Navigating Accelerated Change with Data-Driven Strategies: A Healthy Approach for Organizations

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It's clear that in today's rapidly changing business landscape, you need to find even more effective ways to influence and deal with accelerated change to stay ahead of the curve. Data-driven strategies are an important part of Enterprise Agility (see below Exponential Technologies) and one of the most effective ways for leaders to anticipate, plan, and deal with the new reality.

According to a 2018 survey of executives, 75% of respondents said they use data-driven strategies to make decisions, and 97% believe data-driven strategies lead to better business outcomes [1]. Additionally, the same survey found that 87% of executives believe data-driven strategies have improved the customer experience, and 78% said data-driven strategies have helped them make better decisions faster [2].

An analysis by Forbes Insights found that companies using data-driven strategies outperformed their peers across a range of metrics, including revenue growth, customer satisfaction and operational efficiency [3]. These findings suggest that data-driven strategies can be a powerful tool for companies to gain a competitive advantage. A crucial question is how this can be reconciled with the organization and adaptability of people to the new, accelerated reality.

In order to leverage data-driven strategies, we must first understand how to sense markets (Market Sensing) and how the Collective Capabilities we have within our organization are able to do so. These two blocks are crucial foundations of Enterprise Agility.

Clearly, to deal with accelerated change, you must first understand how your people can make sense of data. This includes gathering data from various sources such as customer surveys, market research and financial records, trying to understand those market patterns, and making sense of them. It also involves making sure you're aware of different signals from the markets and how to convert them into something realistically executable (at Enterprise Agility University, we have a great framework called the Five Sensing Method, which I'll discuss in future articles).

Once the data is collected, it needs to be analyzed and interpreted to gain insights into the current business environment.

This is clearly influenced by the number of perspectives people can see in the organization (or Reframing), or what we call Mental Agility .

You should also think about how to sense the coming signals in a way that helps you anticipate and develop your products, your organization, and your people in times of disruption.

Clearly, in organizations where people don't have the cognitive abilities to see different perspectives, either because they don't feel safe or because they aren't used to seeing more perspectives, market sensing tasks are more difficult and with less successful results.

Once you've identified the potential changes and challenges, you should develop strategies to manage those changes while also considering the wellbeing of your employees, what we call Workforce Wellbeing Value in Enterprise Agility. If you don't take this into account, you'll have a hard time maintaining a sustainable strategy and continuing to develop great products and innovations.

According to a 2019 study, 91% of companies surveyed said data-driven strategies have helped them make better decisions and improve performance. And what we'll see in the coming years is how we can continuously change existing processes and develop new ways to adapt more sustainably on the accelerated path, while also taking into account more systematically the mental adjustment of people to the new reality.

Data-driven strategies are also a great way to identify and capitalize on opportunities in times of accelerated change. For example, if data signals from the market indicate that a new product or service is becoming more popular or something new would come soon, you should work together to develop a strategy to take advantage of this trend before it's too late. In doing so, you should make sure that you align sensing capabilities (how you would sense it) with existing collective capabilities (how you are able to execute it), and that your employees are familiar with the new reality and can still analyze the data during times of upheaval that require change.

Using data-driven strategies can give you a comprehensive understanding of the prevailing accelerated business environment and enable your company to make well-informed decisions. In addition, they can help you develop a sustainable strategy, provided you also consider how the data can be analyzed, reframed, and implemented collaboratively within your organization.

References: [1] Three keys to building a data-driven strategy - McKinsey [2] 6 Ways a Data-Driven Approach Helps Your Organization ... [3] 10 Steps to Creating a Data-Driven Culture