Over the next year, I am embarking upon completing a Masters in Data Science degree. What is the long term aspiration? I want to use my experience as a management consultant and data science skillsets to help organizations formalize and institutionalize data-driven decision-making that is clear, principles-based and thoughtful. I hope that this will lead to happier, more engaged individuals who feel more purposeful in the place they call work.

The majority of the workforce is unhappy and disengaged: the surveys show it and I have witnessed it firsthand. Interacting with the individuals in clients I have worked with, I cannot help but believe that this negative energy is brought home, affecting our loved ones and the way we raise our children which shapes the worldview of the next generation. What I have also witnessed is that clarity of direction, values that are shared and good decision making makes a difference. This applies to C-suite executive level decisions as well as day to day choices that front-line staff make. My experience has also taught me that these decisions are nearly always made imperfectly, even when considering the time and resources (including data) that are available to us.

Take for example the strategy formation process. What continues to surprise me is how we expect to make good decisions when the process is designed so that we freeze and view the world at an arbitrary point in time (when we conduct the process) in order to make all the important decisions for the next 3-5 years of an organization’s lifetime. This process seems archaic for two reasons: 1) The world changes at a rapid pace now. To prove that, just ask yourself what technologies do you use now that didn’t exist 5 years ago? Instead of asking ourselves how we best position ourselves for the most likely future, we have to ask ourselves what possible futures could be true and given this, what principles we should use to make future decisions. This means not making decisions at one point in time but as the right information becomes available. 2) Data is ubiquitous and our ability to process this data has vastly improved. Nimble decision making is possible and enhanced because we can have different and deep insights presented to us continuously.

I believe more agile organizations with clear decision-making principles make for high-performing teams and happier individuals. People know they are a part of something greater because they know what the organizational direction is, why we may be changing course and how they fit into the bigger picture. Whatever path I pursue after the completion of this Data Science program, I hope to contribute to better decision making practices.