{"id":31584,"date":"2021-03-03T07:56:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T12:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/?p=31584"},"modified":"2023-10-26T22:53:38","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T02:53:38","slug":"digital-exhaust-the-most-valuable-asset-your-organization-owns-but-isnt-using","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centricconsulting.com\/blog\/digital-exhaust-the-most-valuable-asset-your-organization-owns-but-isnt-using\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Exhaust: The Most Valuable Asset Your Organization Owns, But Isn’t Using"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this segment of \u201cOffice Optional with Larry English<\/a>,\u201d Larry discusses digital exhaust \u2013 what it is and why it\u2019s so valuable to your business.<\/h2>\n
\n

The pandemic led to the disruption of many companies as their employees suddenly transitioned to working remotely. To work together effectively, they needed to install digital tools to communicate and collaborate with everyone once they became so spread out.<\/p>\n

This digitalization of organizations created a benefit that never existed before. Companies began creating immensely rich data on how their organizations operate. For the first time, they had a detailed x-ray of their organizations: how communication happens, how data flows, how the organization is functioning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This \u201cdigital exhaust\u201d is incredibly powerful, and it has the potential to provide a tremendous competitive advantage. But organizations are just now starting to understand that they have it and how to use it.<\/p>\n

For years, Dr. Phanish Puranam<\/a>, the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Strategy and Organisation Design at INSEAD, has been studying how organizations can use a data-driven approach<\/a> to better design themselves.<\/p>\n

Dr. Puranam says that prior to the pandemic, organizational data was limited and hard to acquire. Organizations had to wait until a problem emerged and then rely on internal surveys, interviews and other tools to gain a very shallow, limited view of how their employees were really working.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The forced digitalization of organizations created massive amounts of data that record every employee interaction. For example, Microsoft\u2019s O365 and Teams<\/a> collect data across eight categories from 11 popular apps, including Outlook and Excel. Every interaction is recorded, from what information is sent to who you are connecting with and how they respond.<\/p>\n

Awareness that organizations now have this visibility is also raising privacy concerns<\/a> \u2014 even when data is not tied to individual users. If you want to begin using your company\u2019s digital exhaust, you will have to think through your approach to privacy and the very tricky issues surrounding ethical data uses, consent and not compromising employee trust. But because the potential benefits are so great, companies should strive to find the right balance.<\/p>\n

The Power of Using Digital Exhaust<\/h2>\n

Dr. Puranam believes that how companies use digital exhaust will soon become a major field of competence. Because it may not be obvious how powerful this data could be, I will share a few low-hanging-fruit examples of what your organization can do today with its digital exhaust:<\/p>\n