Data Strategy Implementation

: Introduction

In this article, we will focus on what comes next after identifying data strategy for an organization. What comes next? I will leave you guessing for now. In the first place, there are several definitions for data strategy and like all other things which evolve with time, without exception, the definition of data strategy too is evolving influenced by external, technical, political and social environment,

To keep it dead simple, Data Strategy is a plan aligned to the business strategy and ambitions of the business, where the focus fundamentally is on how an organization can leverage data across its business. Data Strategy must also consider other areas such as Data Privacy, Data Governance, Data Quality and regulatory/compliance aspects.

Data Strategy is a directional road map that draws attention on how data will be collected, stored, processed, analyzed and visualized for enabling : a) business decisions, b) unlocking business value, c) create new opportunities for the business, people, stakeholders d) enable competitiveness, e) exploit data monetization and business transformation opportunities f) balance control and flexibility managing data

To understand data strategy from a holistic point of view, a recommended review would be understanding principles, practices, processes and action of Federal Data Strategy a framework put forward by Office of Management & Budget, US Government. From a simple definition point of view, one can check Gartner's Glossary and learn more about the steps involved in Creating Data Strategy Another great resource would be IBM's blog which talks about how to go about crafting a data strategy. For more detailed help and examples, consider reading Harvard Business Review's article What's Your Data Strategy?.

Tip: An opportunity that awaits an organization when starting from scratch when developing a Data Strategy is to view data strategy from various lenses i.e., a people first approach (employees/suppliers/vendors and other stakeholders), customer-centric approach, regulatory and compliance (external view), organizational maturity and capability (internal view), etc. In fact, we in Limendo would recommend various stakeholders meet/discuss agree why they need a data strategy in an earlier meeting and then follow it up with a workshop / activity involving key stakeholders across the organization. The workshop can make use of Data Strategy Canvas as a starting point. The purpose is to identify and map, how each stakeholder intends to benefit from such a strategy. The various lenses and perspectives provide opportunities to approach data strategy creatively and collectively.

: Implementing Data Strategy

Implementation is very much underrated and unfortunately neglected or at least considered dull if not very exciting, somewhat popularized by the mindset of large consulting firms. The truth is implementation is a differentiator in reality. Implementation is a time when your best plans come under tremendous test and when successful lead to execution of the plan with/without adaptations to achieve desired outcome/purpose. It is not enough if we have a good plan, we need to understand, people, their interactions within the system, exchanges, system dynamics and importantly address all their challenges (such as fear, confusion, trust, ambiguity, etc.,). Knowing and understanding the social, psychological, technical and organizational dynamics a plan or desired purpose inflicts on various stakeholders can greatly assist in devising suitable interventions to relieve the pain. In some sense, we are testing the plan or strategy by simulating with the actual stakeholders ensuring the first impressions, feedback loops, challenges and roadblocks are discovered. All of these means, as an organization you are better equipped to deal with challenges in implementation,

A good tool that can come handy here and force teams to explicitly think about all of the constituent elements of data strategy as well as assist in implementation is Data Strategy Canvas. The canvas enables bring various stakeholders together and embrace a holistic view to the desired state based on organizations vision, capabilities and more. These tools are self explanatory and can be used without almost any prior experience. If you require, you can invite an external member who could facilitate the workshop and also provide an outsider perspective to the discussions.

While there are many tools, I mention a couple of them. We can combine, integrate or selectively pick key elements from below canvases to create and customize canvas suitable to us. The thought process is one size doesn't fit all, if a custom canvas feels appropriate please go ahead with it as long as it reflects and captures your organizational context. There are more than several dozen tools instead of listing them all, I would recommend you to have a look at a market position paper which discusses plenty of such popular tools. Please find more information here.

Soft But Hard (Skills for Implementation)

Most articles, talk about the process, tools and methods and often sideline the people aspects which are absolutely critical for a successful implementation. They don't delve or dive into the ugly challenges and predicaments people, teams and individual face. Plenty of things can go wrong on the people side when it comes to projects. From a risk management point of view, people risk is the highest and most likely risk one encounters during project implementation. In fact it is no surprise that the people risk grows with time, longer the project more the risk from people side. In order to manage or mitigate these risks, we need more than regular science, i.e., in addition to quantitative and qualitative data to continuously monitor and track, we require knowledge from other areas, such as sociology, industrial psychology and organizational behavior, etc. Cross-functional teams are not only good for creativity and problem solving but also great for implementation projects as often implementation projects are about adapting, resolving challenges and collaboratively moving together towards a common goal.

For example, knowing the members of the team, their personalities, introvert or extrovert. Understanding, how each team members likes to work, collaborative or silo. Understanding, each members preferred style of working, formal or informal, his/her likes and dislikes regarding working together or other political challenges inhibiting better team relationship. These are few basic things, that can help understand each other better. At this stage having a team agreement helps, literally discuss with the team when all members are present, i.e., how decisions will be made, what happens to decision making when some members may be unavailable, what is acceptable and what is not, discuss about commitment from each member, what is expected from him/her, how the team will communicate, preferred channels and much more. A team agreement puts forward a mental contract that enforces the team to tackle challenges head-on effectively as opposed to ending up with meetings that go nowhere. The mental contract and transparent ways of working, mutual respect, create a thriving environment to continuously ask for help, collaborate and confidently tackle unprecedented challenges together.

Another perspective to consider from implementation point is understand the short-term and long-term attributes of the implementation in addition to necessary risk management practice in place. The most important outcome of any implementation is execution of desired plan which enables organization collectively to move together (long-term). The byproduct of an implementation project is learning, discovering strengths and weakness of the plan, people, environment including realizing capabilities on agility and resilience. The canvas or tool discussed earlier does a good job in reminding the capabilities, existing priorities and internal dynamics, knowing which the implementation focus can be adjusted.

In this regard it is important to start with stakeholders and their respective goals, ensure these are not merely individualistic but representative of the whole group/team. The next step is collectively, through consensus, agree on priorities for the organization, actions, resources and required time. The focus in these consensus building should remain on the desired end state/objective the organization intends to achieve. Therefore, stakeholders are clearly informed when their agenda is not fitting with the target/desired state. Fairness, simplicity and transparency go a long way for getting over implementation easily without too many headaches. Falling into traps due to existing political environment is the last thing we want, so make sure these are addressed before beginning an implementation. As the next step, the focus moves to identifying quick wins, we should list down all milestones that are considered relevant across the plan. Encourage stakeholders to identify respective quick wins from their point of view. These small or quick wins enable various stakeholders to visualize progress, bring renewed confidence and focus on bigger tasks remaining as part of the implementation. The important part of an implementation plan is to validate each stakeholder’s core objectives (which was captured in the canvas/activity earlier) is met or determine risks in meeting any of those objectives, by continuously evaluating and removing such risks, we can ensure focus, orderliness and collaboration.

The most difficult and challenging part of any implementation plan is adapting. To confront difficult decision-making situations, navigate uncertainty and keep the overall momentum intact. Now, why do we end up in this situation in the first place? It is important to recognize and remember no plan is perfect, a plan that doesn't allow flexibility for known or unknown events which can very well occur through implementation is certainly inadequate. The source for disruption to the plan can be one among many sources: people (internal or external), assumptions made during planning, changing process or systems, evolving internal situation, or changing external dynamics. There is no plan which can anticipate all of these ahead in time. Yes, agility and resilience to disruptions are good way to respond in such situations. Therefore, agile mindset and back up plans are excellent tools and frameworks to have, however, they alone may not be sufficient. The missing ingredient which makes a significant impact in such circumstances is experience.

Experience coming from previous projects, diverse teams, distributed teams, learnings from other sources, individuals, groups, wisdom from outside eventually assist in smoothening the impact of disruption during an implementation.?In reality, such experience/wisdom may come form of a leader, leadership team, a self-organized team, an individual, an external source or even an unlikely source. A reliable trusted partner may add value in such a situation. Not only such situations require going above and beyond commitment. For unstoppable perseverance we need a team/ a partner who is invested and believes in the underlying cause or purpose. Therefore, a reliable team/partner who believes in your organization's vision and ambitions will certainly be more impactful when managing implementation, particularly disruptions. A true and absolute differentiator indeed. Often when trying to win projects, organizations refer to their methodology, size, experience, past success but make less mention of 'people', 'teams' and culture. I believe in today's VUCA environment (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) the most valuable differentiator is people and only people together can navigate VUCA world effectively. If people, don't believe in what you believe, it is unlikely they will lend their support. For a cinematic narration, we are ready to march north to the battlefield before we are ready building our people, position, reserves, reassessing alliances, validating allegiance of our people above all understanding what is in it for them? Why should they care? Isn't that true most often?

On any given day we work with several businesses, how many of them actually are aware, understand and believe in your organization's purpose, vision, true north, understand your ambitions and align themselves? Isn't that a great question to reflect on, enables understanding who is more than inve$ted...