When a company has dated or ineffective Governance Policies, it is a recipe for many unnecessary challenges that this company will undoubtedly face. Without modern and effective governance policies and procedures in place, organizations are burnt with ad hoc and unclear processes, poor data quality, increasing vulnerability to data theft and security issues. This increases the likelihood of regulatory violations, and, of course, leads toward skyrocketing information management, litigation, and remediation costs.
In today’s marketplace, data and the knowledge it brings are gold. From artificial intelligence, machine learning systems, and predictive analytics, companies and organizations can now make a business forward strategy that can change the way products are marketed and customers are acquired; however, without effective and modern regulatory requirements and practices in place, these insights can be undercut.
When it comes to managing an effective information governance program, here are three key concepts to keep in mind:
1. Choose Proper Leadership
When it comes to choosing the individual, who will act as the figurative lead of this information governance team, they need to have the “authority” to ensure that the findings and structures generated by the team are all encompassing within the company. Many times, these programs are developed in a siloed department with a manager whose “title” only carries as far the third cubicle down the aisle. They aren’t on that “shot callers” email group and aren’t a default member in the meetings those emails lead to. Rather, their reports are forwarded, skimmed, and lightly summarized in those meetings. Thus, the management of the information governance team needs to have the type of role within the organization where they are in constant contact with a wide variety of team leaders from across multiple fields within the organization.
2. Build the Ideal Information Governance Steering Committee
The information governance steering committee should be formed with a prescribed set of goals in mind. Rather than looking to train people to serve a purpose on the committee, the team should be formed around people who already demonstrate these skills within the workplace. This relates back to having the leader of the team have the type of organizational role that exposes them to employees from a variety of departments and the authority to pull them into this team fold.
3. Information Governance is a Core Business Function, not a Problem to Solve
Often in the world of business everything gets turned into a problem/objective that needs to be accomplished and is seen as having a definitive endpoint. When it comes to information governance, it’s important to phrase the framework of both the committee as well as how it is pitched to the organization that information governance is an ever evolving and optimizable function. Thus, with keeping that ever-growing mindset at the forefront of the team’s mission, a company never sees their process becoming outdated and ineffective.
Lastly, in the spirit of ever-growing and ever-evolving, it’s important to remember that each of these key concepts is overlapping and work best in tandem with one another. When the right leader, with the right team, with the right message comes together, an organization can see a truly organic and dynamic change in the way its information governance program evolves and aids the company in its growth.
