Data Governance Matters

I met Mike Meiers at a conference. He attended a session I gave on communications for Data Governance teams, and he told me I was using a word imprecisely. I fell “in admiration” of him on the spot. I love word people! So I was really honored when he suggested we develop a talk that matched his actual experiences doing Data Governance, Data Quality, and Data Warehousing at Olmsted Medical Center against best practice models and buzzwords. The ideas is to describe both his experiences and a sort of “meta-process” around the choices we all have to make as we configure our programs.
Mike and I will be giving that talk in San Francisco at the Annual Data Governance Conference there.

While developing our presentation, we spent a lot of time talking about how you accomplish data-related goals when they aren’t sponsored by a formal program. How do you persuade people to engage when you don’t have power? How do you motivate participants? How do you reward them? If there’s no budget for new tools or new people – if you simply have to accomplish your new goals from within a business-as-usual terrain and climate, what do you do? Moreover, what model do you follow?

During our discussions, the term “guerrilla governance” was coined. Isn’t that a great term? I love the visual of passionate, unmarked “Data Stewards” streaming out of the hills, swarming through office buildings, leaving a path of accountability and controls in their wake.

“Who were those masked men?” office workers cry. “Who cares,” cry others. “They brought us standards!”

So now Mike tells me that he’ll be presenting a follow-on session this fall at a Data Quality conference. This time his title is “Guerrilla Governance” and he’ll be showing Data Quality professionals how to mobilize their forces, inspire through action, and be prepared for the time when they get money for tools, get acknowledged as governance teams, and get empowered to move from guerrilla status to a formal program.

Go Mike! Viva la revolution!