Data Driven Organization, Boss is Not Always Right

Imagine riding a car without a dashboard. You accelerate with no idea how much speed you’ve gained, how far you have driven. And when the car suddenly stopped, as the engine failed to turn on no matter what you do, your mechanic spent the whole day only to find out that your car is simply running out of gas.

Data to everyone in an organization is like a dashboard to your car, a navigation that shows you exactly where you at, telling you how much distance you can reach with the power you have left, how much speed you’ve gained per minute and how much more speed you can get at full throttle.

But let’s get real. Could an organisation run without being driven by concrete data? Of course they can, but there is a big difference between the one that drive by data and the one that drive with no data. Because in the absence of data, an authoritative boss will take place, changing a supposedly fair working environment into a political office.

Without data as guidance, key decisions would have to be made by common sense, and who do you think gets to make their common sense the next step the company will do? Not the most creative employee -the geek with the brightest idea, but the boss with the highest position. And the spiral can only go downward from here.

Because as it often turns out, leaders who realize the huge amount of power in their possession do have the tendency to misuse that power. Nobody dares to stand against them because they have no grounds, no records of missteps and mishaps, no data to back them up. And when nobody dares to say anything, no new ideas are sprung, no breakthrough, no advancement and less growth is achieved.

But with the help of data, the geek can defend his creative ideas, make outcome calculation to things that are done right. And when the idea worked, his achievement boosted not just his confidence, but the confidence of his peers to follow his steps, creating a healthy environment where everyone can chip in if they’ve done their homework.

Because data is factual, takes no sides (apolitical) and speaks only the truth. When the right data is presented in a strategic meeting, records will show previous steps that failed, previous executions that worked, who got the shit done, who didn't, results from trials that needs tweaking and trials that’s just a complete disaster. And its OK to fail, at least all the team under the organization learn fast from the data.

Powerful data shows you if not the most effective, the most efficient way forward, a waypoint that even the biggest authoritative figure can’t say no to.

One thing I’ve noticed is that when everyone in organization presents with these data driven culture, their role changes from just a robot who come and away from office to be a human, who passionate to fix things, who hungry to make a change or an improvement.

From : https://achmadzaky.com/data-driven-organization/