Lance Rubin

Unstructured and dirty data can lead you to develop new relationships whilst solving and cleaning the mountain of upstream and downstream sources. This is a great way to develop better business relationships both internally and externally. Do not use this opportunity to grandstand or demand from others what you want, it's a time to build trust and deeper relationships. You never know when you might be called up by those relationships to return the favour. Also if word gets around that you are pleasant to deal with, despite the difficult task of data cleansing, you might just get voted employee of the year/month/quarter! You will get the most personal and professional growth through collaboration.

If you are attempting to clean data and you are doing it manually, this is your first mistake. Not only will it take longer, it could also result in you making further errors and making what is already "dirty" data more dirty. You have to clearly code the logic you are applying in the cleaning process and make sure that it makes business sense. The key to automation is also ensuring that the cleaning process doesn't need to be repeated the next time the data refreshes. Too often data cleansing is seen as a one-time-only exercise but this is simply not the case. Sure, fix at source, but sometimes it's just not that easy as the source is controlled by someone else. Don't let your hard cleaning work go to waste, automate it!

Goal setting is critical when you head into the wild forest of cleaning data. The cleaning of data can be very laborious, draining and demotivating. However, when you have a clear goal that is ideally a (SMART) one then you will have a light at the end of the tunnel to help you push through. Some of the greatest insights and struggles come from the messiest data. There is often a reason for this as there is no clear dimension linking data sources or that a human input is contaminating the data. Clean and traceable data is literally gold in data.

The benefits of a data-driven culture that starts with the accounting and finance teams and then is used throughout the business is incredibly valuable and empowering. The noise, gut feel, the politics often get in the way. Now gut feel is still relevant and useful as a sense check, but when communicating to people or when influencing a decision FACTS! rule over gut. Especially when there is biased views that often creep in.

Collaboration is critical to moving the dial of change. Plans are useless because most of them fail at the first sight of a real tangible changes. The best way to course correct and deal with plans that are not working is through collaboration. The collective mind and experience of the team will help solve problems that are often not possible in silos or alone as individuals.

Change without training is like a boat without any oars. You can provide them with something to float but really they not going to get anywhere. In fact, they may even go backwards swept up by the moving tides and wind. Training is essential to building trust, showing you really care about their skills and also ultimately will helping the organisation improve. Training puts your words of helping them succeed into action. It’s an asset that will help them individually and the entire business. The training should be practical and hands on with real life examples and most importantly relevant to their jobs. You need to make sure that the training is pitched on tasks and problems that they experience and will work!😁