The Keys to Success for Data Leaders – Courage and Bravery

In the field of data, we are operating in times of exponential change, largely driven by technology and the opportunities that enables. As a Chief Data & Analytics Officer this is a time I have been looking forward to as I am able to create new worlds through data, in order to safely experiment into the future and support the best decisions to be made today for tomorrow. As is the case throughout history, necessity is the mother of invention. We have had to develop these new technologies and capabilities to keep pace with the rate of change that is occurring in the environment around us, including the impact of climate change being felt faster than we had can mitigate, pandemics and more.

As Stephen Hawking said, “Our future is a race between the growing power of technology and the wisdom with which we use it.” To be successful in these times requires us as humans to be able to keep up with the rate of change, safely. And as data leaders our role is to embrace emerging technologies and use them to help us deliver better outcomes faster. This takes both courage and bravery to step forward into uncharted territory and take our organisations with us. A journey we have to go on as doing nothing is no longer an option.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology that is growing in power and is impacting us all in our work and our personal lives. Interestingly, in a personal sense we are adopting AI at a rapid rate as it helps us be fitter and healthier, to get places we want to go avoiding traffic jams, and even to remind us we need milk when we are near a supermarket. Yet in a work sense AI is approached with suspicion and fear. Fear of AI taking away jobs, fear that it may tell us something different to what we have always believed to be ground truths, and the worst fear that we might be accountable if it is not 100% correct.

Fortunately for most of us we are not in lines of business where 100% accuracy is a minimum requirement as it would be for say autonomous robotic surgery. At work we should therefore be looking at AI as we do in our personal lives where it is “augmented” intelligence, rather than artificial intelligence. We the humans must always remain the decision makers and the process by which we make decisions can be augmented by the smart use of data and AI. The standard we should be aiming for with AI then is anything that is better than a human can currently deliver. No matter how small the improvement is, we are still better off using AI.

As data leaders we need to have both courage and bravery to step forward into this new paradigm. The difference between courage and bravery lies in their nuance. Courage comes from within an individual. It involves facing fear or adversity and despite awareness of risks and consequences, being able to take the first step forward alone. Bravery on the other hand is about leadership of people or systems once that first step is taken. Taking people and systems on the journey into uncharted territory, plotting the course as we go. We apply these attributes by first, knowing what is possible by weighing up the risk of doing versus not doing, and acting in an environment that is not perfect. And second, being prepared to learn as we go at a rate others can keep up with, so we can take our organisations and systems with us, creating the right future together. The opportunity to create he future truly is in our hands, now is our time.