Establishing and maintaining good data and information governance is a lot more art than science. While there is a science of sorts behind the broadstrokes, there’s an art to addressing the particulars, which involves sleuthing out the issues that reflect the realities of your circumstances – issues that most people never even think about. Issues like:
- The types, formats, locations, and movement of your data,
- The infrastructure you’re using to protect, connect, and manage it all,
- The culture of your organization regarding your information’s core value, and
- The completeness and consistency of the policies and procedures you’re following.
It’s OK that no one likely has charted all this in any systematic or comprehensive way – chances are, it’s not been anyone’s job to do so. But if you’ve been tasked with ensuring the privacy and security of your data … or making it easier and faster to find information being sought … or culling old, inaccurate, or irrelevant documents to facilitate compliance, migration, or the use of AI … then it’s your job now.
Target the Human Psyche
Succeeding in this role requires that you engage with people up, down, and across your org chart to learn about the items just listed, and do so in a way that doesn’t
- Put them on the defensive for lack of answers,
- Anger them for taking them away from their day-to-day work for even a quick chat, or
- Frustrate them because “Didn’t we already do this a couple of times?!”
Avoiding these reactions is where you have to be especially artful, because it requires a facility with the social graces that target people’s psyches much more than their business personas. Practically speaking, this means you must take a creative approach to how you
- Position the exercise in the minds of the people whose input you need,
- Craft the questions you need to ask,
- Reconcile the answers you receive, and
- Present your findings and recommendations as constructive inputs rather than criticisms.
This frankly is a lot harder to do than it is to say, and if you don’t do it well, you’ll likely engender the kind of resistance you’re trying to avoid.
Let Outsiders Take the Heat
In the end, minimizing resistance is why many organizations involve us to blaze this trail, because as outsiders,
- We can take the heat so you don’t have to and risk damaging your working relationships in the process.
- We also frequently get different responses than you might get, as people feel more comfortable complaining to us than to their colleagues or bosses.
- And we can free you up to keep doing your “regular” job while still pursuing the governance goals you’ve been chartered with achieving.
The art here lies in the way we are added to the mix, which must be done carefully so we’re blended in seamlessly and not simply dropped in unannounced.
If this makes sense to you, or you just want to bounce ideas around, then reach me today and let’s discuss what will work best for you.