Saturday, July 7, 2012

On Executive Sponsorship

My main priority right now is the establishment of data stewardship groups. On the one hand, my gut tells me that these will be not effective if they are built up by mid-level functional leaders rather than through executive mandate. On the other hand, executive sponsorship sometimes gets things accomplishes rapidly.

What's the right balance? Here are my rules of thumb.

1. Never say "because such-and-such a VP said this a priority" or worse yet "because so-and-so's bonus is riding on this." I actually heard that once!

2. Always include the people who will be doing the work in the decision making process. It'll lead to better long term success.

3. Make sure the people doing the work know what old habits or old processes can (and need to) stop. If stewardship is just more work then it won't create the efficiencies it is predicated on.

What do you think?

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