Digital Trailblazer

Chapter 7Buried in Bad Data

“You will never get businesspeople to leave their spreadsheets behind and adopt your business intelligence tools. You are leading everyone here astray by suggesting that companies should stop using Excel.”

In fact, that's not what I said at all, as I look to my left to see who is speaking up during my presentation.

I'm angered and frustrated standing in the middle of the u‐shaped conference room, looking for reactions from the thirty IT leaders attending my session on becoming a data‐driven organization. We're at a SINC conference for IT leaders in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's perfect blue‐sky weather outside, and I want to make sure my audience finds value in the time they're spending indoors with me.

So, I repeat myself to him and everyone in the room. I have a lot of patience, and as a leader, you'll often have to repeat the message from different vantage points and hope the reframing helps people understand the “why” on your perspectives.

“I don't tell anyone to give up spreadsheets,” I say calmly, and continue. “Used within boundaries, they are extremely effective tools, especially when reviewing new, smaller data sources. The problem is that no one tells people the guidelines, and one simple spreadsheet slowly becomes an operational forecasting machine that's updated weekly with formulas that are never validated. Then one day something goes wrong. An error is found. Or the spreadsheet has become such a monster that it's taking too long to process ...