Data governance is often seen as restrictive—but what if it’s actually the key to making data work?

Bob Seiner joins Sid Atkinson to challenge how organizations think about governance, accountability, and behavior change. Drawing from decades of experience, Bob explains why governance efforts stall, what shifts when organizations focus on outcomes instead of activity, and how ownership, not tooling, drives real adoption.

He also introduces the concept of data fluency, exploring why the ability to communicate with data is becoming just as important as understanding it.

Hosts Sid Atkinson and Lee Harper engage with guests Gary Griffin and David Holcomb, authors of "Building a Data Culture: The Usage and Flow Data Culture Model", to explore the concept of data culture. They challenge the notion that culture is unmanageable, presenting frameworks and models that make culture visible and actionable. The discussion covers the three R's of data culture, the usage and flow model, the significance of microcultures, and the differences between public and private sector dynamics. The conversation culminates in the introduction of the Data Culture Institute, aimed at equipping leaders to build and sustain a data-driven culture.

Data management purity and pragmatism built opposed camps starting in the 1990s, and echoes of those tenants present themselves today in Generative AI. Ontology purists and vector-based engineers appear at opposite ends, but how might we reframe so everyone's in the same picture? Tracy Talbot is a consummate data practitioner and has seen it all—from mainframes to machine learning. In this episode, she sits down with Sid Atkinson to reveal how the age-old Kimball vs. Inman debates mirror today’s AI struggles—and why her concept of “semantic patches” could be the key to keeping generative AI grounded in reality.

Building a data program isn't all about the tech—it's about getting people to actually work together. Carlos Rivero shares what it was really like starting as Virginia's first Chief Data Officer with no team, no budget, and a lot of skeptical agencies. He talks about how he learned to be more of a "people wrangler" than a data expert, turning critics into allies and figuring out that most of the job was just getting everyone on the same page.

Ever wonder why so many promising tech pilots never make it past the starting line? In this episode, Sid chats with Jonathan Alexander about breaking free from “pilot purgatory” and actually scaling innovation. From cavemen pushing carts with square wheels to global rollouts of cutting-edge solutions, Jonathan brings stories, strategy, and wisdom about how to get things done in a giant enterprise. They dive into building business cases that don’t flop, why change management beats the perfect tech stack, and how to avoid getting stuck with great ideas that go nowhere.

Leading complex IT systems in a major city demands more than technical know-how—it requires a shift from individual success to team achievement. Summer Xiao, Deputy CIO of Houston, shares her journey from "I" to "we," discussing the crucial transition from "doer" to "facilitator," the importance of shared ownership in large projects, and how team performance reflects directly on leadership.

State University Systems are frequently impacted by state legislation- from funding to rules, policies, and everything in between. Universities typically operate with streamlined (slim) budgets, busy staff, and with lots of focus on serving students and research. Legislators are similarly busy and concerned with many things across the state, not just the university system. Proposals and draft legislation impact the universities, but lots of content, lots of drafts, and a short legislative cycle make it very time consuming for the university to find all the legislative content that impacts them, and then decide how to best to collaborate. Ryan Jockers and the NDUS team utilized AI to drastically reduce this burden, cutting the time to insight from weeks to minutes. LegiTrack, their system, is just the start!

You might hear "NDSU" instead of "NDUS" a few times during the episode. Apologies for the slip of the tongue! We're still talking about the North Dakota University System throughout.

North Dakota is well known for energy and food production, but less known is the states roots in technology. Rep. Josh Christy discusses North Dakota's ambitions in AI, what they mean, and how North Dakota is taking a holistic approach to safety and innovation.