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Content may be strategically more important to one part of the organization than another. This difference is why understanding the business process and purpose of content is a precondition for effective governance. If we do not identify a clear business value, then we are not going to get time, attention and resources devoted to the effort that it deserves.
What resources are needed to execute a content governance plan? That is a topic for Content Governance Part 2: Building the right content governance teams.
Business Purpose – Understanding and articulating how content governance impacts the different areas of your business will help define the business purpose for content. This will in turn help garner support from the various stakeholders to support their part in the governance model. Aligning the purpose with at least one ompany objective will help the senior leadership team see the value, and thus support, the plan.
Organizational Responsibility -
Content needs to be owned, and people need to be responsible for its day-to-day quality, regardless of the size or structure of an organization. And for the assigned content tasks to be embraced (read: done), these responsibilities must be understood by the broader organization. (This is where the organizational change comes into play.) It is not enough to assign content related work; it needs to be tasked officially in context to what the individual and/or team will be measured against at the end of the day/year.
This enables the content owners, contributors, editors, etc. to prioritize content related tasks over other ad hoc, non-measured, work efforts.
This in turn will require buy-in by their managers, which cannot be assumed particularly if they are not a
part of traditional marketing or content related teams.
Leadership Responsibility
Every organization is unique, with its own silos and culture to be managed; complex in its own way. Regardless of size or complexity, there needs to be someone or a group, that will help to facilitate and lead as a decision-making body. This is the leader/team that will help define the business rules – and then how those business rules translate into technology
requirements and execution of content related tasks, and then, ultimately, the allocation of resources – financial, human, and technological.
This trifecta creates the framework for establishing ownership, driving decision-making developing coordinated processes, and devising metrics for a successful content governance model. This framework should establish clear lines of sight between the organization’s executive management down through to the tactical management and execution of the teams focused on the various content initiatives.
It should identify roles and responsibilities as well as corporate- versus regional- versus product/solution/LOB-level ownership, and cross-functional representation should be established where appropriate within the governance model.
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Cathy McKnight
Cathy is Vice President, Strategy of TCA and leader of its enterprise consulting practice. She leads strategic business transformation initiatives. Cathy has helped dozens of companies realize their content and marketing/communication objectives. Cathy has both led both business transformation initiatives, as well as the detailed execution of enterprise technology.