Overview

Data literacy for executives, non-executive directors and board members: read a board pack critically, ask the second question behind any KPI, sponsor data and AI investment with confidence, and govern data as an organisational asset and risk. A governance-level companion to Data Literacy for Business 101. Four short units, real board scenarios, no hype.

Target Audience

Senior leaders, directors and non-executive directors. No technical background required.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion, learners will gain a full and clear understanding of:

• How to read a board pack critically, recognising what it is built to do and what its curation might leave out
• How to ask the second, governance-level question that goes beyond a KPI's first obvious answer
• How to distinguish a governance question from a management question, and know when a KPI needs extra scrutiny
• How to sponsor data and AI initiatives with appropriate rigour, including unpacking "our data isn't ready"
• How to treat data as an organisational asset and a risk at portfolio level, not just a single report's accuracy
• How to spot data theatre, a polished dashboard that impresses without actually informing a decision

Course Contents

Unit 1: Reading the Board Pack

• What's actually in a board pack, and why it differs from an operational dashboard
• The governance cadence versus the management cadence
• Why things get left out of a pack, usually without anyone acting in bad faith

A director's duty to read critically rather than receive passively

Unit 2: The Second Question

• The habit at the centre of this course, and why the pack already answers the easy question
• A working set of second questions for almost any board-level figure
• The difference between a governance question and a management question
• Why a KPI needs extra scrutiny when it supports a big, one-off decision

Unit 3: Sponsoring Data and AI Initiatives

• The sponsorship role, judging investment and risk rather than building capability
• What "our data isn't ready" usually actually means, and the questions to ask instead
• Treating a data or AI initiative as an investment decision like any other
• Why AI governance is now a normal part of board-level risk oversight

Unit 4: Data as Asset and Risk

• Data as an organisational asset, and data as an organisational risk
• Data governance at portfolio level, beyond any single dashboard
• Spotting data theatre, a polished dashboard that impresses without informing a decision
• A director's personal checklist for governance-level data literacy