Many Roads To Data Governance

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Peel The Onion
Diagnosing and Treating Organizational Conditions
WhiteLake Data Management
http//www.m2dxtx.com
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Onions and Organizations

• How many layers are there in your problem?
• Your organization?
• What are their names?
• How thick (or thin) or they?
• Whats at the center?
• Which are important?

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Michael Meier

• A "data person" for more than 20 years.
• Objectives like
• Create a data warehouse
• Create data governance and
• Create an information portal
• Together with a scarcity of resources to be
  applied
• Encouraged deep thinking about impediments and
  approaches
• Sharing some of those thought processes and
  results here

4
Everyday Scenario

• People are unhappy with each other
• Why do they keep doing this!
• Not again!
• Why cant they get it right!
• Verifying information is the job description for
  many of our employees BUT
• The system wont allow that.
• Thats just the way it is.

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Root Causes

• Roots are far more extensive than we may think
• Roots have branches
• There is almost never a single cause
• The several causes may be far apart
• One or more of the causes may lie in another
  organization

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Lessons from Medicine (Ideal)

• Diagnose (Dx) Pt is cooperative and forthcoming
  concerning Complaints, Symptoms, Signs
• We do a thorough exam and get appropriate imaging
  and laboratory input
• We Prescribe Treatment (Rx/Tx) for the cause if
  possible and the complaint(s) if appropriate
• Patient is responsible for following through with
  treatment

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Best Practices Say We Need

• Executive Management Blessing, Support,
  Involvement
• Mid-Level Management Buy-in, Support, Involvement
• Supervisory Staff Buy-in, Involvement, Enthusiasm
• General Staff (nonExempt, educated, skilled)
  Buy-in, Involvement, Enthusiasm

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What Do We Have?

• A Goal or Objective (sometimes a Vision)
• A Timetable
• Need for compelling Status Reports
• A Budget for Consulting, Tools, Training
• A lot of questions
• Confusion, Resistance, Active Rebellion

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Necessity is the Mother

• Remember Angus MacGyver?
• He didnt waste time worrying about what he
  didnt have (or he would have been blown up many
  times)
• He started with the resources available
• Were all in MacGyver situations
• Few of us act like MacGyver
• We spend our time looking for best practice
  escapes
• We invest in technological weaponry to defeat the
  problems
• We focus on the problemnot the solution

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Take a Deep Breath

• Think like MacGyver
• What is the result I want?
• Can I break it down?
• Will a partial result suffice?
• What do I have to work with (resources)?
• How can these be combined to create leverage?
• Act like MacGyver
• Put pieces together
• Create

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Whats in Your Pocket?

• How can these resources be applied?
• NOT to the problem
• To the SOLUTION?

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Recognizing the Solution

• What would satisfy everyone?
• Are there some whose satisfaction is most
  important?
• If the complete solution is out of reach, what
  critical pieces will maximize satisfaction and
  establish a foundation to build on?
• First ask, What should I do?
• THEN ask, What can I do?

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The 3 CsCenter of the Onion

• Community (Relationship)
• Communication
• Credibility
• Understanding these is useful in any context, but
  
• essential in organizational disorders

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Community
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Community

• A group of people who
• Live/Work together
• Have one or more well-defined roles which are
  acknowledged as necessary and are usually defined
  by their job description(s)
• Rely on others to perform in their respective
  role(s)
• Benefit accrues to all (through cooperation)
• Intuitive and Effective

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The Role Box

• As in thinking outside the
• What are the boundaries of your box?
• How much time do you spend outside it?
• Why is this important?
• Community demands an understanding of more than
  my box
• Communication is at the boundaries
• Credibility is built on respect for boundaries

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Stepping Out Of My Box
Technology
Business
Modeler
Reception
Architect
Nursing
Administrator
Clinician
Manager
Administrator
Governance is outside all the boxes.
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Youre Never Done (History of Boxes)

• Some boxes havent changed in centuries
• Some are new since yesterday
• Many are evolving because of
• Relationship with other evolving boxes
• Evolving/improving methods and tools
• Improvement in theoretical foundation
• Change happens whether we notice or not

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Communication
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Communication

• Society cannot share a common communication
  system so long as it is split into warring
  factions. Bertolt Brecht
• Communication is the key, and it's one thing I
  had to learn?to talk to the actors. I was so
  involved with the visual and technical aspects
  that I would forget about the actors. Steve
  Buscemi

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Communications Secrets

• Visit other boxes
• Get invited
• Ask for help
• Always knock before entering
• Bring gifts!
• Remember Welcome Wagon
• Find points of need
• Offer help

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Credibility
Its about TRUST and CONFIDENCE.
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Credibility

• Consultants have credibility because they are not
  dumb enough to work at your company. Scott Adams
• All credibility, all good conscience, all
  evidence of truth come only from the senses.
  Friedrich Nietsche

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Credibility is Relationship

• Desirable relationships such as Trust, Respect,
  Confidence, require time and consistency.
• If youre in a hurry Fear, Aversion, Distrust,
  Disrespect can happen very quickly.
• Remember the Goal
• C-C-C

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Beware!

• Relevance to business not always apparent
• No direct link to revenue stream
• The most important thing to the business
• Foundations not palatable to business
• Not understoodnot important
• Avoid normalized, meta-, integrity

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Wrapping Up

• Governance is not a management function
• The tools must be appropriate to the task
• Motivations do exist
• Flexibility is required

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Successful Change
Experiencing a problem? Heres where to look.
Gradual or No Change
Incentives
X
Confusion
Vision
X
Anxiety
Skills
X
Frustration
Resources
X
False Starts
Action Plan
X
Adapted from C. Lwanga Yonke Information and
Data Quality Conference, San Antonio. 2008
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The Most Important Quality for a Data Governance
FacilitatorFlexible Perspective seeing it from
the other persons point of view

• And supporting skills
• Ability to sense danger
• Understanding how organizations work
• Understanding how relationships work
• Theoretical basis of DG
• Ability to get started
• The right (productive) initiatives
• The right (productive) direction
• Ability to multi-task

Its
Not
About
Me.
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Remember

• They want the benefits of governance
• They DONT want the inconvenience of learning
  about governance
• Opportunity
• Learn the whole business
• Cultivate credibility
• Enlarge your community

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Postscript

• Leadership
• Produces CHANGE
• Management
• Produces EFFECTIVENESS
• Governance
• Produces CONSISTENCY

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Significance?

• Goals are different
• Management Produce RESULT(S)
• Revenues
• Costs
• Governance Create COMMUNITY
• Cooperation
• Create shared goal(s)
• Methods must be different

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Appropriateness

• Tools and Methods must be appropriate to the
  community in which they will be applied.
• The box Im in
• The box(es) Im responsible for
• The boxes I share boundaries with
• No tools nor methods are universal
• The problems are NOT technical
• The tools/methods for dealing with them are NOT
  technical

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Contact
WhiteLake Data Management
Michael P. Meier http//www.m2dxtx.com