Why Data Fluency Is the Skill Every Organisation Now Needs

Andrea De Mauro brings nearly two decades of leadership in harnessing data and analytics for industry-impacting results. Formerly Head of Data & Analytics at Vodafone Italy and Director of Analytics at Procter & Gamble, he now advises organisations on elevating data maturity and adoption.

An award-winning author and academic, Andrea’s notable works include “Data Analytics Made Easy” and The Financial Times Guide to Data-Driven Transformation. He holds a PhD in Management Engineering and teaches analytics across prestigious European universities.

In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Andrea shares invaluable insights on cultivating data fluency, bridging the human and technological in AI, and empowering leaders and organisations to thrive through data transformation.

Q1. Your research covers the human side of AI and its related challenges. How do you offer advice to companies on navigating these challenges?

Andrea De Mauro: “I think we need to recognise, first of all, the importance of the human side. We find ourselves immersed in a narrative that is dominated by data, by technology, by algorithms, and we often overlook the effort that is unsung and all the sweat that comes with it – the effort of the people that actually put these technologies, these algorithms, to work.

“I advise companies to look after their people in three ways. First, managing the talent – having a clear definition of roles, career progression, and the skill development path for the data professionals. So, managing data talent.

“Second, building an integrated organisation for the data analytics team – picking one of the models that are available out there and that suit best their current level of maturity, recognising that companies are on a journey to utilise data analytics better and better over time as their maturity increases progressively. We need to recognise this progression as well.

“Third, ensure top-down sponsorship and drive the right culture across the entire organisation when it comes to data. Accepting data-based decisions, but also giving analysts and data professionals a seat at the table where and when decisions are actually made.

“This involves a lot of cultural acceptance – it takes time, but it’s certainly worth it. To look after these three aspects – talent, organisation, and culture – over time progressively pays very high dividends.”

Q2. In your books, you emphasise the importance of data fluency across the full organisation. Why is that crucial?

Andrea De Mauro: “Well, to visualise the importance of data fluency, we need to recognise that data analytics is a team sport. It’s not an individual contribution, it’s not the effort of a selected subset of heroes in the company who are the data professionals, like data scientists. It is a team sport. Everyone is included. A data professional alone will never be able to make it happen by themselves.

“We need fluency across the entire organisation because, one, in this way you can manage the fears that often come with the arrival of AI. These are very legitimate fears, like that the algorithms are taking away jobs. The only way to manage these fears and demystify the opportunities is to be very inclusive and give everyone in the company a chance to study, understand, and explore the potential of data and AI.

“Second, you want to get diffused sponsorship and support, not only from top management. To get this support, people need to know how this stuff works. That’s why fluency is important – to give them a common dictionary to understand what we’re talking about when we talk about data and AI.

“The third thing I would mention is that if you want to maximise business impact, you want business people to be part of the game. The entire organisation knows the operating model of the company much better than data professionals alone. So the only way to maximise is to involve everyone. It’s a sport team. It’s a sport team we need to start from.”

Q3. With AI becoming the new norm in businesses, what insights do you offer to top management on adapting their leadership styles?

Andrea De Mauro: “Top managers should understand that managing data and AI is becoming part of their job description. It is a new way of executing general management. The managers of the near future – and I’m not talking about the far future but the very near one – will have to leverage both human and artificial resources to achieve their business objectives.

“They will have to orchestrate carefully the human and artificial aspects and foster a collaboration between them. They will know when to use data for their business needs. They need to stay curious about the technology and they will also know what questions to ask about data when presented with the next model by a data scientist or the results of a business analysis by a data analyst.

“They need to know what questions to ask. This means that top managers need to stay very close to what’s going on in the data space, stay curious, learn, and be part of it.”

Q4. What advice do you give to data professionals who face challenges in being understood and accepted by their business partners?

Andrea De Mauro: “Data professionals are prone to some repeating sources of frustrations that are inherent within their job, and it’s important they acknowledge that it is part of the job to manage this sense of frustration. I often like to talk, whenever I have the opportunity to address data professionals, about these frustrations and how to deal with them.

“There are a few techniques professionals can actually use. One is, first of all, to always recognise the frustrations of the business users when it comes to data – the fact that data sometimes is not readily available, the quality of the data we read in reports and in dashboards is not always at the level we want.

“We want to acknowledge that, explain what’s going on under the hood, what is already happening, and what should happen to solve these issues. Show the overall journey, making business partners part of the data journey of the company.

“Another technique is to always co-create data capabilities together with business partners. They need to be co-protagonists in the way capabilities are built. They need to be part of the design, they need to be involved on a frequent basis, and they should be the heroes on our side of the data transformation.

“Another tip is to recognise that it is not enough for a data professional to be right. It is actually easier to be right than to be heard and understood when it comes to data analytics. Data professionals need to articulate concepts and the value algorithms bring beyond the simple number crunching. They need to work on their communication and recognise it’s not enough to be right – it’s important to be understood.”

This exclusive interview with Andrea De Mauro was conducted by Mark Matthews of The Motivational Speakers Agency.