So I'm curious why so many people think that this Derek Chauvin conviction that it's just the tipping point that America's dying. It's all over, bro, and I just don't see it. Why are people so eager to believe that it's all over for America? So I think America's going to dominate the 21st century, not just have dominated the 20th century even more, probably dominate the 22nd century and the 23rd century and the 24th century. So no, I don't think America's in terminal decline. I don't think America's in a death spiral. No, I think America has problems. Every country has problems. But which major country do you think is on a better trajectory than the United States of America? Which country do you think is poised to dominate the 21st century? Because I just don't see any alternatives to America being the dominant power of the 21st century. So why is there so much doom and gloom on the right? I think for many people who are all doom and gloom on the right right now, I think there were team people who were giddy when Trump was elected, right? They expected too much from Trump and so they've been disappointed. Second, I think a lot of people put way too much emotional energy into politics. And so when their side loses, then they become distraught just like when their favourite football team loses.  So what type of person is like a huge sports fan? Someone who's not particularly happy with his own life and wants to dissolve his own individual identity into the identity of his favourite sports teams. So people who live for the Dallas Cowboys or the Los Angeles Lakers or the Los Angeles Dodgers, right? The more intense your identification with some sports team, the more unhappy you are. So if you walk around just absolutely devastated because the Cowboys didn't win, it indicates you've invested way too much into the Dallas Cowboys. Like you've wanted to get rid of your unwanted life, your life isn't working. And so you put so much energy and hope and enthusiasm into some abstract sports team, right? So the greater your need for distraction, right? So that's what sports are, they're a distraction from life. I love sports and I enjoy sports but I'm not devastated when my team loses. Not for long. So the greater I think the individuals need for distraction and the more unhappy they are. Distraction should just be a minor part of your life. It shouldn't be the dominant emotional release for your life. So probably the greater the need for distraction, probably the more unhappy the person. I mean think about the most fanatical sports fans. You know they're pretty unhappy people. They're not exactly thriving at life. So I think people on both the right and left probably invest way too much energy. Yeah, thank you. Look very Anglo in my vest. You can just call me Todd. So I think people overall invest way too much energy in Trump. Either pro-Trump or anti-Trump. And now they're dealing with the consequences of having that enormous energy booster on the sidelines. So I think that's part of the reason why so many people are just black-pilled on the right right now. Honey when being an anti-white bigger starts being a lucrative profession when the country improves. Is that a wool sweater? It looks great. I'm not sure. I think it's a cricket vest. I think my stepmother gave it to me 20 years ago. Don't wear it very much. But it's about 62 degrees outside. So just a nice little addition, right? So sometimes when it's about 60 degrees and it's too warm to put on a sweater. But you feel like you need just a little bit more than just your long sleeves. So just adding a vest just brings me to exactly the right temperature. So when I start feeling the cold, I feel like I need to top up on my hormones. So that's when I take like a testosterone supplement or a thyroid supplement or an adrenal supplement. And then I don't feel the cold. Now some people I notice that like they're shivering in 60 degree temperature and I can be like that. But just hit the old supplements and on my own self again. Okay, so a lot of people just can't handle it very well when things just don't go their way because they're over-invested in politics. Then when they lose, then they're devastated, right? So a mark of maturity is how much you can handle when things don't go your way without testosterone replacement therapy. Yeah, occasionally I'll take testosterone supplementation. So I mean I just take some from some Chinese herbal. Yeah, so sometimes I'll add some iron to my diet or just take a little bit of some Chinese herbal testosterone supplement. I mean generally speaking, I don't have much use for lust in my life. So I don't want to go around like filled with lust. But if I'm feeling the cold, then yeah, I need to need a little bit of testosterone. So occasionally I'll have some iron supplementation, thyroid. So no hardcore products now. Just like some Chinese herbal, I'll take a capsule being followed. So yeah, how much frustration can you handle without lashing out at yourself or others? And I think that's a great barometer for how mature you are. Like obviously not everything's going to go your way. For example, YouTube removed one of my videos yesterday. It was a video where I was making a case that voter fraud did not determine the 2020 election results. But they removed my video for essentially contesting the 2020 election results. I feel like it's hard to argue that Chauvin verdict won't have ramifications on our personal lives. Yeah, but I'm not arguing that. What I'm arguing is that this is not the end of the United States of America. So obviously I think Black Lives Matter is a bad thing for the United States of America. I think anti-police hysteria is a bad thing for the United States of America. I think the backlash against police is a bad thing for the United States of America. I think the current crime wave is a very bad thing for the United States of America. I think the Biden administration is a bad thing for the United States of America. I think Democratic control of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate is a bad thing for the United States of America. United States of America. I think cancel culture and work culture is a bad thing for the United States of America. I think anti-white hysteria and hatred is a bad thing for the United States of America. Who would sign out to be a rumbier angler now? So yeah, there are definitely a lot of problems. United States of America. I just don't share the despair. And maybe it's because I live in Los Angeles where the sun is shining. I have money in the bank. I have friends and community. I'm in good health.  I love our cops, our law enforcement. I love our military too because they're important. So part of the hysteria I think that America is over is because a lot of people just can't handle frustration. They're not very mature and they've got too much invested in politics. Just like a lot of people have too much invested in sports.  Now, I think another key factor in so many people thinking the United States is over is that a lot of people turn to really bad sources of information. So if you turn into the 40s show, then you get in the real deal. You get in the straight dope here, mate. Like this is gonna stand you in good stead. Yeah, there's no collective experience. We used to be America. Well, yeah, America is a country with many different nations within it. And so there's not the high levels of social trust and social cohesion that you'll find in Australia and New England. Yeah, what happened to Big Alaska? Anyone know? What a loss to our civic discourse not having Big Alaska around. But people, like there are consequences for choosing a diet that is junky. So talk radio whips up hysteria. Talk radio, generally speaking, tends to try to reinforce a right-wing sense of victimhood. And Fox News also tries to reinforce a right-wing sense of victimhood. Okay, here we go. Here we go. So there are consequences for, oops, sorry, that wasn't very Anglo of me, walking like that. Yeah, there are consequences for choosing a junk food media diet. People eat sensibly or force to subsidize those who don't. Yeah, but guess what? There's something that's far more important than what you eat. There's something that's far more important than whether you exercise or not. Something that's far more important than the quality of your health care and whether or not you supplement. And what's more important than all that? It's your genes. Your genetics determines your lifespan more than all these other factors. Your genetics are more important than your diet. So like Tucker Carlson is my favorite pundit, but still a lot of what he puts out there is junk food. And so I think people who dine on the sort of junk food that Tucker often dispenses and that the right-wing media from the Federalist and like human events and a lot of right-wing media is really junky. Like the populist right-wing populist movement, you know, just contains a lot of junk. And so people consume news media that suits their prejudices and then they have to pay the consequences because even though it's really exciting, like listening to a live stream or reading a column that says the war is coming to an end, it's a cheap thrill. So I grew up in a church. It was all about making the argument that the world was coming to an end. So I understand the appeal, right? Because it makes you feel like you're smarter than everyone else that you have the secret knowledge, the gnosis. And so there's a lot of appeal to thinking that you know how the world really works. You know the massive conspiracies that are running in the world.  So I get that appeal because it's like belonging to a church that believes that the end time is near. Right? So I grew up as something adventist and we were raised very much with the keen understanding that the world was about to come to an end. So my entire childhood was about to come to an end. It was about to come to an end. And the Roman Catholic Church is going to, the Roman Catholic Church is going to make common league with the secular authorities to enforce, you know, national Sunday laws and the Mark of the Beast and the Pope and Andy Christ and Satan are all going to come to earth and true believers who can have to run for the hills. And then when it looks like all hope is gone, then Jesus is going to come back and he's going to throw all the sinners into a big lake of fire. And the 12,000 he left are 144,000 saints. 12,000 from each tribe.  Give me my favorite James Joyce quotes. I don't like James Joyce. I mean, I read the superb Richard Elman biography of James Joyce. Just like I read his magnificent biography, W.B. Yates. Can you pick up checks that way? Baby was coming to an end, cup of tea and we have to live for today. Had we but world enough in time, this endless, endless waiting would be no crime. I would sit by the Ganges and thinking that Andrew Marvel poem. I remember reciting that to girls in college. Try to get them into bed. Andrew Marvel too is quite mistress. But yeah, what type of person really needs excitement, right? This person is basically not very happy. So someone whose life is basically empty and miserable. And so I tried to commentate with excitement. So drama. Normal people build and accomplish things. But people who aren't building anything are empty and miserable. And they substitute drama for accomplishment. So other people just can't live without drama. And so the idea, I think that America is coming to an end. Young person wants excitement. What's the maximum distance that you can walk without radically disrupting your day? So I can walk five miles, but then my show is not going to be as good afterward. Yeah, people like drama like BuzzFord. So I can walk five miles, but my show is not going to comfortably. I'm not going to be sore or anything, but my show is not going to be as good after walking five miles because I'll be tired. So I'd say probably 10 miles is about my max without straining anything. Yeah, I could, I could take off right now and walk 10 miles and I'd be fine, but I'd be too tired at the end of it to do much streaming. So my father, my father taught me that after you physically exert yourself, just not going to be as mentally sharp. Look, you may be past the age of excitement seeking this is not indication indicative of the youthful quest for excitement. Right? Well, there are healthy ways to get excitement and there are less healthy ways. So obviously, smoking crack is exciting. It's probably more exciting than believing that America is coming to an end. But I think trying to get excited by the notion that America is coming to an end, or the Illuminati are running the world, or that JFK was assassinated by the CIA. I don't think it's particularly healthy. Zits flash. Zits flash is the Yiddish time for sitting and working. And I am not huge on zits flash.  So I'm more someone who tosses off a thought here, tosses off a thought there, God forbid, God forbid. So anyone watch Doovid talking with Claire Kaur and Peilu? How was that stream? Oh, baby, whisper sweet nothings about the GQ in my ear. So also, I think a lot of people just disappointed with America and with the direction of America. So one way that you express your disappointment is you say, Oh, the relationships over. So it's an overly dramatic way of saying you're disappointed. It's like, Oh, America's over because things are going the way I would like. I think people who think America's over that there are many of the characteristics of the alcoholic or the drug addict, like everything's everyone else's fault. And it's hopeless and people are just buying into like the victimhood mentality. John says, Peilu is fun to listen to. So let's say 90% of my audience disagrees with you, but press one, if you agree with John Berkshire, that Peilu is fun to listen to. Because I think two, if you disagree, because I think most of my audience disagrees with you. I think most people just can't stand him. So I think some of this America's at an end is just not really disappointed by current trends. Now I think there are a lot of bad trends in the United States, but I don't think it's over by any means. If you want to get worried about something, probably Russia invading the Ukraine rather listens to nails on a blackboard than Peilu. Yeah, America's not dying. It's changing. So if you want to get worried about something in the war today, perhaps worry about repercussions of Russia invading Ukraine or China invading Taiwan. So I just read this novel 2034. I read it in about two hours. It's about the United States and China get into a war in the South China Sea. And if I may tell you the ending does not end on a happy note. So kind of a politically correct novel. You can find it on Amazon 2034. It's got good reviews. But the commanders of these various naval ships and naval convoys, they're women. And the hero of the novel is an Indian American. And novel ends with India requiring the United States to agree to certain terms. And on that basis will India give the United States an aid package.  And it's a recently fun read. So novel is much more pessimistic about the United States of America than I am much more optimistic about China's capabilities. So give you a clue. I think China takes Taiwan in the novel. The United States suffers massive losses. And there's nuclear exchange, resulting in the destruction of two major United States cities and the destruction of like three major Chinese cities. So 2034 is the name of the novel that I'm referring to. Kind of a Tom Clamp's Clancy type novel. So Steve Sealer says he enjoys reading Tom Clancy novels to understand how the world works because Clancy had such a good grasp of military power and military equipment. So I'm also a Tom Clancy fan. So the scales are tipping towards a lot more crime, a lot more murder and mayhem in the United States. I think that's definitely clear. But there's going to be a reaction. And the Republican party is not very far from taking back control of the US House of Representatives. Taking back control of the US Senate. US was one knee away from perfection, Luke. So the bottom line is how much frustration can you handle without lashing out at yourself and others? Because how much should we fear the Biden administration? I don't think we need to be in fear the Biden administration. I don't think there's any need for fear. Pay some attention and whatever you can do to vote Republican. Yeah, I think it would be a good idea. But in some ways, Bidens are a relief from the histrionics of Trump. It's like we've got an adult in the White House. Now, I would definitely prefer Trump as President Biden. But there are some advantages to Biden. And I think we'll be just fine. It'll be a price to pay. Definitely going to have a surge in crime and murder of violent crime. We're going to have inferior policing. We're going to incentivize all sorts of bad behavior.  But United States has done great with vaccinating people. About 150 million Americans have been vaccinated. So what's the upside to Biden? Okay, one, he is calmer than Trump. He's more mature than Trump. Okay, what's the upside to Biden other than the optics? Wow, you've got me. You've got me here. I just assumed there will be some and I can't even, I can't even name them right now. I gotta assume that there have to be some upsides to Joe Biden, a Biden administration compared to a Trump administration. And I can't even name them. So did did Brando go after Peleu today? Claire Korsche? Oh, I know a big upside. Yeah, I can think of a very significant upside. Biden is going to work with our allies. So Trump discomforted our allies and did not want to work with our allies. So Biden will be much more effective working with our allies to contain China. So much more wanted to go out alone. Biden is going to be much more effective at building a coalition against China, against China to contain China to contain the rise of China. Because China has very few allies. And so the United States has many allies. China is surrounded by countries that hate it. So all we need is a competent administration to have to make some cause for their allies. So you've got 15 18 nations working together, rather than just the United States to contain the rise of China. So how will they do that? All the ramifications are doing that? I don't know. But definitely, definitely a coalition of allies is going to be more effective than just America going at it alone. So I think in general, Biden will be more competent at dealing with other countries, less histrionic, less egotistical. I didn't know what it means. I'm not enough of an expert on international affairs. But yeah, I think it's obvious. No, it doesn't mean that 15 nations will defend Taiwan in the event of war, but you might get some of them on site. I think definitely Japan and Korea have an interest in seeing to it that China does not conquer Taiwan. So usually a group strategy is more effective than an individual strategy. So Biden will be better at creating a group strategy to contain the rise of China. Yeah, Japan says they won't defend Taiwan, but that doesn't mean that they won't do anything. So in life, got a group working together, it will usually be more effective than just one party going at it alone to be continued.


Good morning and welcome to CMC Markets on Friday, the 25th of September, and a quick look at the week ahead beginning the 28th of September. Before we get started, just go through a couple of disclaimers, but I think while you digest the information and the disclaims, I don't think it's particularly controversial to argue that it's not been a particularly good week for equity markets. We've seen some fairly choppy trading. We got off to a very poor start to the week, largely on the back of concerns of an escalating situation in Europe when it comes to coronavirus infection rates. Significant increases pretty much across the board. Concerns that if these were to continue on their current trajectory, then we could will see further lockdowns going forward. And more importantly, I think it's really raising questions about a sustainability of the recovery that we've seen in Q3 being sustained into Q4. We're already seeing pockets of weakness being played out and some of the flash PMI data that we saw out this week. And in all honesty, we've really struggled to recover from the declines that we saw first thing on Monday morning, when a combination of factors saw a big, big decline in markets across the board. Now, we have seen some attempts to recover, particularly in the US, but I still think it's quite likely that we're going to finish four US markets down for the fourth successive week in a row. When we look at the outlook for equity markets more generally, particularly in Europe, we're likely to see another big down week on the back of these recovery concerns. But I think also on the back of the fact that the prospect of further fiscal measures to help support the Q3 rebound appear to be diminishing significantly with every passing day. We're now less than 40 days from the US presidential election. I think it's quite unlikely that we'll see any significant form of stimulus plan from US politicians. We've seen the US dollar rebound this week, and I don't think it's that's a coincidence that we've seen the dollar rebound when you've had a succession of Fed officials talking about the need for further fiscal stimulus to complement the monetary policy stimulus that the US central bank is feeding in to the US economy. And you can see this borne out in the CMC markets US dollar index as the US dollar has risen, equity markets have fallen back. So there does appear to be a bit of a correlation between the strength of the US dollar and the weakness in equity markets more broadly. If you look at the weekly charts on the CMC dollar index, I think there is a significant reason to think that the US dollar may well have bottomed in the short term, in which case that could have significant repercussions or risk going forward as we head towards that November the third election day. And it's interesting to note that I'm talking about November and we haven't even got into October yet. And I think as we look ahead towards October and next week's payrolls report, what we're seeing is, I think, significant possibility of further deterioration in not only US economic data, but also global economic data more broadly. And that should be or could well be a net dollar positive. And I think that's borne out by this weekly chart here. We've also seen gold come crashing off quite substantially over the course of the past few days as well, which might be slightly counterintuitive. But that could merely be a case of a little bit of liquidation as investors start to cover margin calls as stock markets fall off quite significantly. I mean, one of the things that has been particularly notable is how volatile the tech sector has been. And that, I think, continues to drive equity markets more broadly, particularly in the US, but I still don't think it's going to prevent another negative finish for US equity markets. The key level that I'm looking out for on the CMC Dollar Index is this 1,000 level on the upside for confirmation of a break higher. So I'll be paying particularly close attention to that over the course of the next few days. If we look at equity markets more broadly, we can see the German Dax has finally broken lower. We did that on Monday. We broke below that uptrend line there. I think it's quite likely that we will at some point test the 200-day moving average, which suggests that for the time being, while there is an awful lot of pessimism about the future direction of equity markets, I think it's also important to remember that pretty much since June, we've gone pretty much nowhere. There's fairly decent support in and around the 200-day moving average from those lows that we saw at the end of July and the beginning of August. And I think it will struggle to really push significantly below those levels in the short to medium term. What is slightly more worrying is obviously the underperformance in the FTSE 100. Now, there are a number of reasons for that. Obviously, there's the fact that the FTSE is very much overweight in terms of banks, big oil and what have you, and very much tied to the global economic cycle. But it still remains pretty much in a very slowly sloping downward channel. And I think it is also important to understand that we are still above the lows so far for this September. That doesn't mean that we probably won't trade below them. Certainly, the fact that we're trading in this broadly downward trading channel suggests that the potential is there for further equity market weakness. And thus, Ergo, further weakness pretty much across the board for equity markets in general. So I think we're starting to turn ever so slightly away from the by the dip dynamic to particularly in October, which is always a very choppy month, equity markets anyway, to a little bit of a sell the rally type dynamic. That's certainly the case, I think, in the case of the FTSE 100. Particularly so, since the pound is starting to look a little bit perky. And that is another thing that I will be keeping an eye on next week, as we get a whole host of further UK data coming out, as well as obviously the resumption of UK European Union trade talks. So despite all the negativity coming out there, the internal markets bill and the breaking of international law and what have you, the likelihood, I think, and this is just my interpretation. So, you know, it could be way off. Accusations of bad faith, they've been going to and from over the past couple of weeks, got a lot of hand wringing going on over the UK government's willingness to break international law, putting to one side all of the hyperbole about that. I think it's important to remember that while October has been touted as the deadline for any sort of agreement to be ratified, it's unlikely that we will get an agreement. These discussions always go to the wire. It's always lastminute.com with respect to the European Union. And that means that we may not get any significance or clarity by the end of the year when the transition agreement is likely to come to an end. But certainly the mood music really changes on a day-to-day basis. One minute you've got an awful lot of what I would call a little bit of aggressive rhetoric from the likes of Michel Barnier and the EU delegation. And then that's followed by similarly hawkish rhetoric from Sir David Frost, the UK's chief negotiator. But ultimately I think for me the important thing to take away from this is when you strip out all of the noise, and I think this is where technical analysis really does come in handy, when you strip out all the noise, for me it's about levels. There's always the possibility until the transition agreement ends, for all the hyperbole is for somehow the lost ground or what have you to be clawed back. And if we look at the CMC sterling index we can see there's a very, very big base anywhere near and around these sorts of levels here. So we have seen some big falls early on, but now we're ratcheting back higher again. And I think any type of sterling strength over the course of the next few days is likely to probably act as a little bit of an anchor on the FTSE 100. We can sort of see that also in terms of the way the cable has been trading over the course of the last couple of days, fairly decent support in and around 126.75. We've also coincided with the 200 day moving average. If you actually look at the CMC markets weekly, the weekly chart, you can see that there's a very long lower shadow which suggests to me that for all the bearishness about sterling, people are still very reluctant to be aggressively short of it. And I think the reason for that is that there's an awful lot of pessimism already baked in. And as such, I think the potential for an upside surprise is greater, despite the risks of a no-deal Brexit. And this is where risk management essentially comes in. It's being able to park your emotions and just trade on what the price is doing. So we are finding a fairly decent area of support in and around 126.75. What we do need to see, however, is a break above 128.70 to stabilise in the short to medium term. And we do have some data out next week, which is likely to be important from the UK point of view. Obviously, we do have the final UK second quarter GDP number. And that's where we'll finally get to see the full scale of the economic damage, wrought by the lockdowns in Q2. The last reading showed a contraction of minus 20.4%. April was the low point in terms of the economic shock. We obviously saw a slow rebound in May and June, as lockdown restrictions were eased. And I think as such, I think as more of the June data becomes available, and obviously then we go into July, August and September, the likelihood is that we'll have seen at least half of that economic activity that we lost in Q2 come back in Q3. Even the September flash PMIs that we saw out last week have shown that manufacturing is still held up very, very well, as has services in the September numbers. Of course, the new lockdown restrictions that have been announced this week rather puts a little bit of a dampener on that. But certainly, I think in terms of the Q3 numbers, it's less focus on that now than there is about what's going to happen in Q4. Now that not only the UK is imposing new COVID restrictions on the hospitality sector, as well as the travel and leisure, but also the same thing is also happening in Europe as coronavirus infections increase. But undoubtedly, the pound is proving to be much more resilient in the face of dollar strength than say, for example, euro-dollar is. If we look at euro-dollar, we can see that we've broken below this potential head and shoulders reversal. Here we've broken below the 50-day moving average as well. And that really brings us, this really brings into focus a target for further euro-dollar declines. Now in the short term, we have found a little bit of a base around about 116.20. I expect that base to give way. If we take the high here of 121.10 and then project it downwards from the breakout point here, which is around about 117.60, that brings us all the way back from 117.60 down to around about 115.20 at the very least for euro-dollar over the course of the next few days and potentially even lower than that. Ultimately, for all this talk of euro-dollar at 120, and certainly there has been significant pushback on that, the likelihood is, I think, in the face of further dollar strength that we will see the euro decline further. And I think one of the key factors behind that will be the fact that when we look at the latest flash CPI numbers for September, the lack of inflation in the euro area isn't going to be a new problem for the European Central Bank. And I think the recent rise in the euro as a result of the weakness of the dollar will have acted as a further deflationary effect on the European Central Bank's ability to generate or even get close to its 2% inflation target. Now, at the most recent ECB meeting, Christine Lagarde tried to navigate a middle ground with respect to the recent strength in the currency. However, she appears to be at odds with the ECB's chief economist, Philip Lane, who I think for not unreasonable reasons wants to keep a lid on the euro at 120. And now in August, annualized inflation slipped a minus 0.2% and a four yellow. We hear all this talk from central bankers about wanting to hit their 2% inflation target. The ECB hasn't seen inflation above 2% since 2003. So for all of this talk about looking to hit their inflation targets, I think it's unlikely they'll hit their inflation target anytime soon. And it could well be 20 years before they even get close to it. Certainly in terms of 2023, 2003 was the last time it was above 2%, briefly touched 2% back in 2015. But other than that, it's got nowhere near it. And that's going to be a problem for all of these central banks as they try and meet or even get close to their average inflation target of 2%. So keep an eye on EU CPI, September flash CPI, that's out on the 30th. We've got second quarter GDP, the final iteration for the UK on the 28th of September. We've got global PMIs for manufacturing on the 1st of October. Again, they are going to be a mixed bag. Certainly they point to a slightly bipolar recovery when it comes to manufacturing and services. Services is where the pressure points are likely to be. Those particular numbers are likely to be out on the following week around about the 5th of October. But certainly the manufacturing numbers, while positive, can't disguise the fact that services is going to be on the frontline of any recovery or lack thereof as we head into the fourth quarter, obviously of which October is the first month. The main headline, I think, in terms of this upcoming week will be the US employment report. And that has continued to show significant signs of an improvement since obviously the big, big declines that we saw in April. The August payrolls report, it the continued trend of a slow recovery in the US jobs market. Now, there is, I think, a little bit of a concern that weekly jobless claims may have found a bottom around about 850, 860,000. We saw them tick up to 870,000 in the latest set of numbers. That being said, certain parts of the US economy are still looking fairly resilient, new home sales, for example, durable goods also looking slightly perkier than they have been. And certainly there hasn't really been any significant indication of a slowdown in retail sales. That being said, it could just be that US consumers may still have some of the money left over from those $600 a week stimulus checks that rolled off at the end of July. So what are we looking for for the US employment report? Well, certainly, I think Jerome Powell, fair chair Jerome Powell, has been very, very insistent that without further fiscal stimulus that we could well start to see the recent improvement in the jobless numbers start to bottom out and start to head higher. But at the moment, the expectations are that that won't happen quite yet. The September expectations are for 865,000 new jobs to be added and the unemployment rate is expected to fall further to 8.2. However, don't be surprised if the August numbers turn out to be as good as it gets. It's very, very difficult to really ascertain what the real level of US unemployment is. At his most recent press conference, fair chair Jay Powell, more or less made that very same point. He said that the US central bank wasn't even sure how high the real unemployment figure actually was. He said that given the volatility being seen in the data, it could well be 3% higher than the actual headline suggests when under employment and people who have dropped out of the workforce are taken into account. So it could well be still well above 10% despite the fact that it's expected to fall to 8.2. Ultimately, we don't really how bad the effect and the impact on the US economy is likely to be in the same way that we don't really know what the final impact will be on the UK labor market. The furlough and the job retention schemes that we've seen here in the UK are disguising the full impact of any potential economic shock as we head into Q4. I think that is what is starting to spook an awful lot of investors. That is what is spooking equity markets at this point in time. And that's why you're finding, I think that's why we're finding it so difficult for equity markets to rebound. We've also got the latest tank and survey out of Japan, which is likely to give an insight into how big business in Japan see the Japanese economy, certainly on the basis of what the PMI numbers are telling us, the Japan manufacturing and services PMI numbers, the flash PMI numbers, they are still they are still in contraction territory. And that is a real concern. That is that is a significant concern. I think going forward the fact that even though we've seen a big rebound in services and manufacturing pretty much elsewhere in Japan, economic activity has continued to remain subdued. And that's going to be a problem not only for the Bank of Japan, but also for new Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Suga. So we will have to see how that goes. Certainly in terms of the rebound in the dollar, we're starting to see more dollar strength, even in dolly yen, which in a risk off scenario is actually fairly unusual because the yen usually strengthens when equity markets sell off. So you can see some of the usual correlations are starting and continuing to break down. If we look at a weekly chart on dolly yen, we can see that overall we're still in a bit of a downward move or a downward channel here. So I suspect that the upside in dolly yen is likely to be fairly limited on a technical basis. So keep an eye on that 50 day moving average there because that could well be actually a little bit of a barrier given that it's done so pretty much since July all the way through here. So what else are we looking out for this week? Well, obviously we've looked at some of the key levels on the various indices and what have you. We've seen the break lower in gold and if we look at the gold chart here, we can see that we've broken below the lows that we saw in August, but we are approaching a little bit of a support level at around about 1836. So while we could well see further declines in the short to medium term, I wouldn't expect gold to drop much below 1760 and these series of highs here. I think there's certainly potential for us to drop a little bit further while we're below 1900, but I think as long as we hold above 1763, then we could then rebound from there. If we look at some of the key chart points on the S&P, we can see we've also broken below that trend line there. We've also broken below the 50 day moving average. That is important. I've talked about that quite a lot and that suggests that while we're below the 50 day moving average, we'll probably head back towards the 200 day moving average. These technical breaks are important. It's not only happened on the S&P. It's also happened on the NASDAQ as well. And as such, I think U.S. equity markets are likely to feel, see and feel a little bit more weakness towards these Fibonacci retracement levels here. What I've done is I've drawn them from the lows that we saw back in March to the highs that we've seen, the all-time highs that we've seen earlier this month. And that suggests to me now that we're below the 50 day, that we could well head back towards this 38.2 Fibonacci retracement level of the entire up move from lows in March. So certainly I think on a technical basis, the technical picture for U.S. stocks looks a lot weaker than it did this time last week. And as I've always said, once the price dynamics change, you have to alter your outlook. So from buying the dips now, unless we break back above the 50 day moving average, then I think the focus now shifts to potentially looking for further losses over the course of the next two to three weeks, particularly in the lead up to the U.S. presidential election. And obviously, the first of the U.S. presidential debates, which is due to take place next week between President Trump and the Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Okay, so finishing off with a couple of significant earnings announcements. We've got Boohoo Group, first half numbers for the year 2021. They've had a bit of a roller coaster, roller coaster few weeks, largely as a result of bad publicity about one of their factories in Leicester, which was operating below the required standards as required by UK Health and Safety. Now, they've just published the findings of an independent review by Alison Leavitt, who's a top Queen's council. And while it hasn't exonerated Boohoo from blame, they have pledged to take steps to make sure that the issues addressed in the review have and will be fixed. That being said, the bad publicity did cause them to lose an awful lot of goodwill from a number of very key celebrity influences. And that could well have cost them in terms of lost sales. So it'll be interesting to see how much the upcoming update will have had on the overall sales for the first half of this year. We've also got the latest numbers for Grex, the food chain. Share price there looks and it looks, it looks, it looks a pretty weak outlook. If you can draw a line through these highs here, it's broken below these lows here. Technically, it looks susceptible to further losses and obviously being a food chain, food retail, it's been in the crosshairs pretty much of every bit of bad news that's come out over the course of the past few days. That being said, eat out to help out is likely to could well have boosted its numbers in its third quarter. I'm going to be more interested in what Grex has to say about its Q4 outlook and how well it's done in Q3. And as such, we may well see a rebound if they're slightly more optimistic than perhaps people think that they might be. Anyway, that's it. I think that's pretty much it for today's weekly market update. Just bring back the disclaimer like so. And in the meantime, I'd like to thank you all listening. As I said, once again, if you have any questions or anything that I've raised in this particular video, please feel free to tweet me at mhuson underscore CMC or alternatively drop me an email. Otherwise, have a great weekend and have a successful week trading. Thank you very much.


Hello and welcome my name is Shannon Kemp and I'm the Chief Digital Manager of Data Diversity. We'd like to thank you for doing the current installment of the Monthly Data Diversity Webinar Series Real World Data Governance with Bob Steiner. Today, Bob, along with his guest, Len Silverstone, will be discussing Activate Your Data Governance Policy. Just a couple of points to get us started. Due to the large number of people that attend these sessions, you will be muted during the webinar. If you'd like to chat with us here with each other, we certainly encourage you to do so. Just click the chat icon in the bottom middle of your screen for that feature. For questions, you will be collecting them by the Q&A in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. Or if you'd like to tweet, we encourage you to share highlights or questions by Twitter using hashtag RWDG. And as always, we will send a follow-up email within two business days containing links to the slides, the recording of the session, and additional information requested throughout the webinar. Now, let me introduce to you our speaker for this series, Bob Steiner. Bob is the President and Principal of KIT Consulting and Educational Services and the Publisher of the Data Administration Newsletter, TDAN.com. Bob has been a recipient of the Data and Professional Award for significant and demonstrable contributions to the data management industry. Bob specializes in non-invasive data governance, data stewardship, and metadata management solutions. And with that, I will give the floor to Bob to get today's webinar started and to introduce his guest. Hello and welcome. Hi, Shannon. Hi, everybody. Hi, Len. Good to have Len with us on the webinar today. Thank you, Bob. And as Shannon said, the title or the topic of the webinar for today is how to activate or basically activating your data governance policy. So it's going to be great to get some other opinions and bring other opinions and please feel free to chat with us as well and let us know what your thoughts are about data governance policies and things like that. Before I get started, I just want to run through a few things and then I want to introduce Len. But as you know, the Real World Data Governance webinar series is the third Thursday of every month. And next month we're going to be talking about, I'm going to be sharing with you a complete set of data governance roles and responsibilities. I hope you will attend next month as well. I always introduce the topic of a book that I put out, Non-Invasive Data Governance. Just got done speaking at the Dataversity Event Enterprise Data World this week and I'll be speaking at the Data Governance Conference and Data Governance and Information Quality Conference in San Diego in June. I believe that Len will be there as well. Also just real quickly about the two learning plans, online learning plans that are available through the Dataversity Training Center. And especially this month as it's Data Education Month, you can use the code that's shown on the screen to get a 25% discount on not only my courses but all of the courses that are available through the training centers. So please give them a visit. Shannon mentioned my publication, the data administration newsletter, lots of great quality information there. There's a couple articles that are relevant to the topic of data governance policy. And so I hope you'll go and take a look at that.  I have always called it the home of non-invasive data governance and now we're at a point where we're talking about non-invasive metadata governance. So I hope you'll take a look at that as well. I want to introduce to you my special guest today is Len Silverstein. He's the founder and the CEO of Universal Data Models. He is a best-selling author and we put up pictures of the different books that he's published. And I hope that you'll take a look at those. If you're not familiar with Len, he should be very entertaining. We're going to have a lot of fun on the webinar today. I'm looking forward to working with him. He's also a winner of a couple of DAMA awards, the Professional Achievement Award and the Community Award. He consults in this space, so he's got lots of interesting things to say. And as I said, he'll be speaking at the Data Governance Information Quality Conference in San Diego in June. And with that, I want to say Len, welcome aboard and please introduce yourself to the folks in the webinar today. Thank you, Bob. Yeah, I'm very excited to connect with all of you and share information about organizations with their data governance. Once that's listed on this screen, 2012 has Practice Award. And I'm going to talk not only about this client but other clients about what we've done with policies and other data governance. And I love the field. I do a lot of work in data models where we resell and license reusable data models but also reusable business glossaries and also in the data governance space. We're going to also be talking, I think, Bob, about some of the human dynamics that go into policies as well. So I'm excited about that. And certainly, when that topic comes up and Len, your mic's a little bit soft, so maybe if you could speak up a little bit, that would give you a couple of comments on that. But the human dynamics part is really what this is all about, is really taking your data governance policy and getting people engaged with it and understanding what it is, how it's necessary, how it really drives some of the things that we do. So I'm looking forward to getting your feedback on these things. Thanks a lot, Bob. I hope this has been better. I saw the comments that thought it was hard to hear me. How was this? That's better. Good. All right. So just to let everybody know, the things that Len and I are going to talk about, we're going to try to keep this quite conversational. And if you have questions and comments on the things that we're talking about, the things that we're going to focus on are, first of all, when do you need a data governance policy and when don't you need a data governance policy? And when is it necessary to put one into place? And then we'll talk about the differences between taking a policy and making it inactive versus making it inactive or what that really means to organizations. Len will share and I'll certainly interject some tips for activating your data governance policy. You were talking about using the policy to drive data governance and then getting people to follow the policy. That's always a good idea if you're taking the time and effort to put a policy in place. So this is what we're going to talk about. And with each slide, I'm basically sharing several questions that I don't want to necessarily get through them one by one. Like I said, I like to keep this conversational. And so the first question that I have for you, Len, and just kind of take a blend of all these different questions is, when organizations have a data governance policy, what are the things that they typically put into those policies? Are there certain times when a policy is absolutely necessary or good to have or actually not necessary at all? So I'm interested in your thoughts on that. Thanks, Bob. You know, I thought about this question because you sent it to me in advance. I was at Enterprise Data World with you and a number of other speakers. Michael McMurray quoted Socrates and he said, the beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. So I thought, you know what, let's just understand what a policy is. You know, it actually comes from the middle French police. It means regulation and control of a community. That's the etymology of it. So it's like, OK, when are you trying to, and I think that applies for data governance policy, like how do we regulate and control this community? So now in my experience, what goes into a data governance policy? Like a whole bunch of things. We have a template with a whole bunch of things, the name of the policy, the effective date, the owner, the overview, the scope, the background. I'm reading from a template, the reason, the supporting documents, how to report violations, enforcement, policy contacts, policy change record, and actually there's more. But there's four big ones. The four big ones. The first biggest one is why? Why? What's the reason for the policy? Another really big one is what is the policy in planning this? What is it? And then the third question is how? How do you enforce, how does the policy gets enforced? What if you don't follow the policy? And then the fourth big one that I think is who? Who created the policy? Who's going to do the policy? Those are the four big ones. What is the policy? Why is it? Who is involved in it and how to enforce it? Okay, and you know what that makes sense to me? I get that question all the time. Is a data governance policy necessary? And in some organizations things are very policy driven, and in that case, it definitely makes sense to have one put into place. Especially if you're basically escalating it up to senior leadership to sign that policy. They're not going to sign the policy unless they're standing behind what it is that you're trying to achieve with the policy. And so the idea of is there an easy answer to the question, is a policy necessary? I've found that it really depends on the client or depends on the organization that I'm working with or the organization in general. What is your feeling? What are some of the things that organizations can look to to determine whether or not it's actually necessary to have a data governance policy? I'm going to ask you to speak up a little bit more if you could close your outlook or anything that might be interfering with your audio. You kind of started breaking up there. Thank you. I did close down a number of applications when you said that. I'm closing down a few more. And I will speak up. Good. So thank you. If anybody has any difficulty hearing me, please let me know. So in my experience with companies, it could take quite a while to develop a policy. And the biggest reason why it's necessary actually comes back to that why question. Like is there a real overriding need for something? Like a big policy that we often do is on data usage or data usage limitations. Because especially with GDPR, the European regulations, just saying, hey, what is allowed or what's not? So I think it's necessary. I've seen companies go overboard on it and create too many policies and you get involved in legal. It'll actually take quite a bit of time to establish a really good policy. So I would say, pick it. Make sure you have a really good overriding, real strong why behind it. That's what I would say. That's really going to create business value. Okay. And I think people are still saying that they're having a hard time understanding you because it's breaking up on my side too. I don't know what we can do about the microphone situation, but it would be helpful if we could rectify that. I understand. Well, Bob, let me interrupt then. So I apologize. And of course, it gets choppy after we start the webinar and leading up to it. But, Len, if you have a telecom that you mind, you can call from. Oh, okay. I can do that as well. I just switched it to my audio right from my computer. Is this any better? Okay. Keep on talking. I'm going to call in on the line. Wait, they're saying it's not as choppy, but you're quiet. You just need to turn it up. If I talk like this, is that any better? No. No. Okay. Technology. Yeah, I know. Technology is great when it works. I'll walk you through switching over, but if you want to chat in the meantime, Bob. Okay, sure. And so, you know, I think a lot of the things that Len was sharing with some of the things that are in line with what I'm thinking, you really need to have a why. Why is a policy necessary? And again, as I mentioned before, it makes sense to be able to build it up to the point that the people at the highest level of the organization feel that it's necessary to have a policy to implement. And, you know, Len had gave examples of a lot of different things that go into a policy. And, you know what, you really just need to address what your senior management is thinking about. If they feel as though this is important enough to have a policy in place, by all means, put a policy in place, communicate it effectively, and it can take time to put a policy together. I haven't seen too many organizations that wait real long to put a policy into place, but it may not be the first thing that they do. It might be something that they do once they've started to establish what governance is going to look like and how it's going to work within the organization. Len, do you have anything to add to that? Yeah, on timing the policy. By the way, on the screen. No. So that's what I was saying. Can you dial into the phone number instead of trying to use your microphone? Yeah. I'm looking up the phone number. Len, I did check your instruction.   Of course, I'll do that. And I'm looking forward to having you come back on in a minute. So I hope all of you people understand this is technology and use. So we talked a little bit about, you know, if a policy is necessary and there's not a blank answer that's going to cover everybody. And so the next topic that Len and I want to address as we get led back on the line here is, you know, what is the difference between an active and an inactive policy? I've seen a lot of organizations that have policies in place but they sit on the shelf and nobody really understands it. And in fact, with an organization I'm working with now, we've actually created a diagram that relates the policy to a program document. It relates the policy to standard operating procedures and things like that. So it's there, it's active, it's the backbone for everything that we do. But again, it's just a component. Putting a policy in place does not mean that you have a governance program. It's just the beginning to demonstrate that there's a high level of support for that program. And let's check to see if Len is back. I am still on the baseline here. Okay. It's going to, I'm just going to continue then for a moment at least. Yeah, continue for a moment. So look at, so everybody who's listening, I'd be really interested in hearing whether or not you have a policy and what you've put in that policy and how you've activated that policy within the organization. And, you know, that's always one of the best things about the community that we're serving to with this, with the webinars, with all the things that DataVersity does, is it's great to start conversation around that. And if you can, share policies that you're working with and how you've taken them from being something that's inactive to something that's now working for people within the organization. So certainly, you know, check out what the environment calls for and then recognize that there's going to be, it's going to take a little bit of time to put this together. There's models that are available, there's templates and things to use for that. And as I said, Len had shared some of the things that go into the policy. What I find is that it's great to have a policy sitting there that demonstrates your senior leadership support and understanding, support sponsorship potentially and understanding of what you're doing and how you're doing it. So Len, I'll check to see. Len, are you there? I'm still on this while I'm here. Yeah, I'll let you know, Bob. It's going to be back. Okay. All right, so you know what? I mean, typically, you want to look to see what other policies do you have in the organization. I've been asked to put together a policy for an organization. And the first question I ask is, what policies do you have? Is there something that we can use as a framework for developing the policy that we're going to utilize within our organization? And how are policies being applied to people within the organization? Is it something that people are introduced to when they join the company? Is it something that's kind of reinstated or demonstrated through whatever communications tools that you're using for your organization? So, you know, see how people have reacted to existing policies before you go and you add another one. Or maybe it becomes part of your operational data policy. Or maybe you already have a records management or an information management policy that can be leveraged, can be approved by inserting some statements and some definition of what governance is. And even, I've seen organizations go as far as including roles and responsibilities within their data governance policy. Oftentimes, I would see that residing within a program document or something like that. You know, look to see how policies are being used within your organization before you determine whether or not a policy is necessary. And then also learn from experience of your organization as to how they've activated other types of policies. Or maybe policies are something that just sits on the shelf and waits to be used. So, figure out first and foremost do we need a policy? And then learn from experience as to what are you doing now with your present policies that have made them effective or have made them ineffective. Can you hear me now, Bob? I can. Good. So, I completely agree with that about learning from experience. And what I have found is that different organizations have different cultures. And so, there's all different models about cultures of organization, but like one model said, hey, are you an innovative risk-taking culture? Are you an aggressive culture? Are you outcome-oriented?  These are some of the types of cultures. So, look at the experience of what's worked. Another useful way to see what you can do on a policy is to say, okay, do I need a guide? So, do I need the policy to be a guide or a suggestion? Or do I need guardrails, which is a strong suggestion? Or do I need a policy that is governing or enforced or a very strong suggestion? So, David Wells, one of our associate speakers said, oh, think about the three Gs, guide, guardrails, or governing in terms of how to activate your policy, how strong does it need to be and what works in your organization. Yeah, I like that idea. So, you said guide, governing, and what was the third one? So, guide, small suggestions, guardrails, but guardrails, um, and, um, being a stronger suggestion and governing being, uh, a, uh, a very strong enforcement type of culture. Yeah, I think that's great when you look at it. Yeah, I could think of one telecom company I work for, which basically, uh, guides work better. If you give a strong suggestion, very people-oriented culture, if you strongly enforce it, it won't work. Then I think of another organization that was more, um, in that culture of aggression and outcome-oriented, and there, the culture that really works well with policy, and specifically about data-sharing policy was, uh, hey, you have to really, really be careful with this, and talk about governing policy. Okay, and, you know, I think that makes perfect sense, and, um, like we've been reiterating, well, let's look at what the culture of the organization calls for. Um, I always talk about trying to help people to stay non-invasive in their approach to governance, and, you know, oftentimes, if there's a policy in place and it's being enforced in such a way that it's really being very forceful in it, they feel much more invasive than non-invasive. So, um, again, it becomes the organizational cultural type thing. Yeah, so, um, you know, I love your approach about non-invasive data governance, and that, it syncs up with what I focus a lot on data governance on human dynamics, of saying, hey, uh, to make it non-invasive, implement, develop and implement the policies along the same lines as what your culture is. Uh, by the way, you guys can look up all different cultural models, uh, where I have information on that, uh, to say, uh, look and see what the culture is in your organization, and if you follow that culture, it'll be more non-invasive. Okay, and it'll be less invasive, I guess, the way it would be more non-invasive, it would be less invasive. It would be less invasive. Right. So, now let's talk about what are some of the things that let's assume for a second that people, that there's a need for a policy, and that it's going to, um, that you actually can't even get started until you have a policy. And so you take the time and the effort, you use models that you've seen, um, you've made certain that it's required within your organization, and you've put the policies together. What are some of the steps that people can take to take it from being just a document on the shelf to something that is going to become useful to them in their everyday job, or as, uh, as again one of those three, the guide or the guardrail, or to be used for governing. So what can people do to activate their policies? Yeah, that's a great question. So what I've seen in my experience is numerous attempts, sometimes, at implementing a policy to take forever.  Uh, what I think is one of the most important steps is get back to the big issue. Like we run data governance programs and one of the first things that we do is we, um, we provide uh, uh, issues of, of, in, in organizations. So like for instance, in one organization, data sharing, and very, very sensitive, uh, in this association, I'm not going to mention names of companies, but in this association, very, um, uh, very sensitive data. So it was, and that was one of their number one issues is sensitive data. Uh, so, um, so basically they, they established their sharing policy. In another organization, pharmaceutical company, it was actually the quality of information and it gets back down to what's the reason for this? Well, if you get the quality of information wrong and you have a little bit of, uh, of data on John Smith in one record and you get a little bit of data on John Smith in another record and, uh, and you don't match them properly, people can die. So it's huge consequences. This was actually the one where we won the 2012 award for it. I can say that one because it's, uh, Express Scripts Medco, uh, where, where it was matching and, and, and making sure that you're setting a policy on data quality of not entering the same record more than once as much as possible. By the way, there's over-matching and under-matching. I just gave an example of under-matching these two different records. Then another is over-matching where you have John Smith and John Smith and it's two different people. So, um, some, some, uh, some policies are around usage, some are around access, some are around sharing, some are around quality or integrity, but find the biggest issue that you can find in your data governance program. That's a whole part of data governance is issues tracking. The biggest issue and say, where do you really need a policy? Once you do that you write up the policy and you describe the reason and the policy. Like I said, there's big four, the, uh, the reason, the why, what the policy is and then culturally how can I enforce this story? Which one of the 3Gs do I use? Uh, how do I, how do I enforce it? And then how do I monitor it? You know what, I'm with you 100%. I mean, I, uh, I'm working with an organization that's focusing on records and information management and they started with the record, with the RIM policy. Um, other organizations that are focusing on, um, protecting sensitive information, like you said data quality, make your policy. You might not even need to call it a data governance policy. You might have an IT security policy that is already a form of governance. And so, look for those and again, look to see how are they activating these policies and making them, uh, valuable to people. But I think that, you know, it would be great if we could share some examples as to, you know, what, uh, what have you seen the policies be called? Or if they're not data governance, what are they called? Yeah, yeah. So, um, so I gave a few examples. One, one, uh, that we created was both a data use limitations policy. So say, okay, uh, to show when you have this what can you not use this information for, like marketing or, uh, or even internally. Um, so that's one example of a policy. Another example of a policy is a data access policy. You know, who is allowed access to what types of information. Now, uh, and so, uh, one is a data usage policy. One is a data, um, uh, one, one other example is a data integrity policy. Another one is a data integration policy. Now, these all have to do with the data, but then there's also stuff that have to do with the processes. So in one organization, a large telecom company, we, uh, we actually had a very difficult issue gathering all the issues formally. People knew about all the issues, but they really didn't have their issues all laid out, which I believe is one of the biggest parts of a data governance, uh, uh, plan is to lay out all your issues, yet everybody together, uh, the data governance council and say and prioritize the issues and work up one issue at a time from the highest priority. Well, so one of the policies we implemented was a, um, data governance issues management policy, which basically said that once you have an issue, the policy is is you have to formally report that issue. They were doing it all different methods, but formally reported through a process that we set up and through a system that we set up. Um, similarly, there was another policy about a process called the data definitions policy to say wow, there's a policy to say, look, when you have a new piece of data, you have to define it. So these are more about the process than the, um, than the end result. Uh, of course, it could lead to a good and it could lead to a bad end result if you don't know what the heck data means or definitions or inconsistencies and stuff like that. So there's some examples of data management policies. I just want to add one quickly before we go to the next next topic, but, um, I've seen organizations that have put a lot of time and effort into creating their business glossaries or their data dictionaries or their data catalogs, all these things that are very hot topics right now and that once they've done they put the resources into developing those things, they decided that they wanted to create a policy around change management for this documentation. So if you are going to request to change something that has already been blessed by the people that needed to bless it, the stakeholders of it, if we're going to change it, we're just not going to give people the opportunity to change it. Now there is and this is going to what you said Len, it's going to the process of keeping these things up to date and making them viable within the organization. So if we're looking for a way to activate the policy, you know, one way may be for you to present something to people that in their daily job is going to impact them and kind of refer it back to why you're doing it and the reason why you're doing it is that you have the management support for it. Absolutely, absolutely. Now actually, so this is an interesting one. I did a project for the Colorado Community Colleges and we were actually able to integrate information from many different universities and get standard terminology around a lot of their terms around the student and financial data. They actually didn't have management support for this project and many pieces involved data governance. They didn't have management support in the beginning but what they did is they took this huge need because like in budgeting, in the college budgeting, there was this tremendous lack of understanding about the data and they basically were able to implement a policy about really labeling data that really made a difference. In the end they had management support at the beginning they didn't but they showed the value. So sometimes even without management support you know everybody, I agree with you Bob, like you need management support but sometimes you can do things and show value and get management support after the fact. And that's true, I mean sometimes they want to be the case, they want you to demonstrate to them why is there even a need for the policy and if you take something to them and say we've actually put the resources into this that we need to again activate the policy and get it involved. It's not for everybody there's not one consistent format that I've seen for a policy. Oftentimes they pick and choose from some of the pieces that you mentioned earlier. So I think that's a real valuable conversation as well. So the next thing that I wanted to talk to you about is kind of the relationship between the policy and data governance. So can you actually use a policy to drive data governance within the organization? If we're going to do that you know what's the best way to communicate with these folks is it to come from like we talked about either top down or what you just described which is the bottom or top approach. Is there is one of these better than the other and what would you suggest? Well so in our methodology for data governance where policies actually fit into is we have like six main major parts to the data governance methodology. It's setting up the organization, it's issues, it's data definitions, it's metrics, it's data quality and it's solutions. And where policies come in is in the solutions piece. So once you identify the issues, once you see what's going on in all the different parts of the data programs there's a number of things you could do on solutions. You could set policies, one is you can change data, one is you can change processes. By the way, another big one is procedures. So we distinguish a policy from a procedure that very often will have both a policy and a procedure about the same thing. So we'll have a data definitions policy maybe like in one organization to say hey you need to have a policy to say look you have to give it some meaning. You can't just add a field to a database and not have any definition to it. And it can't be like you always say Bob, a cheeseburger definition you know. I got that from you Bob, of burger with cheese. Real definitions. So that could be a policy but then there's a procedure. So the procedure is the how, the policy is the what. And very often it's an associate. So basically what I'm saying is that the policy is one solution, one thing we can do. So how it relates to data governance this is one solution we can implement along with all these other things about metrics and and then I'm looking at some of the chat line comments about yeah it depends on culture. So depending on your culture you know I could think of one data governance job where we didn't even implement policies because there were so many other things to do in the organization that was so much more powerful than implementing policies. So really a lot depends on your culture and on the issues and on the why's as to if you implement policies how you implement most organizations will implement some policies. But it's a solution. It's one solution in the data governance program. That's how I say it. You agree? I do because if you think it may come down to even how you define data governance for your organization and often times in my webinars I'll start out by giving definitions of data governance, stewardship, metadata whatever we're talking about today. I thought we'd cut to the chase today. But the idea is that you need if you need the data governance policy to be in place in order to do anything that might be the first step. Or there's a lot of organizations that don't necessarily feel that this is going to become an active document. Yes, I agree. I think that it really again depends on what's expected within the organization and if you go back to the definition as I was saying I define data governance as being the execution enforcement of authority over the management of data. Well, if it takes policy to execute and enforce authority over the management of data, and for example, if you are going to make this more of an information security or a privacy policy or if that's where you're going to start it becomes a no brainer. Everybody knows that everybody is supposed to protect sensitive data or data that is classified a specific way. The policy can say that's what we're going to do. But if you're going to focus on something like information quality and you're expecting people in the organization to really change their behavior in order to execute and enforce authority it may be necessary because they're going to come to you and they're going to say why do I need to do this? And you can say because it's in the best interest of the organization or you can say well management feels that this is very important so we need to put this in place. So one thing that I think is useful to look for is other policies like I said in my experience to put together a data governance policy is actually a lot of work to actually get it there and get it enforced and by the way very often you do have to check with legal and other organizations so to get something in place it's a bit of work so the question is are there other policies and do they work? So there's many other policies aside from data governance policies see what works in the organization and then if there's other policies work okay then that's one effective solution to implementing data governance. If the organization is motivated and inspired by other things like results or relationships or so you might yeah it's really a question of how much time in the data governance program do you want to spend on policies? And you know what your point is very well taken because it does take time, it does take resources you're going to get people like your legal counsel involved you may get HR involved in writing what are the consequences of not following policy I've seen organizations that have things that they call policy management policies which sounds kind of redundant but it's a policy for how they're handling the policies within the organization so again it really depends on the culture of the organization as to whether or not you know if you need to point back to the fact that you have a policy as a way to make certain that people are doing what they're doing. I had an organization I spoke to earlier today some of their senior leadership have as a percentage of their performance evaluation that they are going to implement effective data governance around the specifics of what they're focusing their program on. And in order to do that they say okay well then we need to have a policy if I'm going to be accountable for this as being 20% of my job or 10% of my job we need to be able to make certain that people understand that there is a policy in place and that it needs to be followed. So I think that you can use governance to drive governance it's not necessarily necessarily the least invasive way of doing it but it's certainly if you have a policy then somebody at the top has said this is necessary and it's worth doing the effort. And I've always called it non-invasive data governance I don't necessarily say that it's easy and it's not it doesn't mean no work data governance it means that this is really the approach that we're taking to apply governance and you if you're afraid of work or you might not be in the right business putting the policy together is definitely a bunch of work within the organization. Right, right and you know the other thing is unfortunately I've been doing this a while I've seen a lot of programs and I've seen a number of policies that frankly don't do anything and and you don't even know if they're doing anything so like on this slide you have questions that the policy includes measurements of success and I'm going to say to that yes yes yes yes absolutely like if you have a program and you don't have any metrics and by the way we distinguish metrics from measurements so the measurement is the type of thing you're measuring the metric is the actual result of it so like for instance a measurement might be violations you know we had three violations of the of the data sharing policy you know the so the metric is free but the measurement is the type of thing or how many people refer to that policy or how many questions whether so if you're set metrics and there's absolutely no activity on that policy you may it's like the old thing about reports you know I'm putting out a report and let's just delete it from the operational system let's see if anybody notices it that could be another thing on policy okay we're going to not even look at it for a month let's see if it was doing something so absolutely if you have a program where you're not measuring it it's really what data governance is about in many ways it's about measuring and metrics so you really want to use them in your policy and I've seen them included as well and I think that becomes a very important thing again if we're going to do this if we're going to formally put governance in place how are we going to know whether or not it's effective and whether or not people in the organization if this is something that they want or need or even know exists so let's jump into the last subject before we turn it back to Shannon for some Q&A the last subject that I wanted to talk about was getting people to follow a data governance policy again now assuming that we have a policy in place what are the things that we do so how can you share first of all can you share how organizations effectively use policies and what are some of the techniques that they're using to get people to follow the policies you know we don't want that stagnant passive policy sitting on the shelf we want to get it active get people to follow it what are some of the things that have any pointers for people as to what they can do in order to do that absolutely you know I do that's a leading question because that's frankly I think this is the most important area not only in policies but in data governance that I've been on panels where they said what is data governance it's and you've heard me quote 20 years ago it's not data governance it's people governance we can't govern data you can't tell data what to do it's going to do what it does but we're guiding people in people Bob you were actually at my course in Enterprise Data World of Monday morning where I talked about the whole course was about was about one thing it was about instead of being about data mining and I made a joke about this a long time ago not data mining like exploration of data it's like it's my data it's mine mine mine mine mine mine right so it's one of the biggest issues in data governance not only in policies but in everything in data governance of hey leave me alone I'm working on a data science project I'm working on a machine learning project this is really important so leave me alone and we need to get the data hours in that this is a important I made up that term this is an important piece of information that is really actually the companies probably the companies the piece of information not any particular persons so how do you get from data mining to data housing I've actually spent like decades looking at this and I came up with five things I think are the most important things I talked about it in my course can I say what those five things are sure please do okay one get really clear on the purpose on the why if you're doing anything so if you're going to have a DG policy you have to link it back to the why at that project I told you at the pharmaceutical company we link this policy back to the why of saving freaking lives you don't have if you don't follow this policy it is a very very very strong lie in other organizations there's a big money why in other organizations there can be a risk why in an insurance company they had said we talked to the vice president of marketing with our data governance and data management program you guys don't know what you're doing what you're really doing is you're stopping us from going to jail that's what you're doing with this so a policy could be linked back to actually people I'm being facetious but not going to jail you break a policy so it's the why I'm just going to interject that's really really relevant really really important because if it's not linked to the why people are not going to really understand what's the purpose of it what are we going to do I want to emphasize that point that's a great point and by the way people often think they're linked to the why why because we need better customer information that's not the why why because we need better data quality that's not the why the why is something that people really get their heads around in the Colorado community colleges the why was about educating students that they saw a direct link from getting standard terminology across 13 different reasons to increase their learning the why has to be really clear that's one second, people don't understand what is motivating people so there's like 10,000 regulations on data and then there's company policies and then there's all this stuff policies are getting not followed all the time but I have seen instances of policies being followed like that data sharing policy people understood the why behind it and what we do in our data governance program is one of the whole modules in data governance is organizational change by the way I think that's really important to have a piece of your program dedicated to organizational change whether it's a person or at least part of a person or at least a program or something on organizational change that seems to be the key so there is a model that I shared with you on Monday morning about how to understand people's motivations to know if they would follow a policy or not that's second third is if you don't have trust in the organization people won't follow policies oh this policy is for the organizations like Baker so there are frameworks for developing trust fourth it's the way it's communicated if you communicate for instance if you communicate a policy in legal technical language with that bird that you have on the slide it probably won't be followed so much and I like that graphic by the way you have both and then fifth is conflict so one job in data governance effort one of our data stewards got this nasty email from a person and it was basically she was getting in their stuff about really following policy and in this case it wasn't a documented policy basically to say look you have to have a checkpoint in your project so how do you handle a conflict by the way what she did when she got this pretty nasty email is immediately started typing back like how dare you how could you do that and we're in there you have to follow our lead on this this is authorized this has top level management commitment how dare you you need to follow it the enter key she listened to some of the training that we had about the first thing to do in a conflict so Bob you were at my talk on Monday what's the first thing to do in a conflict now I'm testing you okay I won't test you first thing to do in a conflict is we have to stop we have to create some space that we're always jumping over each other so somebody doesn't follow a policy you don't go and say hey I'm going to escalate I'm going to ram it down somebody's throat you need oh somebody just wrote in on the chat line wait 24 hours then reply awesome Gary and by the way sometimes this happens not in an email but it happens directly where somebody says hey your policy is ridiculous it's crazy you're ridiculous get out we'll follow the policy as long as it doesn't take any time away from or budget away or any resources at all from our project so even face to face you can do like Bob let's have some fun be mean with me and let's say I'm a data science project that says get away from me I don't want this to be synonymous with just go away from me I told you once I told you twice I told you three times okay that you need to go to the glossary and you need to go to the dictionary and the definition of the data or you know I told you that this data is sensitive and you can only print it if you if you follow these rules to do it and you're not doing that land what are you going to do about it okay here's my response big breath well let me see hey can I get on the same page in you and just um let me see if I really understand what's really important to you and then reframe the discussion is might be one possibility now by the way there's a whole bunch of ways I can handle that but the first step is what everybody misses is create some space numerous people are actually putting in great suggestions on conflict you know check in to see if you're missing something how do you drag a horse to water how do you demonstrate the value of the policies there's numerous approaches you could use but the one thing I think we really miss the most is create space because what happens is there's a whole bunch of logical answers but we're operating on emotions at that point that data steward was operating completely on emotions she might have even had a rational explanation behind why it was important to implement the policy but she's emotional she's acting she's reacting you had some place in the deck about how do you react you don't react you intelligently respond and the only way you can intelligently respond is by creating some space to say oh you know like in this scenario that you were just talking I'm explaining it Bob it's not a role play but it's like oh you know you're upset this is important to you tell me why it's important okay I think that makes a lot of sense but what I want to do is I see there's a lot of questions coming in and we only have until the top of the hour so let's try to get to some of the questions because I think that a lot of the people have questions that we can answer that you can answer in the remaining minutes that we have so I see that there's been a lot of chat going on and there's a lot of Q&A and things it's great thanks everybody for chatting and thanks for putting up with my voice that didn't come in first and just as a reminder these are the things that we talked about today we talked about when is it necessary to have a policy the difference between an active and active policy talked about what does it take to activate it and using the policy to drive governance and lastly getting people to follow a data governance policy and we can certainly continue the conversation on the data community I think it's community.dativersity.net we can certainly continue conversation about that after the webinar so what I want to do is I want to turn it over to Shannon in the time that we have remaining to do some Q&A on what we've talked about today great Bob thank you Lynn for joining us today and thanks to Laia as they said for all the great questions coming in just a reminder to answer the most commonly asked questions I will send a follow-up email for this webinar by end of day Monday with links to the slides and links to the recording so diving right in here could you list some of the common policies which are not related to any specific organization type? oh okay so common policies could be data usage how can I use my data or computer's limitation common policy is access who has entitlement to what access common policy privacy security which are two different things integrity integration policies sharing policies then there's a number of policies that I put in the bucket of process type policies how to do data definitions metrics that you need metrics how to set up issues how to set up the measurements so there's a bunch of policies about setting up certain processes so these are some of the most common ones I've seen and I'll just add to that that any look to what you are trying to accomplish with your data governance program and look to see if there's already a policy that's about that like the example I gave was the protection of sensitive or classified information so if the data is classified in such a way let's focus on a policy first and make certain that we have our ducks in a row as we're getting started it just makes sense and I thought that was a very good question yes and by the way along that I saw one of the chats saying are you talking about what large policy for DG? I actually have seen that but I prefer separate the policies with NDG not one large overarching policy for DG it depends on your organization but that's how I've seen it mostly particular policies with NDG this came in earlier so what do you really mean by passive versus active policy? I've defined that very simply it's something that is in force and that is actually being used if it's in force but nobody has actually paid attention to it it's semantics how you define it but that's what you really want it's not only it's in force but something is being done about it some metrics I'm behind him 100% in what is his answer I don't know anything to add yes and speaking of taxonomies here do you have a preferred policy versus standard is there a difference or do you have a preference? well yeah standards actually can refer to a lot of things we actually use that in a lot of things in data governance like standards for for semantics and things like that when I look at those 3Gs a policy usually a policy refers to the governing part it's not the guide or the guardrails it's usually something that is enforced so standards I prefer a policy even when you look up the etymology of it it fits in terms of what it's really doing regulating and controlling in a community a standard yes it's a good question it's another way to regulate and control but I think there's so many things on standards on data quality standards and process standards and so there's overlap there but I don't think they're the same and I think of the bottom line is to execute and enforce authority it's not going to happen by itself I use this line I'm using it a lot I wrote an article now called the metadata will not govern itself well the fact is that the data will not govern itself so if we're expecting to manage data as an asset for the organization then we might need some backbone, some teeth behind what we're doing and that could be a lot of the time as to when data govern, when a policy is necessary and it might dictate how you're going to activate your policy by the way I saw so many missed point number four I think that was on the five points that I mentioned it was about it was about convectively communicating and I actually give an acronym called share you need to be straight you need to be helpful you need to know your audience you need to know your reason and then I use another acronym wait why am I talking I love it well that brings us right to the top of the hour I'm afraid but the good news is if you keep submitting your questions or if you have additional questions I will get those over to Bob who will write up some answers for us and we'll include that in the follow up email that I will send up by end of day on Monday to all registrants with links to the slides and links to the recording and Lynn thank you so much Lynn thank you for joining us this month it's lots of fun having you on and thanks to all of our attendees for being so engaged in everything we do we just love it I hope you all have a great day thank you everybody thanks so much Bob thank you Shannon thank you everybody for listening alright thank you everybody thanks bye