Environments that encourage learning, sharing and discovery will prosper. Environments that don’t will not achieve high performance. I snickered at this title when I first thought about it. How does one “create” a “data culture” exactly? Previously I discussed training, tracking and reporting successes, all of which are necessary ingredients. You won’t be creating the data culture, but you will be establishing strong foundations for a thriving data culture to emerge.

Supporting managers with a mandate for process improvement through better data quality and the right metrics is a game that those managers can win. They can establish credible baselines, set realistic goals and recognize their team members who contribute to process improvement using the BI system.

Creating a thriving data culture is predicated on all the topics we’ve covered:

• Picking the right tools
• Appointing the right team
• Hiring experienced consultants
• Selecting a good proof-of-concept sprint
• Creating a Center-of-Enablement
• Incentivizing workflow leaders to care about data quality
• Measuring results
• Sharing success stories
• Training your team in best practices
• Providing a safe environment to experiment, fail, learn and improve

Celebrate Success

Don’t wait for a single big win. Celebrate the small victories along the way to completion. Reward accomplishment. Promote skill acquisition. Find experienced and talented experts to help your team learn best practices. Let your team participate in relevant software user groups. Host user group meetings at your facilities. Pay for your employees to attend annual conferences held by the software vendors. Engage in the community of people and companies doing excellent work and building great products. Follow the advice in this series. You will achieve exceptional outcomes that justify the time and money you invest.

A Business Intelligence system is never done because healthy businesses never stop adapting, changing and growing. Your BI system must adapt to the needs of your business.

BI systems require diligence to establish and maintain, but the effort invested will pay dividends.

If you need some help, give InterWorks a call.