A Leader’s Data Empire State of Mind | by Susan Hoang | Nov, 2022
Channel the right mindsets to unlock your company’s data-driven culture
Harnessing complex, disparate data into meaningful insights for decision-making is both an opportunity and a challenge for healthcare. In my years of healthcare experience working on the front lines in clinical and strategy roles, I have witnessed both success and failure as companies try to leverage data as a competitive advantage. Healthcare executives need to note that to become data-driven, there is more to do than invest in technology and data, mindset matters.
Key Take-Aways
- A healthcare organization’s senior leadership mindset is key to harnessing the power of data.
- Embrace change management as a part of the digital transformation.
- Healthcare executives lead by example and demonstrate command of using data.
- Hold functional and department leaders to higher standards for their data literacy.
- Get comfortable with imperfect data- segregate outcome quality from decision quality.
Becoming data-driven is an undeniable competitive differentiator. What separates leaders from laggards? Why do some healthcare companies trailblaze and make incorporating neural networks look effortless? In contrast, why do others struggle with the minutiae of bar graphs for slide decks and debate and dither on data investment ROI? I believe it begins with the organization’s senior leadership mindset. When I read David Waller’s HBR article, “10 Steps to Creating a Data-Driven Culture”, and reflected on my observations, there are four key mindsets that senior leaders must possess to harness the power of data as a competitive advantage for their organization.
It’s all about change management. Becoming a data-driven culture is a part of an organization’s digital transformation. Healthcare businesses must overcome the perception that learning data skills are too complicated to stay relevant in the industry and be modern.
Culture starts from the top. Having your healthcare organization’s top leaders buy into the data-driven culture transformation will be crucial to success. The executive leadership team must demonstrate proficiency and comfort with leveraging data to inform decision-making, not just to use it to validate gut instincts and question the data’s veracity when gut instincts are not validated.
Don’t accept ignorance. Facilitating communication and exchanging ideas between data science and the business is a bi-directional expectation. Functional and department leaders need to be held to a higher standard on their data literacy; they must be more competent in the language of data science. We need to think of data literacy as financial literacy. Everyone should know the basics, like budgeting and how to read a balance sheet. We should not compromise or excuse functional leaders from having some understanding of data, analytics, and statistics.
We operate in an ambiguous and uncertain environment. Healthcare leaders need to separate outcome quality from decision quality. We have to weigh the different factors and the probability of the decisions. In retrospectives, we need to focus on the decision process rather than just the outcome, as this will help us focus on the data.
Closing Thought… Have A Data Empire State of Mind
“Big Data” is like New York City. It may be too daunting for many leaders, but it’s a land of opportunity for leaders with an empire state of mind. Like JAY-Z’s 2009 Empire State of Mind, “Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do.” It can be your competitive differentiator if you harness your organization’s data-driven discipline.
What’s Your Take?
What are the must-have mindsets that senior leaders should have in data-driven cultures?
Channel the right mindsets to unlock your company’s data-driven culture
Harnessing complex, disparate data into meaningful insights for decision-making is both an opportunity and a challenge for healthcare. In my years of healthcare experience working on the front lines in clinical and strategy roles, I have witnessed both success and failure as companies try to leverage data as a competitive advantage. Healthcare executives need to note that to become data-driven, there is more to do than invest in technology and data, mindset matters.
Key Take-Aways
- A healthcare organization’s senior leadership mindset is key to harnessing the power of data.
- Embrace change management as a part of the digital transformation.
- Healthcare executives lead by example and demonstrate command of using data.
- Hold functional and department leaders to higher standards for their data literacy.
- Get comfortable with imperfect data- segregate outcome quality from decision quality.
Becoming data-driven is an undeniable competitive differentiator. What separates leaders from laggards? Why do some healthcare companies trailblaze and make incorporating neural networks look effortless? In contrast, why do others struggle with the minutiae of bar graphs for slide decks and debate and dither on data investment ROI? I believe it begins with the organization’s senior leadership mindset. When I read David Waller’s HBR article, “10 Steps to Creating a Data-Driven Culture”, and reflected on my observations, there are four key mindsets that senior leaders must possess to harness the power of data as a competitive advantage for their organization.
It’s all about change management. Becoming a data-driven culture is a part of an organization’s digital transformation. Healthcare businesses must overcome the perception that learning data skills are too complicated to stay relevant in the industry and be modern.
Culture starts from the top. Having your healthcare organization’s top leaders buy into the data-driven culture transformation will be crucial to success. The executive leadership team must demonstrate proficiency and comfort with leveraging data to inform decision-making, not just to use it to validate gut instincts and question the data’s veracity when gut instincts are not validated.
Don’t accept ignorance. Facilitating communication and exchanging ideas between data science and the business is a bi-directional expectation. Functional and department leaders need to be held to a higher standard on their data literacy; they must be more competent in the language of data science. We need to think of data literacy as financial literacy. Everyone should know the basics, like budgeting and how to read a balance sheet. We should not compromise or excuse functional leaders from having some understanding of data, analytics, and statistics.
We operate in an ambiguous and uncertain environment. Healthcare leaders need to separate outcome quality from decision quality. We have to weigh the different factors and the probability of the decisions. In retrospectives, we need to focus on the decision process rather than just the outcome, as this will help us focus on the data.
Closing Thought… Have A Data Empire State of Mind
“Big Data” is like New York City. It may be too daunting for many leaders, but it’s a land of opportunity for leaders with an empire state of mind. Like JAY-Z’s 2009 Empire State of Mind, “Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do.” It can be your competitive differentiator if you harness your organization’s data-driven discipline.
What’s Your Take?
What are the must-have mindsets that senior leaders should have in data-driven cultures?
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