How Lufthansa Shapes Data-Driven Transformation Leaders

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Strategy & Business Model Section | 1

How Lufthansa Shapes Data-Driven Transformation Leaders

By Christian Haude et al., | MIT Sloan Management Review | April 18, 2024

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In 2023,  Lufthansa created a data leadership program to become a truly data-driven company. The industry incumbent faced not a mechanical problem but a human one: Organizational resistance to change stood in the way of transformational efforts. 

So Lufthansa created a data leadership program, and along the way, its team learned valuable insights about the roles that people could play in data-driven change. The company’s approach has lessons for other organizations facing the same need. To operationalize the concept, Lufthansa defined six different roles for effective data leaders and shaped a corresponding data leadership development program to bring those roles to life.

1. Data Visionary who creates a vision.  Develop an overall vision for data and AI.  Define the strategic importance of data and AI.  Inspire the wide use of data. And monitor progress toward the vision.
2. Data Transformer who promotes transformation.  Provide thought leadership.  Run programs to build data and AI literacy.  And demonstrate that data and AI drive the business.
3. Data Decision Maker who generates impact.  Show how to turn data and AI into business value.  Democratize the use of data-driven decision-making tools.  Define data quality standards and data ownership.  And choose data and AI initiatives to implement.
4. Data Driver who creates value.  Determine the value of specific data assets.  Design and implement data-driven use cases.  Enable data-driven decision-making.
5. Data Collaborator who connects people.  Connect colleagues across organizational boundaries.  Break down data silos.  Encourage cross-functional knowledge exchange.  And integrate data and AI experts into workflows.
6. Data Coach who develops competencies.  Promote lifelong learning.  Empower people to build new skills.  And support further development of expertise.

Building from this set of roles and the core responsibilities, Lufthansa expanded its educational offerings to invest in leadership.  The program includes three training modules: Spark, Inspire, and Activate. The target group of this program comprises all leadership levels, from team leads to top managers. The training is not mandatory; leaders decide whether to opt into the training and can choose among the three modules, depending on their needs.

While executing on this program with its leaders, Lufthansa found keys to success that other organizations can emulate. Use these four strategies to get leaders ready for take-off in doing data-driven transformation work:  Define tailor-made data leadership roles, cocreate the leadership program with your team, create greater organizational awareness on data leadership, and highlight tangible examples that inspire your leaders.

Your organization should tailor its own set of roles based on its goals and culture. These roles can serve as a foundation for a program that educates data-driven leaders across the business. Some people will play more than one role.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. In 2023,  Lufthansa created a data leadership program to become a truly data-driven company. The industry incumbent faced not a mechanical problem but a human one: Organizational resistance to change stood in the way of transformational efforts. 
2. Lufthansa defined six different roles for effective data leaders and shaped a corresponding data leadership development program to bring those roles to life.  These roles were: data visionary who creates a vision, data transformer who promotes transformation, data decision maker who generates impact, data driver who creates value, data collaborator who connects people and data coach who develops competencies.
3. Based on learning from Lufthansa four strategies to get leaders ready for take-off in doing data-driven transformation work are:  define tailor-made data leadership roles, cocreate the leadership program with your team, create greater organizational awareness on data leadership, and highlight tangible examples that inspire your leaders.

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Topics:  Strategy, Technology, Artificial Intelligence