Nobody Owns the Data

Data governance continues to be one of the most underinvested areas in organisations I work with. Everyone wants better reporting, better analytics, better decision-making — but few want to do the unglamorous work of defining data ownership, establishing quality standards, and building the processes that make good data sustainable. This week I was reviewing a client's reporting challenges and traced every issue back to the same root cause: nobody owned the data. Multiple teams were entering the same information in different ways, with no agreed standards and no accountability. The fix wasn't a new tool — it was clarity about who was responsible for what.

I learnt this week that the most effective way to get stakeholder buy-in for a new initiative isn't a detailed business case document — it's a 15-minute conversation where you connect the initiative to something they already care about. I spent hours preparing a comprehensive proposal only to realise that a brief, focused discussion anchored to the stakeholder's existing priorities would have been far more effective.

Took the family out for a long walk this weekend despite the weather. There's something about being outdoors in January that resets your perspective. The cold forces you to be present rather than dwelling on work problems. Came back with a clearer head and a solution to something I'd been overthinking all week.

Miro — the online whiteboard tool that's become essential for remote and hybrid workshops. This week I used it to facilitate a process mapping session with a client team spread across three locations. The ability to collaborate visually in real-time, with sticky notes, frameworks, and voting, made the session far more productive than a traditional video call would have been.

This week's challenge: identify one process in your work that you do manually but could be automated or simplified. Don't try to fix it yet — just identify it and write down how much time it costs you per week. Awareness is the first step.