Part 3: How to drive alignment and thrive when business, technology, and data converge
A 3-Part Series: Thriving Across the Worlds of Finance, Business, Data, and Technology
Welcome to the Data Score newsletter, your go-to source for insights into the world of data-driven decision-making. Whether you're an insight seeker, a unique data company, a software-as-a-service provider, or an investor, this newsletter is for you. I'm Jason DeRise, a seasoned expert in the field of alternative data insights. As one of the first 10 members of UBS Evidence Lab, I was at the forefront of pioneering new ways to generate actionable insights from data. Before that, I successfully built a sell-side equity research franchise based on proprietary data and non-consensus insights. Through my extensive experience as a purchaser and creator of data, I have gained a unique perspective that allows me to collaborate with end-users to generate meaningful insights.
Bridging the expertise of business, finance, data, and tech is critical but fraught with issues. We dissect this universal challenge and chart a path to thriving outcomes. In part 1, we introduced a multi-part entry in The Data Score newsletter. In part 2, we diagnosed the underlying issues. In this final part of the series, we explore how to break down the silos between data, technology, finance, and business to more easily get to the good part of a data insights practice: actionable, accurate decisions.
What I hope to offer here is a benchmark of the ideal for setting up the best possible outcomes when the worlds of business and finance come together with the worlds of technology and data.
I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly in my experience working across all these worlds. But I want to be super clear on this: I don’t have all the answers. As I said in Part 1, I’m human, so I make mistakes too. I can’t promise that I’ve been perfect at following these ideals in the past. Nor can I promise that in the future there will not be times when communication will break down while I’m involved in the project.
The benchmark I put forward is to stimulate conversation. I’m keen to hear how everyone who reads this newsletter feels. Finance professionals, business leaders, data professionals, and technologists: how do you break down these silos to generate positive outcomes, even in difficult situations?
Part 1: Framing the problem: why silos are not viable anymore
Original silos and problems to be solved are mostly self-contained.
Problem complexity is accelerating.
Part 2: What goes wrong when the worlds collide?
Talking past each other
Smartest person in the room syndrome
Fear of failure
Part 3: How to break down the silos and align around outcomes
Build empathy.
Create proactive rituals.
Top-down culture
Practical solutions to bridge the gap between silos at an organizational level
Finance, business, data, and tech are all on a collision course to working without silos, but there are blockers to effectively coming together across each area of expertise to create favorable outcomes that are bigger than any one part can achieve on their own. Breaking down the silos will require an effort in the soft skills around collaboration and personal interaction.
Psychological leadership is more important than any positional authority in getting results across the previously separated silos. I believe there is no such thing as positional authority. Employees need to buy into the vision and the plan to get there in order to really engage and be committed.
I’m a huge fan of Wanda Wallace’s work as a career coach, a podcaster, and an author. Her book “You can’t know it all” https://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Know-All-Expertise/dp/006283598X and her podcast “Out of the comfort Zone” focus on the emotional intelligence skills needed to have spanning expertise across many areas. While her work focuses on advancing to leadership positions, the same skills are needed when working across silos of expertise.
“You're really good at your expertise; you're seen as a super doer, a super executor; you solve any problem, grow everything. But you're not seen as the person who can take the broader role where you don't know all the details. You can't dig deeply. Can't do it yourself you've got to span domains and Trust other people to do to give you solutions and ideas and that is where people struggle” - Wanda Wallace from her interview by the Corporate Bartender Podcast.
One of the key aspects of her work is the importance of questions in building relationships and trust when working across various areas of expertise besides your own. When the level of expertise is needed across finance, business, data, and technology, it’s just not possible for one silo to take ownership and just get it done.
Psychological leadership1 is more important than any positional authority in getting results across the previously separated silos. I believe there is no such thing as positional authority. Employees need to buy into the vision and the plan to get there in order to really engage and be committed.
The three areas to break down the silos heavily lean into the soft skills and emotional intelligence needed to succeed. While there are some aspects that ultimately come down to individuals stepping up to meet these requirements of successfully collaborating, I believe there are things organizations can do to make it easier and second nature when working across silos of expertise.
Build empathy.
Create proactive rituals.
Top-down culture.
I believe that changing culture requires that behaviors change first.
In the details below, I share my views on how to organizationally change behaviors and processes while setting an example from the top in an effort to make the actions more tangible than simply sharing the ideals.