In today’s fast-paced business world, data governance often feels like an insurmountable challenge. While teams focus on product development, innovation, and revenue generation, governance can seem like an abstract and expensive luxury. But as data volumes surge and complexity grows, the absence of proper governance creates a widening gap. Organizations are missing critical insights and exposing themselves to mounting risks.
Traditional, large-scale governance approaches often fail by imposing rigid structures on dynamic operations, freezing progress. These “big bang” initiatives drain resources, disrupt teams, and strain collaboration, leading to resistance and failure. The central challenge of data governance is clear: How do you implement it effectively without halting business momentum for a massive transformation?
Ever seen a high-wire artist? They make a complex and dangerous task look effortless through delicate balance. That’s what organizations need with data governance — balance between control and chaos.
The Art of Strategic Incrementalism
Strategic incrementalism is the process of incrementing the people, process, and tools using existing structure in a way that doesn’t overburden the structure as we build momentum and help the organization see the cumulative impact of these small, strategic changes. This approach relies on identifying and capitalizing on “governance moments” — natural opportunities within existing workflows where governance can be introduced without disruption.
But wait — if governance is so critical, why take this stealth approach?
Let’s be clear: Robust data governance is absolutely essential and not something that can be bypassed. Strategic incrementalism isn’t a substitute for strong governance, rather, it’s an implementation strategy that builds momentum through manageable doses. By starting small, you showcase the value of governance, allowing stakeholders and leadership to experience its benefits firsthand, build momentum, and foster collaboration, all while ensuring meaningful outcomes aligned with the organization’s long-term goals.
This mindset shift in governance implementation works through four key pillars, each building upon the previous one. Let’s explore how these pillars create a foundation for sustainable governance.
1. The People’s Champion
Every organization has its data champions — those who fight daily battles for better data practices. These aren’t just allies; they’re your advance guard. By solving their immediate challenges, you create a network of governance advocates who prove value through action, not theory. By empowering these champions with the tools and the support they need, you help them become vocal advocates for governance across the organization.
Example in Action: A product manager who’s frustrated by data inconsistencies may be your first ally. By addressing their concerns and showing how we can solve their immediate pain points, you create a new advocate for your initiative — someone who will help carry the message to other teams.
2. The Process Whisperer
Imagine existing workflows as a high-wire artist’s routine. They already follow a set path, but small, strategic adjustments can shift their trajectory. Instead of imposing new and rigid frameworks, you guide these workflows with subtle modifications that steer data in the right direction. By embedding governance practices into daily tasks, they become second nature, creating invisible supports that maintain balance without disruption. Before long, best practices are just “how things are done.”
Example in Action: Instead of launching a full-blown governance initiative, identify “governance moments” — natural touch points in existing workflows — like product feature intake or backlog grooming process — and add a couple of strategic questions that subtly surface the governance need. They’re innocuous enough not to disrupt workflows, but effective in signaling the need for governance.
3. The Relationship Architect
Behind every successful governance program lies a web of relationships — strategic allies who help you navigate complex challenges. Like a high-wire artist carefully planning their steps, you must think several moves ahead. Who’s the next crucial ally you need? The legal team for data sharing? The security team for access controls?
You need to build these bridges long before you need them. Establish trust with key stakeholders, arm yourself with data and potential solutions, and maintain a flexible approach. By fostering strong relationships, you create a network of allies who will support your governance initiatives even when the stakes are high.
Example in Action: After collaborating with a product manager to address data consistency issues, your next ally may be the customer service team. By understanding how these data challenges impact their operations, you can tailor the solution to improve data accuracy for the data points that most affect customer interactions.
4. Behind-the-Scenes Governance
The real magic happens backstage. Success comes from anticipating “governance moments” before they arise — those natural points where teams might encounter data challenges. By doing the heavy lifting in advance — mapping potential risks, drafting actionable recommendations, and anticipating challenges — you’re prepared to transform these moments into opportunities. When you finally present your ideas, it’s not a governance mandate — it’s a ready solution to their immediate and real business challenges, making governance a natural part of the conversation.
Example in Action: When a project team encounters customer data standardization issues, avoid presenting a detailed governance framework upfront. Instead, gather input from key stakeholders to identify the key data attributes that need immediate standardization, then create a simple, actionable recommendation to address them — without overwhelming the team with a large policy.
Building Your Governance Playbook
As these small victories accumulate, patterns emerge. Document these winning plays — not as rigid rules, but as adaptable frameworks:
- What triggered the need?
- Who were the key players?
- Which minimal changes worked best?
- How did you measure success?
- How did you identify and embark on the “governance moments”?
This becomes your living playbook, growing organically as you tackle new challenges. Keep it lean, keep it flexible, but most importantly, keep it real.
While these pillars provide the framework, seeing them in action helps illustrate their power. Let’s examine how these principles come together in a real-world scenario that many organizations face: privacy compliance.
An Example in Action: Privacy Compliance Implementation
Let’s see strategic incrementalism in action through a common challenge: privacy compliance. Traditional approaches? Create massive compliance programs that overwhelm teams. Our approach? Strategic incrementalism.
#1: Laying the Groundwork (People’s Champion): Collaborate with legal team to review existing legal frameworks and privacy laws and translate them into actionable governance steps.
#2: The Strategic Integration (Process Whisperer): Integrate 2 compliance questions: “Planning to share data externally?” or “Collecting new customer attributes?” to existing project intake forms. These strategic questions create natural “governance moments” where compliance considerations become part of the normal workflow rather than an additional burden.
#3: Building Your Network (Relationship Architect): When a project lead triggers a data-sharing inquiry, collaborate on the compliance approach and strengthen the partnership.
#4: Behind-the-Scenes Governance (The Secret Sauce): Work behind the scenes to review requirements, map risks, draft actionable solutions, anticipate challenges, and prepare a tailored solution to address immediate needs.
Finally: Building Your Governance Playbook for Compliance Initiatives: Document the simple approach, process flow, and risk metrics from real cases. Use these to tailor solutions for specific requirements as they arise, while continuously iterating and evolving the playbook.
As you apply these principles across different scenarios, patterns begin to emerge. Each successful implementation not only solves immediate challenges but also creates momentum for broader adoption. This natural evolution leads us to an important question: how do we sustain and scale these successes?
Building Sustainable Momentum
As your network grows and governance moments multiply, informal collaborations naturally evolve into structured partnerships. This is the perfect moment to consider establishing a Data Stewards Forum — a natural progression of your strategic incrementalism approach. Think of it as graduating from individual high-wire performances to a coordinated aerial act. Your champions, having experienced governance’s value firsthand, become natural founding members.
But how do you maintain momentum while avoiding bureaucracy? How do you ensure these forums drive value rather than becoming calendar burdens? Like everything in strategic incrementalism, the key lies in the approach. We’ll explore these questions in our next article, “Empowering Data Stewards: Building a Forum That Drives Value.”
The beauty of strategic incrementalism lies in its organic growth. What begins as small, tactical wins gradually evolves into a comprehensive governance framework — not through mandate, but through demonstrated value. As your network of champions grows and governance moments multiply, you create the foundation for more ambitious initiatives while maintaining agility and practicality with the credible promise of maintaining simplicity and effectiveness.
