Whats up! I’m Mark Horseman, and welcome to The Cool Children Nook. That is my month-to-month check-in to share with you the individuals and concepts I encounter as an information evangelist with DATAVERSITY. This month we’re speaking knowledge literacy and alter administration. What’s knowledge literacy? Why is it essential? What are the limitations? How do you navigate the waters of change administration to make it occur? And, in the end, we’ll see what the Cool Children are saying. 

Knowledge literacy may be outlined as “the power to learn, work with, analyze, and argue with knowledge.” That’s all properly and effective, however what will we imply by that, actually? The artwork of being data-literate is rather like being literate in any spoken language. Are you able to learn, work, analyze, and argue in your mom tongue? When you’ve discovered a second language, are you able to learn, work, analyze, and argue in that language? Knowledge could be very a lot the identical. 

Knowledge literacy is essential throughout your complete group, out of your front-line workers all the way in which as much as the C-suite. It defines for people why their interplay with knowledge is essential and helps articulate how their information and talent in the end impacts their decision-making. An illiterate knowledge entry clerk could not understand the impression of skipping steps when placing new buyer knowledge in an enterprise system. An illiterate government could take a look at a dashboard or KPI and make a poor enterprise choice. 

The barrier to literacy has been laid naked within the earlier paragraph. After we speak knowledge literacy, and the necessity to practice on knowledge literacy, the implication put earlier than our target market is that we’re calling them illiterate, which is insulting. This can be a main change administration problem inside any form of knowledge literacy initiative. What turns into the easiest way to implement knowledge literacy coaching? In my expertise, it all the time comes all the way down to communication. How will we, as knowledge professionals, talk with knowledge and about knowledge with common individuals (as described by Dr. Thomas C. Redman in “Individuals and Knowledge: Uniting to Remodel Your Enterprise”)? That’s, how will we talk with non-data professionals? 

Finally, enhancing knowledge literacy is an train in change administration. People want knowledge literacy expertise to be efficient within the position they play with their group’s knowledge. Change administration is the car to get individuals enthusiastic about knowledge literacy such that they will learn, work with, analyze, and argue successfully with knowledge. 

What are the Cool Children saying about change administration? This month, our featured Cool Child is Aakriti Agrawal, Supervisor of Knowledge Governance at American Specific. Aakriti gifted the group with the idea of her A.N.C.H.O.R. framework throughout her workshop on the Knowledge Governance & Data High quality Convention (DGIQ) West in June 2023. The A.N.C.H.O.R. breaks down a profitable change administration initiative into six components: Goal, Want, Neighborhood, Hooray, Obstacles, and Resilience.   

In brief, Aakriti explains: 

• Goal: To drive efficient change, you need to know what purpose you’re working towards. What are your knowledge issues? The place would possibly you be capable to help? 
• Want: We have to successfully talk why our targets are essential to others, in a means that they are going to hear. 
• Neighborhood: Carry individuals in so that you simply’re getting help together with your purpose. 
• Hooray: Rejoice wins – this retains your crew motivated! 
• Obstacles: Uncover and take away limitations to your purpose, together with organizational biases. 
• Resilience: Anchor and maintain this system by behavior forming. 

You possibly can study extra about Aakriti’s great work right here: 

Bear in mind that you may meet Cool Children like Aakriti at DATAVERSITY occasions: 

Need to change into one of many Cool Children? All it is advisable to do is share your concepts with the group! To be energetic locally, attend DATAVERSITY webinars, take part in occasions, and community with like-minded colleagues. 

Subsequent month, I’ll share my ideas on the interaction between Knowledge Governance and AI. Keep tuned!