Data Governance Blog

Someone has to be the Mom

Last week I was talking with one of my brothers and he commented that there are a lot of parallels between large families and business organizations. We both have good frames of reference having worked in IT and being 2 of 11 kids, so we started comparing family stories to data governance lessons learned. It got to be pretty uncanny how as kids (analogous to business units) we pushed the boundaries of self governing and learned some lessons along the way.

One of the big lessons was that “someone has to be the Mom.” Someone who doles out the love and warns you of the troubles you will get into.  Whenever Mom and Dad would take off, they would put one of the older kids in charge (they got to be the Mom).  Unfortunately, lacking experience and wisdom that comes with raising 11 kids my older brothers felt that it was a good time to rewrite some of the rules.

Of course they were always rewritten in their favor. For example, the older kids could decide who was allowed inside the house and who would be banished to the outdoors. Being part of the group banished outdoors did not sit well with the second oldest, Greg who was about 10 at the time. So he decided to resolve the situation on his own, by breaking out a ladder and infiltrating the house through an open second story window. Not wanting to be left behind the younger toddlers tried to follow him up the ladder.

About that time Mom pulled into the driveway, Paul and Greg were arguing inside. The ladder was on the front of the house with a pair of industrious toddlers trying to climb up to the open window. Needless to say a reorganization was going to be happening real soon with some rump roastings.

There are a couple of good lessons here. First, without some senior oversight when left unchecked, individual lines of business will engage in reckless behavior. They will forgo the long established rules for short-term gain. Someone has to be the Mom. In governance arenas, this role normally falls onto Risk Management teams.

Second, if one business line does something stupid successfully, the other less mature lines will follow suit. Again, someone needs to be the Mom, and think about the example being set. When business units run unchecked they set the stage for others to follow and the level of risky behaviour accelerates. We saw this with the explosion and collapse of the sub-prime market.

Lastly, it is only a matter of time for the system to correct itself and the risk takers get brought back into line. Inevitably, the governing authority will return and restore order. Of course that may mean new rules for the next outing, and punishments where appropriate. We saw this in Enron, where SOX rules came out to improve oversight and we are seeing it today in the banking crisis.

Mom’s home and you’re gonna get it!!!!

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Thanks for stopping by. My writing is intended to take a lighter look at Data Governance, and toss in some pragmatic advice along the way.  If you are interested in more information on how to implement Data Governance in your organization, please contact me via LinkedIn or the email address below.

Regards,
Tom Jesionowski

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