How to Activate People to Adopt Data Governance Awareness, Ownership and Accountability A whitepaper by First San Francisco Partners 2010 Copyright First San Francisco Partners
How to Activate People to Adopt Data Governance Consider an organization that is just getting started with implementing data governance: over several months, the organization undertook an initiative to design the operating model (data governance framework). The operating model has been socialized, presented to and approved by executive management and its implementation has now begun. The first step is to place business resource names against each of the roles within the operating model. All appears to be going well to the Executive Steering Committee and the Data Governance Office (DGO). No wonder considering that DGO resources are 100% dedicated to data governance. However, issues start to arise when resources (Data Stewards) need to be assigned and held accountable for execution of the new data governance policies and processes. Among other roles and responsibilities, Data Stewards are tasked with creating, maintaining, verifying and monitoring data. Typically, there is an existing group of Subject Matter Experts (SME) who create and maintain data - they are now being asked to do that in a different way, using a new process and given a new moniker of Data Steward. The new process requires the Data Stewards to first verify the data before routing it to the next step in the data management cycle, and to do so while data volumes are increasing. The impact to the business of improperly managing data includes possible fines associated with incorrect pricing models that result from incorrect, inaccurate and out-of-synch data. How can the organization ensure that the Data Stewards adopt the new data governance policies and processes? Let s take a look at three components that when applied together help activate people to adopt data governance: awareness, ownership and accountability. Awareness Awareness is achieved through education and targeted communication, with the aim to achieve understanding and internalization of intent. Awareness answers the question, what does this mean to ME? The obvious first step is education to ensure that all people understand WHAT it is they are supposed to be doing. Ironically, when people understand what it is they are supposed to be doing that doesn t mean that they will do it consistently, efficiently or accurately in a repeatable fashion. Often a new data governance process will start off strong but the adoption and accuracy falls off incrementally over time as people revert to the familiar, previous data management processes. This is especially true where volumes of data are rapidly increasing since it is easier for people to revert to past behaviors in order to manage or cope with increased data volumes. Page 2
Consequently, in addition to WHAT, it helps when people also understand WHY the data management process change is important. Incorporating this information into the education component is a good idea. Training people on the impacts of the data management processes and their behavior, and how it can penalize or promote the organization, helps them realize that they are part of a bigger picture, and they are important contributors to the success or failure of the organization. It is also helpful to have this part of the training be done in a cross-functional group so that people can learn and comprehend how their behavior, activities and roles have an impact on other people s jobs. It is human nature to want to help, and so if people understand how their carelessness or lack of attention to detail can negatively impact other people s activities in the organization, they are more likely to be diligent and proficient in their own jobs. Targeted communication is also vital to gain awareness of new data management processes and to help maintain focus and attention on those processes over time. Communication can take the form of push where the data governance office sends regular communications out to key business stakeholders. Alternatively, communication can be in the form of pull where people have access to information when they choose to obtain it. Push communication is an effective, pro-active way of getting information about new data management policies and processes as well as performance metrics and measurement out to the business stakeholders. However, this information can easily get lost in the volume of other communications, including emails that are sent but never read in their entirety. Whereas, pull communication works well when delivered in the form of an intranet portal, wiki or other type of shared information repository. It is important that people are made aware of this resource, that it is easy to navigate and search, and that the information presented is both relevant and concise. It can also be more useful and engaging for users to include information that is entertaining and interactive giving people a reason to return to view updates. Ownership Data is a corporate asset that depends on agile data governance in order to make it useful and actionable both within the business operations and for analytical purposes. The adoption of data governance by business stakeholders also requires ownership and accountability of the core set of data elements to be governed and the data management processes. Ownership can be understood as the best indication of WHO is responsible ( owns ) for the core set of data elements, data management process and WHO should be held accountable. Ownership is evidenced in the description of a role and its responsibilities as well as the mandatory requirements to execute those responsibilities. Page 3
Therefore, a key first step to create ownership of a core set of data elements and data management processes is to establish roles and responsibilities as they pertain to data management. Each organization will have different requirements for roles and responsibilities, while most organizations establish the following data management roles: Business Steward Leads (SMEs) Data Stewards Data Architect Data Quality Team Metadata Lead Business Analyst Data Owners Data Custodians First, define the required roles and responsibilities, gain agreement on them by the Steering Committee and then assign resources to each role. It is important to first get agreement on the roles independent of the individual resources that will assume them so that the roles are not tied to any one person, but are aligned with business strategy. Announcing the new roles and responsibilities along with who is assuming them helps institute ownership. By making others aware of who has taken on those responsibilities the individual can be called upon as a resource to fulfill the stated role. It is equally important that roles be formalized. Some organizations like to approach this through a Data Ownership Policy. Others employ RACI matrices to identify who are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed about each data management process or policy. Regardless of the approach used, it is important that the roles and responsibilities are made clear and the individuals who own those responsibilities are communicated to the organization so they are able to effectively assume ownership. Although the Executive Steering Committee isn t involved in tactical data management activities, their role is an important part of encouraging ownership in those individuals who do manage data on a daily basis. Therefore, it is also important to explicitly define the role of the Steering Committee, assign resources and publicly make the organization aware of who sits on the committee. An effective way to ensure ownership is communicated across the data governance and larger organization is to conduct a workshop or awareness session with the relevant cross-functional groups. These types of meetings allow everyone to hear the same messages and understand the broader program at the same time. They also provide a time and place for questions to be answered in a single forum so that everyone Page 4
understands who is responsible across the organization for which data elements or which pieces of data governance, and how to contact them. One other effective way to encourage people to adopt new data governance processes is to get the Human Resources (HR) department involved. Often groups prefer to work in isolation in order to speed execution, but by involving HR, the impact can be greater. Here are a few examples of how HR can help support ownership and accountability: Define roles and the data management responsibilities within each role Create employee review plans that incorporate data management and data quality improvement metrics Formulate compensation to encourage behavior and performance Train and on-board new hires Incorporate data quality into cultural norms and values Accountability Once people understand WHAT they need to do, you can next focus on ensuring that the data governance processes and policies are followed. Accountability is the state of being responsible to someone or for some action to be answerable or held liable. There are several layers to creating accountability. A simplistic way to create accountability is using a carrot and stick approach. It is important to decide what will work best for your organization and culture. How you either encourage or discourage the desired behavior will depend on the cultural norms within your organization. The following are some examples of what has worked well for other organizations and some approaches to consider. The carrot approach is meant to incent people in a positive manner to follow data management processes and policies, and to act in a way your organization desires for success. Incentives could be in the form of bonuses or monetary incentives for people who follow the data management processes, or for those who go above and beyond to ensure that the quality of data is high. Other encouragement can be in the form of recognition for a job well done, or for consistently following data management processes, or for having the highest data quality results. Recognition is most effective when it is made visible to the broader audience, showing off the rewarded employee publicly. The stick approach is meant to encourage people to follow data management processes in order to avoid potential negative outcomes. A monetary incentive can also work as a stick where bonuses are expected, provided that people still need to follow the processes to earn them. In the form of recognition, the stick may include publishing a list of worst offenders in terms of data quality. This could be employed in parallel with positive recognition where a few stars are recognized for superior Page 5
performance while listing how other people rank on data quality results. Publishing complete results in a public manner is a subtle way to ensure people don t consistently stay on the bottom of the list week after week. Although both the carrot and stick approaches can effectively steer behavior to adhere to data management processes, they don t necessarily encourage people to go the extra mile to ensure the data is accurate, available and timely. A more complex way of creating accountability is through proper alignment: Aligning people behind what you are trying to accomplish Ensuring clarity of goals, priorities and actions Establishing ownership Creating a structure to communicate, measure and monitor progress Activate Data Governance Success Getting people to adopt new data governance processes and policies is a common challenge for organizations that are getting started with data governance. By considering awareness, ownership and accountability and specifically how to best educate, communicate, institute and motivate people helps activate the adoption of data governance. With a thorough understanding of the new data management processes, how they fit into the broader data governance program, how the program benefits the organization, and who is responsible for what, people gain a sense of personal responsibility for participating in company success - and that motivates adherence to data governance. The answers to the questions what s in it for me? and what does this mean to me? help people take personal ownership beyond their job function and motivates people to go above and beyond! Author: Kelle O Neal As Founder and Managing Partner of First San Francisco Partners, Kelle O Neal manages specialist data governance and data management consulting services to complex organizations that deliver faster time-to-results. Kelle can be reached at kelle@firstsanfranciscopartners.com or through First San Francisco Partners Website (www.firstsanfranciscopartners.com). For more information please visit www.firstsanfranciscopartners.com or call 1-800-612-9875 Page 6