Starting a new information governance initiative can be daunting. Many of the companies we speak with ask us for guidance on how to get started and how to be successful. We believe the following five steps will help ensure you have the right support and are correctly prioritizing your efforts to show positive results and business benefit from the initiative.
1) Understand
Find a governance champion or point person who understands the strategy of the organization and how Information Governance will advance that strategy. This will enable you to adhere to the company vision and mission while targeting individual departments and programs.
2) Set Goals
Next, establish governance goals that are SMART — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Based — and break these goals down into individual initiatives.
3) Goal Analysis
Once you have identified goals and initiatives, analyze them in terms of effort vs. value. This analysis should help to determine which goals are worth pursuing now, which should move down the priority list, and which may never be pursued.
4) Choose Approach
After the effort/value analysis, choose one of the following approaches depending on your organization’s culture and makeup:
QUICK WINS: These are the goals and initiatives that require little effort but offer high value. Quick Wins also typically involve fewer people and therefore are easier to manage as you work through the nuances of introducing Information Governance to your organization. By starting with quick wins, you can build momentum for governance initiatives that can help unlock additional resources and acceptance of Information Governance.
BIG BETS: These are high-effort, high-value initiatives that, if achieved, will have a major impact on your organization and will be seen as significant achievements with high visibility. Big Bets typically involve lots of people across the organization and require larger resource outlays, but they can also have the most positive and lasting impact on the business. This approach puts “more chips on the same color” — but they offer the potential for a big payoff, and they can setup Information Governance for long-term success.
5) Make it Successful
Regardless of which approach you choose, the next step is to start the process of making your first initiative successful. To do this, it’s important to identify the people (data contributors) who need to be involved in the initiative (see my next post, Who’s in a Governance Organization?) and the data that’s relevant for the initiative. By ensuring that the identified people set and enforce policies on the identified data, your organization can achieve the initiative, and that success will contribute to your organization’s goals, mission, and vision.
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