Nicola Askham Associates – Introduction of Rav Ubhi-Adams
/I am very excited to welcome Rav Ubhi-Adams as one of my new associates!
Rav has almost 20 years’ experience in the curation and provision of data within both private and public sectors. Rav’s area of expertise is in UK higher education having led, implemented, and advised on a breadth of data activities. Examples include system review / implementation; data extraction and transformation; strategic data storytelling; impactful data quality analyses and building effective and efficient data processes. Her path into data governance was a natural advancement through these fields, which solidified her passion to progress business toward data maturity and to increase momentum in embedding data management.
How long have you been working in Data Governance?
I’ve looked at data through many lenses over my 20-year career, so my move into data governance was somewhat organic. I’ve held a formal data governance role for almost four years but beforehand, unknowingly, was introducing basic data governance principles heading-up a business intelligence unit.
Some people view Data Governance as an unusual career choice, would you mind sharing how you got into this area of work?
This is a great feed from my answer to the last question! For me, the transition into data governance was an evolution; I’ve always been fascinated by numbers and data and had always believed my passion would be universal across many data disciplines. I’d say it was through my previous role that I really began to raise the impact of ‘dirty data’ on the provision of insight. The more traction I gained the more senior staff agreed that formality in governing data was a necessity rather than a luxury. This journey made me realise two things; the value I could add to the business, and the opportunity to work across a breadth of the data lifecycle (not just through the lens of insight). For me, it was a light bulb moment; a realisation that this is what has always been my motivating factor. I have a real persistence to move away from “bad data in, bad data out” and toward “better data in, better data out”.
What characteristics do you have that make you successful at Data Governance and why?
There are a wide range of skills that make someone successful in actively governing data and as such I don’t think there’s a prescriptive skillset that suits. Speaking of my experience though, there are few skill areas contributing to my success.
Background: my career has focussed on many aspects of data management; from input, management, audit, statutory, technical, and data/written analyses. This gives me a wealth of knowledge and appreciation of all things data at strategic and operational level. This background provides me with a compass to navigate many data governance projects. The most important component of this background is that I sympathise with and understand staff frustration; there isn’t much that I hear that I haven’t experienced myself. We speak the same language and I work with them to bridge both technical and business needs. Ultimately, trust is established, and people are willing to buy-into what can be seen as a relatively new and little understood concept.
Ability to negotiate and resilience: Picking-up from the very last point, data governance is a relatively new and little understood business benefit. I’ve come across a fair bit of resistance when it comes to doing things the way I would like! It’s my role though to ensure data governance is something done with the business, not to it. Much of this comes down to relationship building, implementing change on an iterative basis, and to persist in evolving the offer through tangible benefits. This can take a long time but it’s so important to ensure people don’t feel policed and they feel there’s something which will bring direct benefit to them.
Confident communicator: Working in data governance means being able to speak with lots of people throughout the organisational hierarchy, for operational and/or strategic reasons. Being able to tailor conversations, papers, presentations has been key for me in embedding holistic, cross-business data governance platforms. Everyone in the chain needs to feel the benefit of data governance; being their voice and articulating collective goals in the easiest to understand and engaging manner is always a measure of success I place upon myself.
What is the biggest challenge you have ever faced in a Data Governance implementation?
The biggest challenge, regardless of the task, has always been relationships. To get data governance to work and deliver the benefits I know it can, you need people who also share your vision and commitment. I’ve learned over all my roles that data is one of two things to people; the key to continual evolvement of the business, or a dark mystic art that doesn’t have any impact on their area of work and is solely the concern of IT departments. The latter is where I’ve had the most challenging conversations, be it in the formal implementation of accountability or in the commitment of resource to establish governance frameworks. This is where communication, flexibility, negotiating skills and persistence is critical. Education is also important. People don’t want to purposely put up a barrier. They need to understand why, what, how and benefit to them and their team(s). Sounds simple in theory!
How would you describe your approach to Data Governance?
I like to fully understand the objective; what do you want to achieve and why. In my experience, there is sometimes a disconnect between what is being asked for and what is needed (or what would bring the greatest benefits). This should link to strategy too (where in place of course); any work and deliverables will need to marry strategic data objectives and be assessed against them. All this sounds quite formal. There isn’t a one-size fits all though; one project may be at the highest level of business whereas the next may be driven by a specific process. There are times a structured project management approach suits best however I’ve found it’s mostly about being flexible but firm in approach and placing as much emphasis on relationship building as delivering results. In my opinion, the best anchor for data governance initiatives is visible sponsorship, area experts, and the drive to work collaboratively.
What do you think the most important aspects of successful Data Governance are and why?
For me, this is simple – accountability for data and building a trusted relationship with this framework to create meaningful action. It’s a recurring thread through all these questions, but I’ve truly experienced this aspect to yield the best results. Getting people to understand the power of governing data can be quite a bumpy road but once you’ve got visible accountability and a drive to implement change from senior management, progress toward the caring for data as an asset can be made.
I want to help as many people as possible be successful with Data Governance; what do you do to help others be successful at Data Governance? This could include sharing insights online, mentoring others or sharing experiences in a data group.
Data is my passion and as cliché as this may sound, I’ve always been incredibly vocal about the benefits the dynamic use of data can bring. As I mentioned earlier, bringing people with you rather than forcing them is the most effective way of implementing data governance. I do this both in my formal data governance roles but also through other mediums. Examples include acting as a mentor to data governance managers and their team(s), volunteering to present and demonstrate my approaches at conferences, providing case specific advice to data governance leads, and being a member of various higher education committees and groups. As I’ve become more established in the world of higher education data governance, I’m working on better structuring the support I can offer and to increase the scope of my experience beyond higher education. What am I hoping to achieve by this? To enable people to work smarter by making data work harder.
