like oil or any other commodity, data doesn’t become truly valuable until it is refined and processed. Data on its own is neither good nor bad, but it is undoubtedly useless. It must be collected, cleaned, analyzed, and interpreted before it can be applied to a business problem. In the current oil boom that is the data-driven economy, companies that wish to be disruptive and innovative must intentionally foster and instill a culture of data literacy throughout their organizational DNA.
What is data literacy?
You don’t need to be a data scientist to be data literate. Data literacy is understanding, explaining, and documenting data's utility and limitations, becoming a critical consumer of data. Scholar and author Jordan Morrow defines the critical components of data literacy—the Three Cs—as follows:
Curiosity: The ability to ask questions and seek deeper insights from data.
Creativity: The skill to analyze data in innovative ways and tell stories from it.
Critical Thinking: The ability to evaluate data and make informed decisions based on it.
These elements are essential for developing data literacy, enabling individuals to effectively use data in their decision-making.
Why do companies need data literacy?
Data literacy is essential for today’s business landscape. Companies aiming to innovate, stay competitive, make informed choices, and enhance teamwork need employees who are data-literate. Data literacy also involves going beyond analysis to communicate effectively about data with others. Think of it like general literacy: it's not just about reading. It’s about analyzing what you read, drawing conclusions and inferences, and clearly expressing those ideas. Without comprehension and clear communication, literacy is limited. Data literacy allows employees to turn raw data into actionable insights, making organizations smarter, faster, and more resilient.
Create a culture of data literacy.
Without data literacy, organizations face the risk of misinterpreting information, missing key opportunities, and making costly errors. Everyone in the organization should be able to build a business case based on solid data and understand how to interpret data correctly. The real challenge is how to achieve this. Ask any CEO if their company is data-driven, and I guarantee they will say yes. However, building a data-literate company is difficult, and only a few companies succeed at it well.
For data literacy initiatives to succeed, someone at the top must lead their development and implementation. As data initiatives thrive, data communities are formed, and a narrative will emerge that data literacy can be achieved by everyone. Successful data communities within an organization can become catalysts for fostering an inclusive data-literacy culture.
The bottom line.
The success of data-literacy initiatives depends on intentional leadership and a strategy that develops naturally from early wins. As employees participate, share knowledge, and observe the impact of data-driven decisions, a culture of data literacy begins to take hold. Over time, these efforts foster an environment where every individual feels confident in analyzing, interpreting, and utilizing data. Such a culture will enable you to transform raw data into useful information and create new opportunities within the Information Age.
For further reading: Be Data Literate, by Jordan Morrow.