Governance in Context

Every time I talk with a group of people I come away more convinced that the lack of governance is the underlying reason for the "failure" of so many technology initiatives.

I have addressed two DAMA chapters this week and those in attendance included a CIO, managers, data and business architects, data modelers, warehouse analysts... I would guess the average age of the groups to be about 40 and they came to their current job roles for the most part via a technology path. They shared stories of corporate in-fighting, closed-mindedness and self-centeredness that have produced some incredibly poor decisions (or non-decisions). The general mood seemed to be resignation if not acceptance. They asked repeatedly what could have been done differently.

Data governance is on many minds today because of some horror stories involving costly mistakes that were avoidable (see Confessions of a Data Governance Sponsor). Anyone can find success if they find the right expert partner and if you are really committed to governance, that's what you'll do. The devil is, as always, in the details.

First of all, how is commitment generated? How does the commitment become focused on [data] governance? Finally, how can we envision and create something that is independent of individual champions (not built on a cult of personality)?

Imagine that we live in a nation without governance--the strongest or the most charismatic become "warlords", accumulating bands of adherents who follow orders and share in the spoils. Now imagine that we are somehow able, through commitment to a vision, sacrifice and patience, to create a system of governance in one city. Present day Afghanistan springs to mind as a real-life example. What will happen to the governance in the city if it can't be extended into the rest of the country?

Now imagine an example of a country with good governance in which a single city has resisted or expelled governance. Hollywood has produced many examples of this story.

Which scenario has the best chance of producing uniformly good governance?

One of the companies represented at one my presentations is a very modern one in which all employees are "team members" and much effort has clearly been spent to create a uniform image. The team members are proud of the identity that they share. At the same time, this companies refers to its business units as "pyramids." What message does this convey? I can think of few metaphors that indicate monolithic autonomy better than pyramid (unless perhaps "silo"). If I work in a terrain of pyramids and want to institute governance, I really have only one choice--to create governance within a single pyramid. This is analogous to creating governance in a single city of a lawless land.

Only the person responsible for all the pyramids could turn a commitment to governance into a common system of governance in all the pyramids. Of course, if we had an organization that had a presence in all of the pyramids, we could delegate the task of creating governance to them. They might even have a chance to succeed if everyone understood that their efforts had the blessing of the supreme leader.

I believe that data governance is somewhat analogous to streets governance or sewers governance. It is absolutely necessary for the community but doomed to fail unless the vision and commitment become widespread. Neighborhood Watch can go a long way toward eliminating unpleasant surprises within a community and one successful neighborhood watch will stimulate surrounding communities to emulate this "best practice." There is a real limit, though, on what a neighborhood watch can accomplish and many, independent and uncoordinated such efforts will provide many gaps through which unpleasantness will find its way.

A company that is unable or unwilling to do process management does not have a sufficient level of governance to support a data governance initiative. If standard processes are anathema, forget about data governance. There must be a level of maturity to set the stage for successful governance or there must be a universal system that indoctrinates new community members with governance principles and assigns and explains their role(s). Military organizations understand this. Our school systems understand this. Every corporation has new employee orientation programs, most of which contain no reference to standard process and the employee's responsibility to adhere to standards.

"We are a government of laws and not of men." except when we step into the corporate bubble. At that point, it is understood that we are to work for the approval of the boss.