TAG Data Science & Analytics - Learning Series: Data Thinking Workshop - ESSENTIALS OF DATA LITERACY (Part 1/3)

February 15, 2022 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM (EST)

Description

Be the agent of change to move from ad-hoc, intuition-only decisions, to a culture where data and aligned processes drive important decisions in your company.  Learn the essentials of data literacy and how to avoid the common pitfalls of this transition.  Gain an understanding of how data drives analytics to solve problems and create value.  Explore how story-telling drives home the meaning behind data and analysis to generate momentum around the new opportunities.

Learning objectives –

This program aims to equip leaders with the tools needed to stimulate, activate, and sustain a data thinking environment for their business.

• Provide a firm understanding of the data thinking mindset
• Highlight the criticality of a movement to data inspired decision making
• Outline methods and tools to stimulate the change process
• Learn ways to identify common pitfalls
• Offer strategies to sustain a long-term culture where data is central to tactical, operational, and strategic decisions

In the learning progression framework including Awareness, Understanding, Capability, and Mastery, this course intends to provide participants with a basic and beginner level capability to start the transition journey in their company to becoming a more data thinking enterprise.

Participants / Attendees –

Applied and innovation / research-based practitioners from small, medium, and large firms with a thirst to extract more value from their data and transition from an intuition and gut led process to a culture of data informed and inspired decision-making.

• Middle to senior level managers with resources and teams, and access to key corporate decision makers
• Professionals from Information Technology, Data Platforms, Analytics, Data Science, Business Units, Strategy, Change Management, and Senior Leadership

Course pedagogy –

This program is structured as a blend of out of classroom work, in-person instructional time, and engaged workshop activities to solidify concepts over a three consecutive day period, with about 3 hours of class time each day. 

• Success in this course requires time outside of the instructional in-person classroom time, and a team structure is needed for many of the activities.
• Participants should come prepared for the program each day, having consumed the pre-work, and completing any activities assigned.
• Active participation during the program provides a higher chance of successful completion.

Instructors –

Program instructors are carefully selected and include highly knowledgeable, academically and professional qualified individuals with applied experience across multiple industries. All instructors have at least one advanced degree, and have experience with the classroom or training environment, and are comfortable interacting with entry to senior level executives. On occasion and as the instructors see fit, we may integrate guest speakers from industry or academia to solidify concepts, provide use cases, or deliver an exercise.

Course contents –

The program leverages concepts and frameworks from the design thinking methodology, to guide participants through a process for successfully enabling a data centric and data thinking culture. The program walks through a set of modules, most of which rely on a mastery of the contents from the prior module, including successful completion of any pre-reads or activities. Specific program modules are subject to change with market conditions, individual company needs, or for other purposes.

Modules include the following – 

• Wicked problems 
  • Definitions of wicked problems
  • Examples from prior projects and the public domain
  • Exercise to determine wickedness
• Problem framing
  • Importance of problem framing
  • Leveraging the B-A-D-I-R framework (Jain, et al) for framing problems
  • Exercise for developing a unique framing template 
• Solution focused data science 
  • Common challenges for a solution focus
  • Ways to overcome challenges and re-focus
  • Exercise for identifying a solution focus for actionable analytics
• Representation of recommendations 
  • Importance of display and storytelling
  • Method for making analytics consumable
  • Connection between data thinking and analytics solutions
  • Exercise for evaluating consumable results to stimulate data culture
• Change management 
  • Roles of key stakeholders to help transition to a data thinking culture
  • Initiatives to stimulate data thinking across the organization
  • Exercise of scenarios with suggested programs to stimulate change
• Sustaining a data thinking culture
  • Establishing the people, processes, and technology to help sustain a long-term data thinking culture
  • Exercise to identify barriers for establishing this process
• Common Pitfalls
  • What to expect when trying to move an organization from an intuition-based decision-making process to a more data-informed process
  • Reducing barriers to implementation 
  • Exercise for creatively developing solutions to common challenges 

Instructors

	Beverly Wright, PhD, CAP Chief Analytics Strategist, Axis Group and University of South Carolina
	Jerry DiMaso VP of Enablement, Axis Group
	Jordan Morrow VP Data, Design, & Management Skills, Pluralsight
	Piyanka Jain President & CEO, Aryng
	Ryan Gertenbach Director of Data Literacy, Axis Group