Successful data management requires trust

How much do you trust your colleagues, suppliers, and customers? For a series of workshops for GP practice managers at conference a few years ago I researched the subject of my material, data management, revealing strong similarities between the main requirements in very diverse organisations. There were also some very important differences, the need to distinguish between hard and soft data which I will come to in a later blog.

The real issue at the heart of data management is knowing what you want the data for, and how it will help. Everyone goes to work intent on doing a good job; or at least they should do. In order to do a good job they need data, converted somehow into information, analysed and interpreted to become knowledge, with, it must be said, some variability in their level of certainty. With experience the people who use the data will add their own wisdom.

I cite here three examples: property and construction, public sector management, and the National Health Service.

For them all there are broadly similar problems, questions and solutions:

The key to success is the same: provision of a uniform approach to data sharing requires agreement especially on what the data is for, how it can be shared, and who should have responsibility for creating and maintaining it. But if these are to be achieved it is essential that everyone involved trusts the quality of the core data, the people who create it trust the users, and the people who own it trust everyone else.

Without a culture of trust, you are unlikely tb be able to create, maintain and use data successfully. Trust is essential to successful data management.