Governance Grounding
Data governance has been a hot topic in my circles lately. Between the fantasy and reality of AI, existing ways of working are straining to keep up. Additionally, geopolitics is changing global business practices forcing companies to change. Again, this demands new ways of working.
As I go through these discussions, they are frequently ungrounded. Storms blow things around. This governance grounding reminds us that despite transience we can move forward.
For governance to work, you need the right amount of the right governance at the right time. The right amount means that you need to have goals for governance and be singy with anything you introduce. You can add more later. Do the must dos well. The right governance means that not every need has the same solution. Hammer safety and saw safety are not the same thing. Making sure you are compliant is one set of tools. Making sure your development team doesn't log jam is a different set of tools. The right time means two things. The first is about readiness. People and organizations don't change if they aren't ready. Do the change prep well. The second is that change needs to be paced, sequenced, and integrated thoughtfully. When you sell cereal without a box the logistics are tricky. Stages of governance progression need packaging and delivery with intent.
Implementing governance is a people process. Sure, we talk about tools, and if you don't help people with tools you might not get governance to work. Without addressing people first, no tool will help. To get people on board you need to focus on empathy, effort, and expertise. Empathy means that we listen from the cubicle to the C suite and we address the needs of people across the board. Effort means that motivating and aligning is hard work. It takes sustained effort and multiple engagement plans to make sure that you don't squeeze the empathetic learnings out in execution. If your organization is geographically dispersed it also takes a travel budget. Eye contact accountability is sometimes required. Lastly is expertise. Most organizations are allergic to changes in governance regardless of their governance maturity. To overcome this takes expertise in valuable education, meaningful alignment, and effective communication. The second problem is that organizational change can be a wilderness of meetings. Tour guides are needed. Tour guides that have been through it before and know how much lost is good and when being too lost is unproductive.
Done right, governance gives the business what it needs in the ways people want. It makes things better, faster, and cheaper. Done extremely well, it happens and most people don't even notice. They just know there's less meetings and follow ups happen quickly.
So much changes in technology all the time. It's also the fashion business. Staying grounded matters. Governance grounding reminds us that some things endure regardless of how the winds are blowing.