The Key to Government’s Digital Transformation is Data Literacy

The amount of data collected by the federal government is reaching almost unfathomable levels, which leads to a more pressing question: What good is data if you can’t mine it for gold?

Due to this quandary, the Administration, agency heads, and Congress have all been looking for ways to refresh and refine the government’s approach to analyzing and storing data. Most recently, the President’s Management Agenda outlined a new Federal Data Strategy to help further drive the digital transformation of the US government, society, and the economy. At the core of modernization comes a general understanding and acceptance of technology. Without data literacy, the prospect of quickly meeting the Administration’s data and IT modernization goals is simply not feasible. Over the course of the next year, federal stakeholders will be tasked with providing input surrounding usage of and access to critical data, which will further inform the best practices and principles that make up the Federal Data Strategy.  

However, while the tactics and overall vision of the Federal Data Strategy will empower agencies to become more data-driven, it does not solve the issue of those within the federal workforce—from management to support staff—who currently lack the data literacy skills needed to comprehend what these mountains of data are trying to tell us. The lack of data literacy inhibits federal leaders from leveraging insights to make informed and strategic decisions that will ultimately benefit their agency’s workforce and the citizens they serve. In an effort to bridge widening skills gaps and further drive innovation across their agency, the first step in this process is ensuring that federal employees at all levels of government acquire the data literacy skills needed to achieve these goals.