Introduction

An infographic by visual.ly sheds light on the exorbitant costs associated with unproductive meetings. The alarming statistics reveal that out of the 25 million meetings held each day in the United States, a staggering 17 million (67%) are considered a complete waste of time. What’s more, these unproductive meetings disproportionately affect senior staff, who end up spending significantly more time in meetings compared to their junior counterparts.

The Pitfalls of Overscheduling

When launching a data governance program, it’s easy to fall into the trap of scheduling multiple meetings. From working committees to data stewardship forums and data governance committee meetings, the desire for collaboration drives us to gather and discuss data policies, standards, definitions, and rules. However, more often than not, these meetings prove to be a colossal waste of time for most participants.

#DataGovernance requires collaboration to discuss, document and agree data policies, standards, definitions and rules.

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Meeting Maladies

Several factors contribute to the inefficiency of these gatherings.

First, the attempt to cover too much ground often renders the majority of the meeting irrelevant to most attendees.

Second, the absence of meaningful data quality metrics leads to complaints about data quality without any supporting evidence.

Finally, the excessive focus on intricate details, such as determining the master system for customer data, further hampers progress.

Ultimately, these time-wasting practices not only hinder productivity for most staff members but also render them entirely pointless for senior decision-makers.

Consequences and Solutions:

Staff members who repeatedly endure meaningless meetings will inevitably lose motivation and stop attending altogether. Once a data governance program is perceived as a bureaucratic waste of time, recovering from such a reputation becomes nearly impossible. Sadly, I have witnessed several data governance initiatives fizzle out and fail directly due to this predicament.

We have a lot to cover and we need to involve all the stakeholders. #DataGovernance meetings are not the solution to the problem

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A better alternative to meetings

Fortunately, there is a better way to foster collaboration and achieve effective data governance: the implementation of a data governance centre.

By automating the processes of documenting and communicating data governance policies, data quality rules and standards, business glossaries, and other crucial data assets, the data stewardship centre provides a platform for timely feedback without wasting valuable time. It offers an audit trail for approvals and changes and serves as a shared repository of knowledge accessible to all staff members. In contrast, manual data governance processes prove to be unproductive and ineffective.

Don’t Set Yourself Up for Failure

To avoid the pitfalls of unproductive meetings, it is essential to explore alternative solutions. Request a demo of the data governance centre today and set yourself on the path to successful data governance.

Image sourced from https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/9111274504/
Infographic sourced from http://visual.ly/ugly-truth-about-meetings