The Data Fluent Culture - Data Fluency: Empowering Your Organization with Effective Data Communication - page 143

Creating transparency into how data is manipulated and analyzed

⬛

Establishing a shared set of key metrics and explaining how these met-
rics link to organizational goals

⬛

Building agreement on the purpose and motivation for data products

⬛

Each of these objectives represents a step toward a data fluent organization.
Leaders play a critical role in implementing these steps in building shared
understanding and data fluency organization-wide.

COMMON VOCABuLARY AND TERMINOLOGY RELATING TO
O RGAN I Z ATI O N -S PECI FI C DATA

Every organization has data that is specific to its organization and industry.
Describing, defining, and regularly using vocabulary and terminology over
time can create a data jargon. Jargon has many purposes including legitimiz-
ing a profession, keeping nonexperts out, socializing new employees, and
facilitating communication. A rich data jargon can facilitate communication. By
defining the measures that decide whether success is achieved, leaders help
an organization develop a common vocabulary and terminology.

Clear Definitions of Measures
As discussed in the previous section, organizations as a whole, as well as
policies and procedures, should include a written, precise definition for data
elements that are central to the organizational culture. One way to handle this
is to craft a data dictionary that defines all measures and categories within
measures. It is helpful to customize definitions to the particular circumstances
of specific programs and to include examples of how to resolve ambiguities.
This should result in clear definitions for all measures.

Note A data dictionary is a great onboarding tool. New employees
are often swimming in alphabet soup upon arrival. Take, for example,
a new sales representative and junior accountant fresh out of college
learning the difference between NOV (New Order Value), TOV (Total
Order Value), and revenue. What these terms mean for a new sales
representative and what these terms mean for a new accountant
might be different. A sales person might assume that NOV resulting
from a sale equals revenue for that year. Because the contract is for
three years, however, revenue may be spread over three years. NOV,
however, is probably recorded just in the year of the sale.

Standard Forms for Collecting Data
If a group of researchers interview dif-
ferent people, each researcher uses the
same instrument. In this way the interview
is conducted using the same vocabulary
and terminology with each interviewee.
Likewise, organizations should use stan-
dard forms for data collection that include
all the data elements and categories that