Create More Tension: A Call to Data and Analytics Teams to Drive Business Outcomes

We hear the same message over and over again in data circles: align data with business strategy, deliver value, drive insights. It’s become the go-to mantra for data and analytics professionals, but are we really doing it? Are we pushing hard enough to actually create meaningful tension between our data initiatives and the tangible outcomes businesses need? I’m not convinced.

Here’s my challenge to data and analytics teams: create more tension. Don’t just nod along when business leaders ask for dashboards or predictive models. Instead, dig deeper. Tension is where the real transformation happens. It's uncomfortable, it's challenging, and yes it creates friction. But it’s also what leads to breakthrough value.

What Do I Mean by Tension?

When I say, “create tension,” I’m not talking about internal conflict for conflict’s sake or making life difficult just to seem contrarian. Tension in this context is the strategic friction between what’s easy and what’s necessary to achieve business outcomes. It’s about pushing against the pull of routine, status quo solutions, and data work that ticks a box but doesn’t move the needle.

Here’s why this tension matters: Businesses are not interested in your data. They are interested in outcomes. Outcomes like increasing revenue, optimising operational efficiencies, reducing costs, or improving customer satisfaction. If your data initiatives aren’t directly impacting those areas, then what are they really achieving?

Yet, how often do we get stuck in our comfort zone, focused on producing more reports, cleaning up data lakes, refining dashboards, and feel a sense of accomplishment without asking the hard question: What real business problem are we solving here?

Why Tension is the Key to Business Value

• Exposing Real Business Problems: In too many organisations, data work is reactive: business leaders ask for something, and the data team delivers. But this service-oriented mindset doesn’t create business value; it sustains mediocrity. Creating tension forces us to reframe the problem. Are we solving the right problem? Is this the best use of our resources? Why does this matter to the business? Pushing back on vague requests and diving into the ‘why’ exposes inefficiencies and areas where data can drive significant improvements.
• Turning Data from a Cost Centre into a Revenue Generator: Many organisations still see data teams as cost centres, not value creators. This is partly the data team’s fault, as they haven’t always done the best job of clearly articulating how our work drives business outcomes. By creating tension, you challenge the assumption that data is just a support function. Force the conversation towards how data initiatives can directly improve profit margins, unlock new revenue streams, or optimise processes that deliver tangible financial value. If we can’t link our efforts to those results, what’s the point?
• Enabling Strategic Foresight, Not Just Retrospective Insights: Too much of today’s data work is still retrospective, looking at what happened rather than what’s about to happen. Tension should push us to be more forward-thinking. Are we using data to drive actionable insights that help the business anticipate future trends, mitigate risks, or seize opportunities? Or are we still stuck in descriptive mode, where we’re only reporting on the past? Creating this tension forces teams to elevate their focus from ‘what is’ to ‘what could be,’ which is where the true business value lies.
• Driving Relentless Focus on Value: In many organisations, data teams deliver outputs rather than outcomes. But generating reports, building dashboards, or producing models doesn’t inherently create value, only impact does. By maintaining tension, we constantly hold ourselves accountable to the question: Is this driving measurable business impact? Tension forces us to reject vanity metrics and trivial outputs in favour of deeper, harder, and more valuable outcomes.

How to Introduce Productive Tension in Your Teams

Creating productive tension requires a fundamental shift in how data and analytics teams operate. Here are some ways to start creating that much-needed friction:

1. Challenge Vague Requests from the Business

When a business leader asks for a dashboard or a report, don’t jump straight into action. Challenge them. Push them to clarify why they need it. What decision is this data supposed to inform? What business problem are we solving here? This forces stakeholders to be precise, making your work more focused on tangible outcomes. It’s uncomfortable for them, but it’s essential for driving value. Data teams need to stop being order-takers and start being strategic partners. I can’t believe I’m still saying this!

2. Disrupt the Comfort Zone of Your Data Initiatives

The temptation to stick with what you know is strong. You’ve been asked for the same types of reports, dashboards, or models before, so you know how to deliver. But are those deliverables creating new value or simply maintaining the status quo? What would happen if we didn’t produce this report? What are we not questioning? How can we innovate on this deliverable? Push your team to disrupt their thinking. Introduce projects that challenge the norm. If everything is going smoothly in your team, it’s a sign you’re not pushing hard enough.

3. Connect Every Data Initiative to a Business Metric

You can’t create value if you’re not measuring it. For every data initiative you undertake, define a clear business metric that it must impact, whether that’s cost reduction, revenue growth, customer satisfaction, or operational efficiency. If you can’t tie the initiative back to a concrete business outcome, then you’re wasting time and resources. Tension is about keeping the team focused on measurable business impacts.

4. Elevate the Role of Data in Strategic Decision-Making

Data teams should be leading, not following. Instead of waiting for requests, bring proactive insights to the leadership table. Identify areas where data could unlock new opportunities or expose hidden risks. Bring solutions before problems are even identified. Tension in this case means pushing leadership to integrate data at the strategic decision-making level, not just as an afterthought.

5. Reward Risk-Taking Over Compliance

In many data teams, the focus is on compliance and delivering what’s been asked. But innovation comes from taking calculated risks, exploring uncharted territories of data analysis, trying new models, challenging established norms. Creating tension means rewarding those who step outside the traditional boundaries and seek out novel ways to drive value. Encourage failure as part of the process.

Moving Beyond Data: Tension is About Business Impact

At its core, tension is about making data relevant to the broader goals of the business. It's not enough to work hard at delivering insights, we must work smarter by relentlessly questioning whether those insights will actually change something for the business. Will it unlock growth? Will it save costs? Will it improve customer experiences or increase operational efficiency?

In the end, tension is what separates data teams that maintain the status quo from those that drive the business forward. We should all strive to make our work uncomfortable for the right reasons. Not because it’s inefficient, but because it’s forcing the organisation to think bigger, move faster, and make better decisions. When that friction starts driving real business outcomes, you’ll know that the tension was worth it.

So, I’ll ask again: are you creating enough tension to make a real impact on the business?

The choice is yours, play it safe, or embrace the discomfort that leads to real value. The businesses that thrive will be those where data teams create tension that challenges assumptions and drives real, measurable outcomes. The future belongs to those willing to embrace the tension and turn it into value.

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