Data Is Risky Business: Thinking Beyond Systems For Data Governance
DATAVERSITY, Wednesday, September 2nd, 2026
Governance fails in the gap between designed systems and what people actually do day to day.
Daragh O Brien argues data governance fails less because systems are badly designed than because of the gap between formal structures and actual human practice.
Where Stafford Beer's POSIWID explains failure after the fact, O Brien proposes POSIWPD - the practice of the system is what people do - since governance is continuously enacted by individuals interpreting their roles through professional traditions.
Drawing on Weick and Roberts' work on high-reliability organizations, he describes heedful interrelating and collective mind as what makes governance effective, citing studies finding it succeeds through coordination routines rather than artifacts.
He warns that automating routine work strips practitioners of the exposure needed for situational awareness during novel crises.