Inquiry and Innovation

The final critical component of any leaders and leading organization that aim to weave big-data and analytics into its culture is the acceptance of innovation and inquiry. Those that are given tools to manipulate data to glean insights and inspire innovative solutions will excel as leading organizations. Key to this is the component of acceptance, as employees of all statuses should feel comfortable proposing innovative solutions and confident that their voice is valued and highly regarded. This again relates to building a culture with empowered employees that have access to quality and true data.

Marshall et al. coins the term "quantitative innovation culture"  which adequately suits the goals of leaders who want to drive big-data initiatives in their organizations. Leaders, in particular, invest energy into encouraging a culture of innovation by outlining metrics of innovation. Successful organizations accomplish innovative aims by promoting collaboration and allowing space and time for creative and imaginative thought,

If employees have been trained to be data-literate and are allowed open access to company metrics, they should have space to submit innovative ideas and feel assured that they have resources to achieve those results. Part of a quantitative innovation culture is measuring the success and failure of innovative solutions and programs. Careful measurement of these metrics allows insight into where future efforts should be concentrated. It may be beneficial for leaders to set big-data goals of various scales to encourage success and positive attitudes while driving momentum towards transformative goals. Leaders should implement innovative efforts that have short, medium, and long-term goals of accomplishments. Such early goals could deal with the use of real-time data to stay relevant and on top of current desires or trends. Medium goals may deal with data-storage and organization efforts so that information is more accessible and manageable in a useful manner. Long-term goals could involve a total shift in the data collection process or a re-appropriation of resources into more efficient software or technology.

Leaders can drive a culture that supports inquiry, defined as an organization with an embedded atmosphere of trust and physiological safety in which all feel safe to raise questions pertaining to how the company functions. Knapp et al. has designed their own version of the "culture of inquiry" cycle related to using data-informed leadership in the educational system. This cycle, as well as many other aspects that prime organizations to embrace big-data and analytics, is founded on the idea of distributed leadership.

Distributed leadership moves away from a centralized hero-figure towards collaborative shared leadership system that views leadership as a group activity. The theory of distributed leadership rests on the principle that responsibility does not fall on one individual and therefore is shared throughout an organization. This system of distributed leadership means that the organization functions less in a hierarchical system and invites input from all. Distributed leadership, or frequently termed as shared leadership, pays homage to the idea that the influence process is shared between many individuals rather than limited to a centralized leader. Skills in data analytics may be dispersed throughout various individuals and not necessarily nestled in one department or one section of an organization so this mechanism of distributed leadership embraces and maximizes the capabilities of all.

Similar to this concept of distributed leadership, Groves et al. recommends "setting a top-down vision and stimulating creation of bottom-up innovation". This appropriately sums up how ownership of innovative ideas and implementation should be a shared entity. Leaders should encourage innovation as an embedded part of the company by constantly being open and receptive to change, new ideas, and solutions. They need to display their commitment by supporting and adequately funding innovative efforts. Typically, top-down visions can disseminate guidelines and serve as a roadmap for others to follow, but they frequently stifle innovative thinking if they are too rigid. Bottom-up leadership and innovation can lead to higher buy in and a greater diversity of expertise and ideas but require the support from top leaders. Therefore, the dynamic of an organization wanting to embrace big-data and analytics to explore innovative solutions should balance leadership and distribute power to all members.