CHANGE & DATA GOVERNANCE – TAKE A LEAP FORWARD
A successful data governance initiative is based on properly managing the People, Process, Data & Technology square. The most important element of these four is undoubtedly People. The reason for that is that at the end it boils down to people in your organization to act in a new business environment. This always implies change so make sure that you have an enabling framework for managing also the people side of change. Prepare, support and equip individuals at different levels in your organization to drive change and data governance success.
Change is crucial in the success or failure of a data governance initiative for two reasons:
1First of all you should realize that with data governance you are going to tilt an organization. What we mean by this is that the situation before data governance is usually a silo-oriented organization. Individual employees, teams, departments, etc are the exclusive owner of their systems and associated data. With the implementation of data governance you will tilt that typical vertical data approach and align data flows with business processes that also run horizontally through an entire organization. This means that you need to help the organization to arrive at an environment where the data sharing & collaboration concept is the new normal.
Change & the critical ingredient for data governance success.
Change is crucial in the success or failure of a data governance initiative for two reasons:
1First of all you should realize that with data governance you are going to tilt an organization. What we mean by this is that the situation before data governance is usually a silo-oriented organization. Individual employees, teams, departments, etc are the exclusive owner of their systems and associated data. With the implementation of data governance you will tilt that typical vertical data approach and align data flows with business processes that also run horizontally through an entire organization. This means that you need to help the organization to arrive at an environment where the data sharing & collaboration concept is the new normal.
2The second important reason is the so-called data governance heartbeat. What we see in many organizations is that there is a lot of enthusiasm at the start of a program. However, without the necessary framework, read also a change management plan, you run the fundamental risk that such an initiative will eventually die a silent death. People lose interest, no longer feel involved, no longer see the point of it. From that perspective, it is necessary to create a framework that keeps data governance’s heart beating.
How to approach change?
Change goes beyond training & communication. To facilitate the necessary changes, ChangeLab and Datalumen designed the ADKAR-based LEAP approach. LEAP is an acronym that stands for Learn, Envision, Apply & Poll. Each of these important steps help realize successful and lasting change.