As many organizations embark on transformational journeys, there’s a growing desire to become AI-driven. While the buzzy allure of AI is undeniable, the perspective with which leaders approach this change is critical. Whether you’re a Chief Data Officer (CDO), a non-technical executive leading change, or an external advisor, your perspective will ultimately shape the transformation. And it cannot be as neolithic as proclaiming, “AI Good! [fist pound]”

In part 1 of this series, we covered what is propelling public sector entities toward another wave of modernization and the first principles to consider. Part 2 presented a model for understanding the third digital wave, a maturity model for the data-centric organization, and initial steps on how to navigate it. 

In this installment, we argue that cultivating a data-centric culture is not only important but also necessary. Even more necessary before any organization can truly become AI-ready. We delve into the cultural transformations required to allow new data technologies to make meaningful contributions to enterprises or agencies.

Every company

In 2001, Watts S. Humphrey published “Winning with Software: An Executive Strategy,” and asserted that “every company should be a software company,” a statement repeated today by the likes of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and other business luminaries. In 2022, Joe McKendrick from Forbes advanced the concept to read, “Every company should be a data company, eventually.”  So why do most organizations still struggle to create truly data-driven operations and reap the benefits?

It comes down to culture. Much ink has been spilled about the development of company culture, so instead we will focus on how digital waves have impacted culture. The promise of technology requires a critical mass of workers in order for the culture to shift. If we’re talking data-centric culture, the vast majority of individuals need to be using data in everyday tasks to accomplish their jobs.

Remember in the first digital wave when everyone would put “proficient in Microsoft Office” or “expert in Excel” on their resume? Today’s data-centric organizations must look for signals that indicate data literacy and its second and third-order fields (e.g. data science). As with the first wave proficiencies, we’ll know we’ve reached critical mass when the culture no longer needs to signal it.

Bottom-up leadership

Having a well-defined perspective means articulating the “why” and “how” of change, grounded in a strategic vision of the future. These are basic leadership practices, but the execution and nuance are often overlooked during technology changes because leaders tend to focus on the big picture.

However, for the employee, who has to learn and implement a new process, what matters is whether the tech actually makes their work life better. As you lead your organization toward data centricity, communicating the value clearly, both seen and under the hood, to individual employees, and listening and improving based on their feedback, is critical.

Take a bottom-up approach where you are building, employee by employee. Simply implementing a solution or technology, without a clear understanding of its ground-level implications, will lead to misaligned initiatives, multiple “strategies” and wasted resources.

While perspective matters across the data (and subsequent AI) transformations, a focus on culture and ground communication brings everyone along on the journey.

Flips require reimagining

A powerful question to ask when reimagining even a part of the enterprise is, “What would we do differently if we had an ‘unlimited’ data system?” The point isn’t to expect the delivery of an infinity system, it’s to remove the limited thinking that’s baked in from the prior culture.

In their book The Bottomless Cloud, Tom Koulopoulos, Chairman of Delphi Group, and David Friend, CEO of Wasabi Technologies, point out that “our businesses are no longer constrained by the physical limitations of data storage and access, location or bandwidth.” Our thinking needs to flip from a scarcity to an abundance mindset — including the art of the possible.

There are several recent examples in human history where technology flipped the scarcity mentality to abundance. Caloric abundance, 0% interest rates, and social media content come to mind — all instances where human culture was left to relearn behavior patterns, sometimes unsuccessfully, in order to thrive.

As a leader, you can take your organization to the next level, where data and compute will be abundant. How will you lead? What is the right balance for your people to achieve the mission? How you set the culture will determine the organization’s success or failure in adopting abundance mindsets that fuel growth.

Conclusion

“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier,” said Colin Powell. I am optimistic about this third digital wave as it grows across the world. We laid out the changing context, a whole set of models to understand and prepare, and the critical importance of shaping the culture. The call to action is clear: Lead.

About the Author:

Winston Chang is CTO, Global Public Sector at Snowflake Inc. He is an expert in data-driven organizational transformation, AI/ML, and innovation in public sector ecosystems. His over two decades of work encompasses startups, IT modernizations, fashion branding, AI/ML/Blockchain prototyping, structured finance, military service, and more.

Chang volunteers his time with the NIST MEP Advisory Board and the Eisenhower Fellowship network. His engagement in both organizations supports global bridge building and strengthening US economic drivers. Winston graduated from the United States Military Academy and holds a personal mission to help government and educational institutions leverage data for maximum societal impact.