32 ways to succeed with data. Lessons from the 2022 World Cup teams.
Charles Joseph
Delivering Data Governance, Data Quality and Master Data Management for trusted data. Consultant | Contractor | Coach | Counsellor
32 of the world's best national football teams are converging in Qatar for the 2022 Football World Cup.
Each of them has got there through a blend of skill, effort, energy and support.
From this, I've taken one idea from each competing nation, and linked it back to data success.?
?
I'll then be using LinkedIn Polls for our own #WorldCupofData tournament to find out which is the most significant learning of the 32.
As I developed these ideas, I found that many of them were not data-specific, but apply to people development, team building and project success. That makes sense, because data activities are part of an organisation, just like managing the product or service, sales, IT or risk and compliance.
Please share in the comments anything that you've learned or applied from the 32 ideas, or even where you disagree with them.
?
Qatar?has a population of under three million, which is a small pool of people from which to find a talented football team. Their solution was to set up the ASPIRE programme to find and develop young talented footballers, from Qatar and around the world, which massively increased the quality of their team.
Is your business always trying to hire the best possible people, or are you growing and nurturing your talent?
Ecuador?were at risk of being disqualified from the tournament when the eligibility of their player Byron Castillo was challenged. The player was born in a town near the border in Colombia and it was unclear where he was actually born, and how accurate his documentation was.
Whilst sales and finance data is important, the quality of personal data can impact lives.?Look after it!
Senegal?have a major concern right now whether their key player and superstar, Sadio Mane, will be fit for the tournament. Whilst the team contains stars who play in many of the world's major leagues, Mane is seen as their leader and figurehead.
Is all of your decision making based on a single data source, or a combination of data sources that rely on the integration working perfectly, every time?
Netherlands?have players from the top teams in the world, and Dutch football has had a massive impact on tactics and the approach to the game (particularly in the case of Barcelona), yet the national team has only won one major trophy (the 1988 European Championships).
It’s great that your analytics team have found valuable insight, but are you generating tangible benefit from them?
?
England?have reached a semi-final and a final in their last two major tournaments, but opinion is split whether a different coach would have done even better, or not got so far.
When creating a data strategy, it’s vital to define what success looks like.?This means that it can be measured against, and it should be clear to all if this has been achieved.
Iran?qualified for the tournament with 15 wins from 18 games, but then their coach was fired, reinstated, and fired again, before being replaced by his predecessor.
Project sponsorship is key to success, and even the strongest plans with the best delivery will not succeed if the support of senior management is not obtained and maintained.
United States?are dominant in almost every major sport, except for men’s football.?This is because professional football, or soccer, started relatively late in the US, with Major League Soccer commencing after the US hosted the 1994 World Cup, following previous attempts at professional leagues in the 1970s.
The best time to start a project was a long time ago, but the second best time to start is now.?Even if you think that your organisation is immature from a data perspective, start carrying out the right activities and do so consistently.
Wales?are planning to change their official team name to Cymru after the tournament, which is the Welsh language name for Wales. Turkiye recently made this type of change from Turkey, and will be using it in the qualifiers for Euro 2024. The Welsh Football Association explained at Cymru is the name they use internally, and they want the world to be aware of their language and culture.
A regular cause of data misunderstanding is unclear definitions.?This could be when people understand a term to mean different things, or when different terms are used to mean the same thing.?Do you have a data dictionary or business glossary; and is it up to date?
?
Argentina?come to the World Cup undefeated in 35 games, including winning both the 2021 Copa America and the "Finalissima" against European Champions, Italy. However, there is great pressure on them, and particularly on Lionel Messi, to follow this up with the World Cup.
If you are successful enough to have put a strong data governance and data quality culture in place, ensure that you are able to maintain and build on it as personnel change it over time.
Saudi Arabia?closed its diplomatic ties with World Cup hosts, Qatar, in 2017 and they only resumed in 2021. If this hadn't happened, would they have withdrawn from the tournament?
In many organisations, there will be those who are opposed to your data initiatives, and sometimes they may be in positions of influence. As a data leader, it's vital to ensure that challenges with individual colleagues do not get in the way of wider goals.
Mexico?have a remarkable record of reaching the last-16 stage of every World Cup since 1994, but never going any further in the competition.
Data Governance may have been well implemented in some business units or over some data domains, but engaging the other teams could require a different approach which speaks to their challenges and opportunities.
Poland?is the native country of Miroslav Klose, holder of the all time record of goals, 15, scored at the World Cup finals. Unfortunately for Poland, he did so playing for Germany.
When you find an outlier in your data, it's key to determine whether this is a data quality error which needs to be investigated and fixed, or a genuine outlier which can provide new insight into your activities.
?
France?have a collection of some of the world's finest players, but have sometimes fallen short at tournaments due to clashes and internal rivalries between players, including a blackmail case which led to star striker, Karim Benzema, not playing for the national team for several years.
When considering your data team, don't just consider their technical skills and outputs; also consider how they can work effectively together and what you can do, as a leader or colleague, to help people shine within the team. This could include diversity initiatives or making adjustments to support those who may not thrive in a traditional office environment.
Australia?moved from the Oceania qualifying region, where they were dominant, to the Asian region where there is more competition, but also more opportunity to qualify for World Cup. (Oceania is considered as having 0.5 places at the finals, as their winner must then qualify against a team from another region (sometimes two) to reach the finals.)
It can be easy to manage data when the quantities are very small, but as your business scales up and becomes more complex, you need to create a strong framework to manage your data across multiple sources.
Denmark?had their greatest footballing achievement when winning the European Championship in 1992, despite being late additions to the tournament to replace Yugoslavia.
Some say that they did so well because there were no expectations of them to do well - they did not even have a full preparation period as they were included so late. When presenting to leadership, sometimes over-preparation can work against you and a more informal approach can reap rewards.
Tunisia?also qualified for the 2018 tournament but since then, have attracted several dual-nationals to play them instead of taking up other opportunities.
领英推荐
Finding experienced data talent is hard, with firms looking to hire from a relatively small pool of talent. Looking outside the "ideal scope" and bringing data specialists from outside your industry; or industry specialists who can be trained in data skills; will provide great opportunities to both those people and the business.
?
Spain brought the playing style of tiki-taka to the world, which focuses on maintaining possession with lots of short passing and movement, to create opportunities.
The idea of a central data team which can "look after data and make sure it's right" is a fallacy. Effective data management requires leadership from the data team, but collaboration and effort from the business teams and other functions such as IT, Risk, Compliance and Change.
Costa Rica hired a new coach, Luis Fernando Suárez, in 2021 who set about finding a new core of talented young players. He gave debuts to 22 different players and used 77 altogether across a year and a half, before identifying his core squad.
A similar approach could be taken to a data management programme, bringing in multiple tools and tackling several challenges at once, before focusing on the ones that were successful. This would require very supportive sponsorship! We would recommend that you define clear goals, and a strategy to get there.
Germany have lost in the semi-final of the World Cup four times. They have also got to the final four times and lost. Yet no-one thinks of the German team as failures because they have got to another four finals and won them.
Focus on your successes, and don't dwell on your failures.
Japan, like Costa Rica, have also created a new squad of younger players since the 2018 tournament, but the coach Hajime Moriyasu described this as "generational fusion" rather than "transition". This approach has kept some of the older players in the team, who provide experience and support whilst mostly being used as substitutes.
When building your data team it's challenging, but vital, to balance between younger colleagues with the latest skills; and older ones with experience and insight.
?
Belgium had their "golden generation" during the 2010s, but are finding it challenging to maintain such standards as that generation of players ages and needs replacing.
Similarly, your organisation may have had a great approach to data quality a few years ago. That doesn't mean that it's still the best approach now - it's important to stay on top of innovations in the market and keep pushing forwards.
Canada took their men's national team coach from their women's team. After winning Olympic Bronze in 2012 and 2016, John Herdman switched to the men's team and has got them to their first World Cup since 1986, and only their second ever finals.
Diversity and inclusion is a genuine way of finding talent which you would otherwise miss.
Morocco, along with Senegal, Algeria and others have moved from the model of having an experienced European coach, to being led by a former international player - Walid Regragui.
Data activities in an organisation have an initial phase of change activity, which includes design and implementation. When the new operating model is in place, the focus is then on sustainable activities. The skill set to get things going is not the same as that of continuing the good work. That could suggest that you need different people to lead those phases.
Croatia had to go through a qualifying play-off, under new manager Zlatko Dalic, to reach Russia 2018, but then made it all the way to the final. In 2022, there is much more expectation on the team to do well.
The success of projects is rarely going to be a steady path of progress. Sometimes activities which fail cause a review of the approach, leading to enhancements which end up with a far better outcome than was anticipated. Don't hide bad news from your leadership - use the skills and knowledge in the team to solve problems.
?
Brazil have won the World Cup five times, more than any other nation. The tradition of the team and the expectation of their support is that it's not enough for Brazil merely to win, but they must win with stylish play, as with their teams of previous generations.
Lineage is one of the foundational components of a data governance framework. To understand what data you have, you need to know where it comes from and how it gets to the point of consumption.
Serbia qualified for the World Cup after just missing out in a play-off for Euro 2020, where Scotland eliminated them on penalties. Since then, new manager Dragan Stojkovic has adopted a bolder, faster style of play with a much greater focus on attack.
Applying root cause analysis to data issues uncovers the changes that need to be made to resolve them. It then becomes a question for your decision makers - do you want to make the investment or accept the risk?
Switzerland have been steadily improving their performances in major competitions, qualifying for all but one of every World Cup and European Championship tournament since 2004; and in that time going from a group stage team, to a last 16 team, and then reaching the last 8 at Euro 2020.
This is a great example of the success that comes from sustainable growth and a focus on continual improvement, rather than adopting a risky strategy in the hope of rapid change.
Cameroon coach (and former Liverpool player) Rigobert Song hosted a pre-tournament training camp for players from their domestic league, with the best of them joining the Europe-based players in the World Cup squad.
Many of us are working remotely now, but getting people together for away days and offsites can help to build the relationships which make collaboration easier, even when working remotely.
?
Portugal are the team of Cristiano Ronaldo. For many years, that has been a good thing, although that's not so obvious now.
Some organisations find that decisions come from the the HIPPO - the HIghest Paid Person's Opinion. This works if they are your sponsor, but a threat to the success of your data activities otherwise. Unless you have the ability to ensure that other voices are considered, then you may have to spend a disproportionate amount of energy on feeding the HIPPO.
Ghana qualified for the tournament through the play offs, but have won only two of their last 12 games against opponents ranked in FIFA’s top 100. The coach and team have many challenges to resolve, but there is a lack of confidence in their chances.
Data Quality Logs enable you to record and track any data issues in the organisation. However, without taking any action to understand the issues and resolve them, the benefit is minimal.
Uruguay are one of only eight countries to have won the World Cup and have done so as many times as England and Spain put together (twice). With a population of just over three million (about the same as Qatar), Uruguay has nevertheless been able to field teams that compete at the highest levels.
It's easy to look at a lack of resources, and then explain away any failures in your data activities. With energy and effort, a lack of resources doesn't have to mean a lack of results.
South Korea are likely to field a four man defence, where all four players have the family name "Kim". (Kim Jin-su, Kim Min-jae, Kim Young-gwon and either Kim Mun-hwan or Kim Tae-hwan).
Master Data Management and Golden Records help to ensure that you have high quality data through matching and merging data from multiple sources. The success of this activity relies on generating robust rules for when to match and merge; when not to; and when to use additional data to make this decision.
?
...and there we go, 32 lessons in data from each competing nation at the 2022 World Cup!
Do share your thoughts and feedback in the comments below, whether you agree or not!
?
When not following football, I advise people and organisations about effective data governance and data quality management. For more from me: