Kick-starting a Data Driven Decision Making Team Culture

The Challenge: 

Our client was planning to launch two new specialist treatments later in the year.

Their team was a blend of brand new and existing colleagues without a common shared approach to utilising data and insights when making key decisions.

Important directional shifts were taking place using a combination of gut feel and experience – but little in the way of insights, data and evidence.  

They needed to embed a lexicon of data driven decision making, and work together to make it a core competency within their everyday roles.

They needed to develop a shared understanding: how to approach this new way of working, what data was already at their fingertips, which questions truly needed answering, where the gaps lay, and how to start filling them.

As the project took shape, the leadership team began asking questions:

– How do we bring together an emerging team, aligning them around common language, behaviours, and a renewed commitment to evidence-based decision making?

– How can we turn what might seem like a dry subject, using data to guide decisions, into something that’s engaging, even compelling, and directly relevant to their daily work?

• They also needed to keep momentum high: how to sustain energy throughout the session while respecting cultural differences across a global group?

– And, with the launch date looming, how to pinpoint the questions that truly mattered most?

By reframing these challenges not as hurdles, but as opportunities, the team began to see that the work ahead wasn’t just about data, it was about building a capability that could shape the organisation’s future.

The Approach: 

Time was short and the pressure high, but that only added focus. The project began with a deep dive into the client’s objectives, current capabilities, and the resources already in place to support the team. Pre-work catalogued existing data sources and dashboards, ensuring everyone knew the tools at their disposal. The parameters for the intervention, a workshop-style training session, were agreed, and a draft timed agenda set the stage.

Next came co-creation of the content, designed to highlight the importance of data-driven decision making as both a skillset and a core organisational competency. The workshop blueprint included a plenary session, real-life case studies, interactive breakout exercises, and practical templates, ensuring every voice was heard and every insight securely captured.

Facilitators were carefully selected, including members of the client team, to boost buy-in and active participation. Breakout groups were designed for diversity, mixing countries and therapy areas to spark fresh perspectives, and detailed briefings were shared in advance to set everyone up for success.

When the day arrived, the workshop flowed seamlessly. Energy levels were high, participation universal. A lighthearted side-game injected fun and a touch of healthy competition. Even a late request to change exercises and group configurations was embraced, adapted on the fly, and woven in without missing a beat. The result: a rich set of actionable outputs, captured, discussed, and ready to drive the next phase.

The Outcomes:

The entire team took part in the session, establishing a shared baseline of what data-driven decision making really means, the value it can bring, and how it can elevate their capabilities beyond gut feel and experience. Practical techniques for breaking down complex decisions were introduced and illustrated with examples, embedding this skillset as a common foundation across the group.

Together, they mapped Key Business Questions alongside the underlying KPIs and data sources, then identified and documented knowledge and insight gaps for future action planning. Challenges were openly discussed, suggestions analysed, and real-life examples woven throughout, anchoring the learning in everyday reality.

Enabling functions benefited too, hearing valuable suggestions first-hand that could strengthen their ongoing support of the commercial teams.

The timing proved ideal: the session acted as a launchpad for the week’s commercial planning meetings. Several outputs were referred to in those discussions, reinforcing and building on the momentum created by the team and facilitators at the very start of the week.

The Client Commented:

“The outputs are really useful”.  “The session was very well received overall”.  “The content was relevant and triggered subsequent discussions”.  

Interested?

If your team is ready to unlock the full potential of your data and make confident, evidence-based decisions, we can help. At SkyBlue Healthcare, we turn untapped opportunities into tangible business impact. Email hello@skybluehealthcare.com today, and let’s start creating the results you’ve been waiting for.