S4 | Ep 14 | Effecting Change in a Large, Traditional Organisation with Sarah Barr Miller, Director of Data & Automation at British Airways

Driven by Data: The Podcast

In Episode 14, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Sarah Barr Miller, Director of Data & Automation at British Airways, where they discuss the reality of trying to influence change in a large, traditional organisation, which includes;

• Working in data straight out of University in the 90’s
• Why data hasn’t historically been the focus of the organisation
• How the digital experience of the business has left a lot to be desired at times
• Why the presence of safety extends culturally across the organisation
• How they’ve had people working in data for over 35 years at the organisation
• Having deep ‘on-prem’ routes
• Being the cheerleader of the team to drive change
• The challenges that having minimal to no attrition can bring
• How they’ve upskilled and trained a large data team
• Being impatient in a world where change is slow
• Why they’re still using old-school tech and tools
• Battling to increase the organisational expectations of the Data team
• Why the organisation doesn’t often see that data can be a solution to their issues
• Kicking off a big engagement and communications workstream to cater for 3 audiences
• Why this year will be more about bringing the work of the data team out into the daylight
• Being brutal in prioritising work
• Being open, transparent, and approachable as a leader
• The importance of framing ‘The Why’
• Generating interest from a business that had historically been trained to not make requests
• The polo mint analogy
• The transformation from governing data from a security perspective to being a value-generator
• The role operating model and team structure play in large-scale transformation
• The people puzzle; combining the why and the how
• Why data is at the heart of all BA transformation programmes

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