RE: machines achieving sentience, when they do, are we out of a job, or can we just pretend we are working at let the machines do it all

As you said, education (and not just training) is essential.

Too often, the focus is on simply training – what are the steps I must follow, how do I avoid getting yelled at by my boss – give me a fancy certificate to hang on my cubicle wall and let me go back to updating my Facebook status.

True education requires focusing on explaining why things like data governance and data quality are important. Training provides useful skills. Education provides meaningful ideas. Training teaches you how to do something. Education teaches you to understand something.

We can train a computer (i.e., code a program) to check for data quality problems. We need to educate humans why this is necessary – at least until the machines achieve sentience

Cheers,

Jim

P.S. As for brevity, my latest blog post was over 1600 words – “summarizing” an eight part series, but still over 1600 words – what’s that old saying – do as I say, not as I blog…

One thing I did leave off was to ‘educate the educators’, ensuring that data governance is covered at every level in the staff education process.

“Education, Education, Education”

Unless people understand AND agree, you’ve often got an impossible hill to climb.

I particularly liked the way you broke down the channels of education, it is so important to meet people where they’re at, dragging people in for a two day workshop is not always the best approach, we have to be creative.

I think education is so powerful because if we look at the classic drivers for creating change then education plays a key role in each of them (sense of urgency, capacity to change, clear shared vision etc.)

Continual education is also one of the essential components for ensuring the business doesn’t backslide into their old practices.

Great post and the new blog theme is a joy to read, are you turning into a minimalist Charles?