Telling Your Data Governance Story

In my experience, organizations that have successful data governance programs are more likely to produce long-term, sustainable value from data. Business stakeholders not only understand data governance, but they embrace it and drive it throughout the organization. Having said that, I also know that data governance is often a very challenging concept for people to understand. And I get it. Even those of us in the data community have varying opinions on how to best define data governance. Therein lies the problem that many of us face as data professionals. We need our stakeholders to understand and embrace data governance, and yet the message just doesn’t seem to resonate. We know from experience that life gets much easier once the light bulb goes off, but how do you make that happen? I haven’t yet discovered a silver bullet answer, but there are some key principles that have proven to be helpful, and all of them focus on connecting with people when telling your data governance story.

Know the audience

Explaining fundamental data governance concepts to a room full of sales executives will most certainly require a different approach than explaining those same concepts to a room full of security and compliance leaders. Sales executives are measured based on revenue growth, so your message might focus on how fixing duplicate customer records would increase the number of high quality leads that get to the sales teams. However, for security and compliance leaders, your message might focus instead on how fixing duplicate customer records would reduce compliance risk. Each function cares about different parts of the business, so know the audience and adjust accordingly when telling your data governance story.

Know the person

Knowing your audience is important for public engagements, but the same can be said for engaging someone one-on-one. Let’s say that you’re needing approval for a data governance program from two different Sales VPs. One VP, Jane, has been a Sales VP for over 30 years, and proudly displays photos of her 4 grandchildren on her desk and enjoys talking about her plans for retirement. The other VP, Mike, is in his late twenties, incredibly focused on moving up the corporate ladder, and fond of reminding people that he is the youngest Sales VP in company history. Can you get away with using the same message about data governance? Maybe. But you’ll likely get much better results if you adjust your message based on what you know about each person. For Mike, you might leverage his competitive drive, explaining that data governance is critical for ensuring that his team’s YTD Sales numbers are consistent and accurate for the quarterly board meetings. For Jane, you might take a more relational approach, explaining that data governance is how to prevent strife among sales reps due to arguing over definitions. Each stakeholder is different, so know the person when telling your data governance story.

Move beyond the words

I see quite a few blogs and/or whitepapers across the data community that recommend changing the specific words we use in our data vocabulary. A recent example is an article suggesting that data governance would be better understood if we started using the words “data oversight” instead of “data governance”. For the record, I agree that our data vocabulary isn’t ideal. But from my perspective, changing the words we use doesn’t help eliminate the confusion, and instead it creates even more confusion. As it relates to our data vocabulary, our focus as data professionals should be on using terms consistently, defining those terms consistently, and explaining the concepts consistently. And to do that, you have to move beyond the words. For example, instead of changing the words to “data oversight”, you could explain that the broader data governance framework already includes governance committees, and those committees are specifically designed to provide oversight for critical data elements. The words we use are important, but don’t expect a simple change of wording to clear up the confusion for stakeholders. Instead, take the extra time to move beyond the words when telling your data governance story.

Leverage stories

For me, sharing stories is one of the most effective techniques for helping people understand complex concepts. Recently I had a client who was struggling with data quality concerns, and specifically they were frustrated because definitions for key terms were inconsistent across the organization. We had introduced the idea that data governance would help alleviate the data quality problems, but it was clear that there was still some confusion about data governance in general. It was still a nebulous concept, and some people had concerns because they didn’t see why their employees were such an important piece of the puzzle. The time came to present our recommendation, and before getting into the specifics around data governance, I shared a specific story from earlier in my career in hopes of easing their concerns:

“Earlier in my career I was a junior analyst for a multi-billion dollar company, and the regional sales manager had asked me to develop a dashboard for his team. I dove right in and couldn’t wait to exceed his expectations. The data was pulled together, organized, and presented in colorful graphs and charts. It was perfect, and I couldn’t wait to show him my masterpiece. But within 5 seconds of seeing it, he said, ‘Scott, this isn’t right.’ I was devastated. Were my charts wrong? Did he not like my colors? No. Those things were fine. But he insisted that the data was wrong. A bit dismayed I said, ‘You only looked at it for 5 seconds. How do you know it’s wrong?’ He looked me right in the eyes and said, ‘Scott, this is the world I live in. It’s my job to know what right looks like’. And that’s when I realized that no matter how good I am at pulling data together and building visualizations, the people in the business are the ones who know what right looks like.”

After sharing this story, I addressed the audience and said, “As you think about the data quality issues you’re facing, it’s important to remember that your people are the ones that know what right looks like. Data governance is simply a framework that helps transfer that knowledge to the right people so that they can make sure that your data is accurate.” The story seemed to hit the mark. We got several head nods from the crowd, and one leader even expressed appreciation for helping him better understand data governance. Stories have a unique way of connecting with people, so use them when telling your data governance story.

Data governance can certainly be difficult for some people to understand, but as data professionals we have to be able to connect with people and communicate in ways that resonate for them. Embrace the differences and adjust your message accordingly. Take the time to move beyond the words and explain the core concepts. And leverage stories to help people connect to your message. For me, these principles have been incredibly helpful, and I hope they’re useful for you the next time you’re telling your data governance story.

Scott Garner will be presenting at the Data Governance and Information Quality (DGIQ) conference in June on Bridging the Gap Between Data Language & Business Speak