The 5 biggest mistakes when establishing a Data Governance Council
When you get traction on your Data Governance journey, one of your first priorities should be establishing a Data Governance Council to anchor the mandate and guide the journey.
However, there are many pitfalls you need to spot and avoid when setting up a Data Governance Council, and if you fall into one of them, you are going to make things much more difficult for yourself. Here are five of the biggest mistakes and how you can avoid them:
1. Lack of power
A Data Governance Council should be the ultimate authority for Data Governance work and activities, and therefore it needs to be anchored high in the organization. The head of a strong Data Governance council tends to also be a member of the executive leadership team, whereas the other members sit one or two rungs lower on the ladder. Way too many Data Governance councils fail because the participants simply do not have the proper weight in the organization.
2. Siloed approach
Data flows across the organization, which means that the Data Governance council must also be cross-organizational. It is very tempting to say “Finance/IT/Product Management/… is a strong believer in the Data Governance journey, so let’s just use them for the Data Governance Council”. But the minute you run into data-related challenges that come from, or spill over into other areas (and that will happen within approximately the first five minutes), you need a strong representative from that area.
For details about why Data Governance has to cut across organizational structures, read more here: Like driving on the wrong side of the road: Why Data Governance requires a new perspective
3. Lack of mandate
In large organizations, decision making can have a life of its own. When you create a Data Governance Council, you want to make sure that it is the final instance when it comes to making data-related decisions, and that people who disagree with the decisions simply go somewhere else to get their way. A good tool for ensuring this is to create a corporate Data Governance policy clearly defining the mandate for the Council. This is even important if you have a hard time getting the anchoring of the Council sufficiently high up in the organization.
4. Disconnect to Data Ownership
You need clear line-of-sight from the Data Governance Council to the Data Ownership. Without that, you are in for a world of confusion, miscommunication and unaligned targets. Luckily there is an easy fix: As the Data Owners are identified and assigned, include them on the Data Governance Council. That way there is direct accountability towards the council, and you eventually get the necessary involvement from the different business areas.
If you are curious to learn more about Data Ownership and how to reach out to future Data Owners, see this article: Like a dog chasing the mailman: How to reach out to Data Owners
5. No resource oversight
This one is typically a question of 40% lack of mandate and 60% bureaucracy - especially in larger organizations. In a nutshell the Data Governance Council should have a relatively easy time prioritizing tasks and assigning resources to the activities they agreed are the most important ones, instead of this being tied up in other portfolio management processes. There are few things that will drain the enthusiasm of DG Council members and Data Owners alike as initiatives that need to wait 6-9-12 months to be planned.
So, there you have it. If you can avoid these five pitfalls, it greatly increases the chance that your Data Governance Council – an in effect, your entire Data Governance journey – can thrive and succeed.
Are you having a hard time getting the right Data Governance Council set up, and could you use a hand? Feel free to reach out and book a free 1:1 Discovery call to discuss how to overcome the obstacles.