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James Dupuis-Howard

The benefits of having a trained Excel & tables workforce

Updated: Oct 11, 2022

The benefits are clear with Excel and tables workforce. You can save time, make more money and even transform your life.


People often wonder how learning table logic software like Excel, Sheets, LibreOffice, Tableau etc. could achieve those things. Let me explain.

Data table

Most people only know Excel so they think it's just a unique tool that doesn't apply to their daily life. The reality is that Excel follows a table logic that has been defined before computing. We used it for ages in registries and ledgers, realizing that having information in a table was easy to navigate.

Ancient data tables

The standard ledger of 3 columns was established as Date - Description - Price. We've observed these ledgers everywhere from Canada, Mexico and Morocco. It's even been shown being used in stores in ancient Europe. This type of ledger has been in business for a long time, 400+ years if not even 3000 years or more. The people who managed the ledgers had different titles such as Accountant, Priest, Librarian, Managers & Entrepreneurs.


simple data table

Before computing, we had techniques that existed. Simple and fun stuff! The tally was one way to count things in different columns. This method is long gone now, not used anymore unless you are in a prison movie.


Nowadays when we offer office courses online related to Microsoft office 365, Excel, Google Sheets and tables in general, we forget to talk about the unbelievable and relatable heritage of keeping a paper ledger! This idea that we needed to keep track and measure is the basis of why tables are useful.


So here are the 3 things you get from being a table expert. 1. FIRST THING YOU GET FROM BEING A TABLE EXPERT

"You Track, Measure, Analyze & Report."

counting table

Being accountable and being able to see the big picture is critical to your success. If you have a group of skilled table experts together, they can communique complex and advanced information together without having to all go through a shared experience.


If you're great with tables, you have control over the events around you because you can see what happened in the past and learn from your mistakes. You can gather actual valid Data to prove your point when it needs to be proven. Further, you can look into complex data tables that can span through multiple files and online pages without stress or remorse and you can give your conclusions and reports easily.


Talking about reporting makes you be better at the 2nd thing excel does for you

2. SECOND THING YOU GET FROM BEING A TABLE EXPERT

"You communicate more clearly with your team"

This would mean simply that communication of complex, big data information will become a simple table transfer. You won't need to make reports for them. Everyone will make their own conclusions out of your data. Looking at a report saying you made 25$ today vs looking at the table that gives the explanation on how the 25$ is made. Your data tells a story.

If everyone is trained to the standard on how tables work, your team is able to communicate more clearly with the proper set of data. Your team is able to eliminate confusion and make tables that people can analyze themselves, figuring out what they want from the data more easily. A group of trained experts in table use will reduce miscommunication & false data portrayed through statistics. Don't believe me? Imagine that the average salary at my office is 135k a year over our 12 team members. You would be impressed i'm sure! What if you looked at the Salary table and it looked like this:

table example for salary

Try plugging this in your calculator. I'll spare you how to calculate an average. Add all of them up and divide them by 12. 1,620,000 / 12 = 135,000 So... is the average salary really 135k ?


Well, this James Exec guy is clearly not meant for this Dataset and heavily skews it. So just by looking at the data table you understand that really the average salary is more like 65k This simple exercise can be redone in 25 different ways, questionnaire evaluations, grades, finance spending, budget analysis, accounting, Business Intelligence & KPI's


This leads to the third advantage of Excel


3. THIRD THING YOU GET FROM BEING A TABLE EXPERT

"You define what the truth is with more authority"

artistic table

You can approach your data and tables devoid of subjective analysis. Having a trained observational data expert is a huge advantage. Everyone whos a trained table expert can communicate to each other more effectively about what is actually happening. A simple way to understand this would be to look at any government statistics organization. If they only give you access to the reports they can well say whatever they want. If you give access to your people, the raw dataset that built this report, then we can have a common understanding of reality far stronger than any subjective report. This is why Statistics Canada did so well when they started releasing the actual tables of data that make their reports. They let us get our own perspective on what is displayed, often skipping time lost trying to find the answer you are looking for by reporting their observational data. Thanks Stats Can


There are huge benefits to being a table expert but if you ask me simply why is it important to understand tables? I'll ask you, why is it important to learn multiplication? Why is it important to learn fractions? Why would you need to learn math? Now that you know these things you can understand their practical uses.


It's easy. Table skills should be a topic that you finish secondary school and you should master it. Our generation that received these amazing tools need to get up to speed and master them. It won't be easy but it is possible. There are many resources available like our certification to help you build your skills. Sign up for a class with us and we will make your workforce ready for the future.




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