Creating a fact-based decision making culture in organizations

Analytical culture is the last mile problem of organizations. More data and analytics frequently lead to decision ambiguity. Insights are either not actionable and when they are actionable, they are not widely adopted at an operational level.

There has been a lot of emphasis on technology and data quality aspects of analytics; however without the analytical culture most organizations will not be able to take advantage of the benefits.

After partnering with more than 100 client organizations as a consultant, from small point solution pilots to deploying large decision support systems, I have developed a series of principles which I think are critical to create and foster an analytical culture. I want to introduce the framework and highlight the organizational principles with some real life war stories.

Some of the organizational principles that I will speak about include:

1. Top Down and not Bottom Up: Analytical culture starts in C-suite
2. Human as a hero vs. Human as a hazard: Design of decision architectures
3. Carrot or Stick: Overcoming Man vs. Machine perception
4. What goes around comes around: Importance of feedback loops
5. Saltines before the steak: Quick wins and Analytical evangelists
6. Journalists before data scientists: Role of communication
7. People, People, People: The talent gap

I hope that the audience will embrace some of the principles and implement them as they build their analytical organizations and solutions.