I talk about DG as being a lifestyle. When you embed DG into your daily tasks, what you’re doing is creating that mindset you need to value the data you’re using. Think of it like cleaning out your closet. If you’re always keeping it clean and orderly, you won’t have that massive task of trying to clean it later when you really need something or you try to move.

Valuing what you do with data, treating it well, and thinking of how it’s going to be needed in the future build that mentality about data that organizations need.

People—stakeholders—throughout the company need to be engaged. Look at how your company is structured and make sure that you have representation throughout the company. And don’t forget the lawyers. While you might not talk to them a lot, they have insights others might not normally think about. They, and your record management team, might share issues around how long data needs to be retained, but also when it should be destroyed. Attorneys want the company to have the data it needs for legal actions, but also want to destroy the data once it has passed the necessary retention period.

Also think about privacy. There are plenty of data privacy issues in the news these days, but make sure you truly understand what you need to do. Many companies have employees devoted solely to privacy, such as CPOs, and they can be a good resource for your DG initiative too.

Merrill Albert[/glossary_exclude]