Big Data and Leadership
Last week, I was invited to lead a discussion at Leadership Denver, a program designed by the Denver Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation to cultivate and develop emerging leadership talent in the state. The last monthly meeting was set aside to talk about the importance of health. It’s a testament to health care’s growing role as an economic engine as well as our imperative to keep Colorado healthy that it factors so significantly in the curriculum.
My group focused on the emergence of “Big Data” in health and beyond. Our conversation centered on how the abundance of data does not equate to knowledge and informed leadership. Instead, applications must be developed and data scientists must emerge as thoughtful leaders and contributors to our policy and leadership discussions.
Competitive advantage will come to those individuals and organizations that tap into what data – layered, complex and potentially misleading – can tell us. This group actively contributed to not only how organizations must change to leverage big data opportunities but also how individual leadership styles must change to absorb the insight and learnings that data can provide.
I left at the end of the day knowing the following: In the coming years, Denver and the rest of Colorado will be in smart, capable hands. Our future leaders are insightful, smart and perceptive. I am heartened to know that issues of our health factor into their views and thinking.