2X Founder & Chief Decision Scientist | TEDx Speaker | Contributor to MIT SMR & Forbes | B-School Adjunct Prof. | C-Suite Advisor
As a #DataScience leader, your biggest challenge is NOT in hiring the smartest people. Nor is it in training them on the best tools or techniques. The *real challenge* is in getting them to apply their #skills, in practice. ?? “You have people walking around with all the knowledge of humanity on their phone, but they have no idea how to integrate it. We don’t train people in thinking or reasoning”, says David Epstein, the author of RANGE. How do you mentor your team to get curious, problem solve and apply their intelligence to enable #business decisions? #data #analytics
Interesting share Ganes Kesari. We can design the system with the best parts, but if we do not ensure that each will perform his/her best and in synchronisation manner, we are not going to achieve the potential results. I.e. we also need to know if a team is applying their skills, are they applying in same direction / same purpose. Someone has to play the role of integrater.. Your thoughts..
If I had a nickel for every educator who bemoaned "we need to teach students to THINK!", well I'd have a lot of nickels. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him think.
I completely agree that hiring the smartest people is not the biggest challenge. But even when you have the smartest people in the team that does not necessarily mean that they will solve your problems. As a leader, you need to clearly communicate and ensure that everyone actually believes in the mission. Once everyone in the team understands the strategic importance of solving that problem, then you simply empower them to make their own decisions and you will see progress. That’s why is key to have a team that is passionate and actually believe in what your organization is trying to accomplish. Would you agree Ganes Kesari ?
Reward team members that want to time to pursue wild ideas and explore the business deeply. The most potent reward for behavior modification is public praise. I'd start with 'so and so has been doing great work with issue x. So and so, please fill the team in' in a staff meeting and escalate up to emailing the highest executives with any visibility into the team. If your people see curious folks being rewarded with praise, they will be much more likely to act on their own curiosity.
Totally agree with you sir.
Thinking is hard. Ambiguity by design is uncomfortable. To make sense through ambiguity requires critical thinking, which I believe we dont spend enough time developing. Ryan Holiday presents this beautifully in his book "The Obstacle is the way"
I agree with Ganes Kesari
By asking questions that gets them thinking about their ideas, actions and decisions.
'but they have no idea how to integrate it'...Agree with you Ganes Kesari
Engineering Manager II @ Paypal
4 年The book you have mentioned "Range" talks about people who have had a wide variety of experiences before they reached the pinnacle of their career in one field. It is about how acquiring trans-disciplinary skills (i.e., skills that can be abstracted out of one field and applied in another) can make one a better critical thinker. As a generalist, I can see that I have multiple frameworks which allows me to learn a variety of skills and ask probing questions. My team learns by interacting and watching when others ask these probing questions. As a company culture when we value the questioning we hope the newer members of the team will pick up the scent.