Getting Executive Buy-In - The ‘Oxygen’ to your Data Governance Adoption.
As we continue to unravel the fog in Data Governance, I think it's worth opening up the conversation a little bit more about what success looks like by starting up the conversation around our critical success factors. i.e. checklist for success.
For success to be achieved in any Data Governance adoption. Executive buy-in is the number one must-have for any organization with a desire to use governance to drive its business and overall data-driven culture.
Simply put – Executive Buy-in is the oxygen to kickoff, operationalize and sustain any data governance adoption.
I believe this is the number one checklist that cannot be ignored or pushed out at the onset of a Data Governance journey. It is highly recommended that you get your senior executives buy-in and get their blessings before embarking on your Data Governance journey. This will save you a lot of pain down the line as the overall success of your Governance initiative hinges on this singular factor. This cannot be seen as a nice to have. It's a 'must-have' for your governance adoption. Not having your executive buy-in before embarking on a Data Governance journey is a quick recipe for failure.
Your senior executives must see governance around your enterprise data asset as the number one catalyst for the organization’s overall success. It must be embraced as part of their strategic goal and they must be champions of its success. This is however not an easy task in most organization and I’ll submit that this is the first critical huddle to achieve a smooth sailing Data Governance adoption.
So, the simple question to all is – Do you have executive buy-in for your Data Governance initiative?
If the answer is yes, I’ll like to congratulate you and your organization as you’re probably one of the less than 10% organizations out there with a formalized approved executive buy-in for their Governance Initiative.
However, if you’re one of the 90% of most organizations currently kicking off data governance today, you're probably in one of these somewhat wobbly and anemic situations in your adoption:
There’s little or no funding for your governance adoption.
Your Data Governance is tied to a project and at the mercy of a project funding.
Governance is initiated at a local level and not at the enterprise level.
There's a lot of cherry-picking of governance adoption activities as you're having a hard time getting needed executive buy-in and support.
There’s no holistic vision around governance as you’re kind of matching on without your executive backbone and champions.
People are assigned roles(title) without clear formalized responsibilities.
Your data citizens see governance as additional stress to their day to day job as they’re not empowered or equipped for success with needed training and education.
Governance is a 'stop and go' initiative and success is hard to measure.
If you can relate to this in your organization, you’re simply not alone. Unfortunately, your Data Governance initiative will continue to be in this ‘comatose state’ unless you can quickly push the reset button to bring life back to its adoption.
Lack of executive buy-in will cripple and paralyze your Data Governance initiative before it could ever start. You simply can’t push this down your checklist. Starting any Governance activity without an executive buy-in is simply a waste of time and resources. You will not get very far with it and the intended purpose will not be realized.
Why do I need executive buy-in before kicking off my Data Governance Initiative?
As I’ve often stated in my previous articles, Data Governance is a journey and not a destination. For any organization embarking on using governance to drive their strategic goal. Your senior executive must understand this. They must know what Data Governance truly means for your organization and what it isn't. The awareness of the value-add must be tangible for them to see as a catalyst for their competing data goals. You cannot assume they know this from the onset.
Cultural transformation is at the heart of every data governance initiative. Achieving this is definitely not ‘a walk in the park’. It requires a lot of collaboration and working together to achieve this. Every Data Citizen must clearly understand they have a critical role to play in the overall success. Hence, Rightfully messaging this from the top will work the wonders and spark needed awareness required for success.
To this effect, getting senior management buy-in for your Data governance initiative is a natural booster to the kickoff, development, deployment, and sustainability of your governance adoption without unnecessary interruption.
It will help secure the needed funding to accelerate the execution of needed activities for a successful data governance adoption.
It will help echo down the message and value of Data Governance adoption in a powerful way across the enterprise with little or no resistance down the organization structure.
Resource allocation and dedication to the governance effort will be easier and effortless.
Why is it hard to get executive buy-in for Data Governance Adoption?
Getting executive buy-in for your data governance initiative is probably one of the most challenging and critical milestones for kicking off your Data Governance journey. One would think the criticality of achieving this milestone for the overall success of Data Governance adoption will fuel its realization at an accelerated pace. Unfortunately, this is not true in a lot of organizations and often seen as the number one reason most organizations fail to be successful in their data governance adoption. Reasons for the lack or weakness of executive buy-in differs from one organization to another. Hence, you'll need to investigate why your organization is failing to achieve this. This is very important for you to understand before drawing up the best game plan to resurrect this and set your organization in motion for success.
Failure of executive buy-in can be traced to these three fundamental gaps:
Poor or weak understanding of Data Governance as a holistic offering. The narratives around Data Governance and its adoption is somewhat lacking or simply poor in most organization.
Poor Identification of the best candidates to champion data governance adoption. One of the best decisions an organization can make when considering Data Governance adoption is to Identify the right advocate to champion and lead the way in its adoption.
Internal Politics often plays a huge role in sabotaging positioning the right candidate to champion governance initiatives in some organizations. This is a silent killer rarely talked about especially in organizations where this is the main ‘culprit’ plaguing their Data Governance adoption.
So, How do I get executive buy-in for my Data Governance Initiative?
Getting executive buy-in for Data Governance differs from one organization to the other based on the dynamic of each organization. Hence, approaching this effort must be carefully planned out as there's no 'one hat fits all' solution. There are however several inputs you must factor into engaging your upper management for their buy-in i.e.
Do your homework and understand the bottom line of your organization's upper management. Most senior executives are interested in values that will help drive revenue generation, cost reduction, compliance, and competitive edge. Understanding the details around this for your organization will help you carve a compelling business case that highlights how Data Governance adoption will help the organization get there quickly in a tangible way. Simply put, your goal is to showcase how Data Governance can help them realize the business objectives
Understand your audience and tailor your business case to their biggest pain-points.
Identify your executive game changers and data allies in the organization. You might be surprised these are typically not your usual suspects. Titles and positions might not necessarily be your driver for this. Identify those who will make you win and engage them.
Schedule a one-to-one meeting with them to woo each senior executive to become your advocate for governance adoption. Highlight compelling benefits that speak to their respective pain points and business objectives.
Schedule an executive meeting to educate them around what Data Governance is and what it isn’t, highlighting the criticality of their engagement for its overall success.
Set the right expectations around the positioning of Data Governance as part of every data project and embedded into the natural path of each system development lifecycle.
Articulate the fact that governance is a cultural transformation journey with limitless ROI’s along the journey.
Pitch and educate all around the ROI of governance and the risk of not having a governed data environment. Personalize & Paint their current data ecosystems - Showcase tangible data ‘horror stories’ in their environment around current data inaccuracies, inconsistencies, missed insight and missed business opportunities.
Articulate how governance will help mitigate highlighted horror stories and pain points.
Drive your message home with quick wins and benefits of their buy-in, active engagement, input and oversight along the journey.
Incorporating some of the highlighted bullets into your narratives and executive pitch for governance will position you for success with the right level of buy-in to kick off your data governance journey.
If you're wondering how to achieve this? What this looks like in reality. If you need help carving out a compelling game-plan for executive buy-in. Setting your governance initiative in motion for success from day one.
Book a Free Call with me to discuss your challenges and explore simple strategies for actualizing your governance success.