Digital governance is a complex issue that should be tailored specifically for your organization’s unique requirements, yet some key principles should always be kept in mind.
First and foremost, someone needs to take responsibility for each component of your digital presence. While this may sound like common sense, it’s crucial that ownership be clearly established and documented.
Identifying Your Stakeholders
Digital governance entails the people, policies, procedures and standards that guide digital content in an organization. A solid governance framework enables clear accountability and ownership of tasks related to content development and management.
Stakeholder mapping involves identifying those within your business ecosystem who will have an effect on digital governance, then creating a task force comprised of representatives from these groups in order to represent all perspectives. Problem-framing should also play a vital part in this process, and workshopping your strategy is highly recommended.
A hybrid model strikes the ideal balance between providing consistency via a centralised digital strategy unit, and meeting the individual requirements and subject specialism of decentralized teams. Learn more about digital governance and content strategy topics with Lisa at Intelligent Content Conference: Content Strategy for Marketers.
Establishing Ownership and Accountability
Content within an organization’s digital presence is overseen by various departments, but for it all to work properly it requires a governance framework with clear accountability and oversight mechanisms that don’t get in the way of innovation and creativity.
First step in developing a digital governance plan is identifying what needs to be governed and who should oversee it, preferably including stakeholders with differing levels of expertise and subject knowledge.
Board members can enhance their understanding of digital governance with ongoing education, including courses offered online via Coursera, edX and LinkedIn Learning on topics like data protection and cybersecurity. Furthermore, reports published by Gartner, Forrester and McKinsey provide important insights into emerging trends within digital governance.
Creating a Policy Framework
Your digital governance model should reflect the needs and priorities of your organization; however, here are a few general guidelines.
Establish a policy framework outlining who is accountable for which aspects of your digital environment – content creation, design, technical infrastructure management and security measures. Furthermore, ensure decisions will be made at various levels in your organization.
Policy should also address how accessing and sharing of data with third-party organizations occurs. Clear guidelines help eliminate confusion and conflict when managing digital environments; additionally, this will ensure any governance software chosen meets legal obligations such as those found under the American Disabilities Act (ADA) or General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation.
Developing Cybersecurity Protocols
Many organisations are at the early stages of developing cybersecurity governance structures, where risks are being identified and catalogued, policies are emerging slowly, incident response remains fragmented and security awareness programs remain inadequately developed.
Digital governance is integral for creating a culture of data trust and accountability within an organization, so leaders must actively support and uphold governance protocols within their culture. When more people participate in shaping digital governance policies, compliance increases accordingly.
Key to creating an effective governance framework is clearly identifying desired results and developing policies necessary to reach them. A good framework should include an action plan for how the company will implement and monitor compliance with policy, as well as establish feedback mechanisms and the capacity to address issues immediately.
Creating Crisis Response Plans
Digital governance demands an intensive educational foundation and ongoing development, so board members should utilize online courses offered by digital platforms like Coursera and edX as well as industry documents from Gartner, Forrester and McKinsey for continual growth and learning.
To ensure the success of an organization’s digital presence, someone needs to “own” each facet and be held ultimately responsible for policy compliance. This person may be the team leader, executive director or another senior official and could delegate maintenance of digital presence tasks while remaining responsible for its overall health.
Develop a clear digital governance structure can assist with streamlining decision-making, encouraging collaboration, and supporting sustainable growth. To be effective, digital governance structures should include both steady planned development as well as rapid deployment (such as responding quickly to natural disasters or meeting legislative deadlines).