Strike while the FOMO is hot

Does your organisation have Data FOMO? I’d take a bet that they do …

Think about how much data exists in your company – in your division – your department – on your PC. Wow, quite a lot I am guessing. How much do you use? 5%, 10%, maybe as much as 40%? “Between 60-73% of data is never used for any strategic purpose” said Gartner in 2019. That was 3 and more years ago and before the recent pandemic. However, there is not likely to be much of a change in that statistic, except possibly an increase.

Why is it that we are collecting so much data? Are we using this data? Are we saving it for a rainy day? Perhaps we are keeping it because we think we can use it for a reason we don’t know yet. Is it possible that we are gathering data that we may never use? Is it also possible that we're gathering duplicate data or data that we already have? It is entirely possible that we are keeping data that will never ever be used. So again, why are we collecting it?

I think we suffer from Data FOMO, the “Fear Of Missing Out”. As an organisation, we want to make sure that we have all the data for any purpose, whether we know that purpose or not. We are nervous that if we ignore data that exists somewhere in our Universe, we will regret not grabbing that data then and there. So, whenever data arrives at our doorstep, we invite it in, like a valued guest. We offer the data a place to sit, we may even go so far as to offer the data a drink - allowing it to settle in and make itself at home. We get on with our busy lives and our daily work and very often we forget about our valued guest. After all, the data has quietly settled into its own special place, not doing much - just waiting the opportunity to be used.

Sometime down the line, we hear a knock on the door. Upon opening, we find a new data guest on the doorstep. We invite this new guest into our house, we settle them in to their own space and if we don't have an immediate need for this data, we forget about it and continue with our daily lives again.

We do this time and time again, collecting as much data as we can possibly find or hear about because we are scared of missing out on something that may be useful to us one day. Then, one day, a hero comes along. Our hero has been tasked with a big challenge - we need to clear out our data! Our hero walks around and digs into all sorts of spaces, he finds all of our data guests, he introduces himself and listens to the stories that our data guests are telling. He realises that some of our data guests have overstayed their welcome. He also finds out that some of our data guests were never invited in the first place.

Part one of our hero’s challenge has now been completed. He knows all about our data guests. He has identified which of our guests should be shown the front door and be asked to leave. He also knows which of our data guests will add value in the future. He has a plan of action and is ready to save the data day!

Part two of the challenge - it's time to persuade the organisation to let go of some of these unwanted guests. This is the hard part - we don't want to let go, we are scared that if we do let go of some of these data guests, we may not be able to recover them in the future or we may suddenly find there is a price on their heads which makes them too expensive for us. We do have a future business strategy and a road map of where we're going; we may even have aligned our data to the business strategy. But we are still scared to lose all of this data that we have collected. We are suffering from data FOMO. Our hero is truly a data hero. He knows how to save the day, to keep the best data for us for right now and to store some data for our future. He has gathered unwanted and unneeded data and has a plan to send this data on its way.

We trust our data hero and we wave goodbye to our unneeded data. We pat our hero on the back and congratulate him on a job well done. Then we go back to our daily jobs and continue with our daily work; waiting until the doorbell rings again and a new data guest is standing on our doorstep. We invite them in, we offer them a drink, we settle them down and get them comfortable. After all, what if we need him in the future? It seems that Data FOMO is alive and well in our organisations.

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors (co-authored by Sue Geuens and Stef Thorpe) only.