Clean dashboards and reliable data don’t happen by accident. In this episode of What Counts, Lee Karas and Maura Dunn pick up from the shift from records management to information governance and move into the three action principles that actually get you there: stop making copies, focus on data creation points, and touch once, use many times. They trace how society lost its mindfulness about creating data from Sumerian clay tablets to the printing press to the Federal Records Act and walk through a painfully familiar example of how a single shared link quietly multiplies into four copies. Along the way, they unpack the reliability paradox at the heart of information governance: the more copies you make, the less you can trust your data. It’s a candid, practical conversation about why these simple-sounding principles are so hard to follow, and why the tools we use every day keep reinforcing our worst habits.
New here? Start with the previous episode: Records Management vs. Information Governance.
Key Takeaways
- The more copies you make, the less reliable your data becomes. People hoard copies because they don’t trust they’ll find the original later, which only makes the underlying data less trustworthy. It’s a paradox, but it holds.
- We’ve lost our mindfulness about creating data. When information was expensive and hard to produce, more thought went into it. Now anyone can create and disseminate data in seconds, so almost none goes into it.
- Three principles work together: stop making copies, focus on data creation points, and touch once / use many times. They’re simple to say, clear to understand, and genuinely hard to do.
- Data creation deserves rules. Who’s allowed to create a new contract, location, or counterparty record? Where does it live? Who can change it, and how? Answering these up front prevents downstream chaos.
- Acquisitions are data creation events. When data comes in through an acquisition, you need a crosswalk from old identifiers to new ones or you end up asking, “Where’s all the data for Armadillo Ranch?”
- Bad data has real costs: failed audits, unanswerable litigation and e-discovery requests, duplicate survey spend, and revenue you can’t collect because you can’t prove your rights.
- Your tools may be the problem. Email and collaboration platforms often reinforce copy-making habits or force workarounds, because the value of doing it right isn’t obvious in the moment.
Episode Chapters
- 00:00 — Trailblazer Insight: scan your files for compliance risk
- 00:26 — Welcome and recap: from records management to information governance
- 02:00 — Introducing the three information governance action principles
- 02:19 — Principle 1: Stop making copies (and why it feels impossible)
- 03:08 — How we lost our mindfulness about creating data
- 05:27 — When collaboration tools fight back: real-world friction
- 06:29 — How one shared link quietly becomes four copies
- 09:04 — The reliability paradox: more copies, less trust
- 10:11 — Principle 2: Focus on data creation points
- 11:49 — Who’s allowed to change data? Locations, zip codes, ownership
- 13:24 — Principle 3: Touch once, use many times
- 13:40 — The Armadillo Ranch acquisition naming story
- 14:50 — The real cost of bad data: audits, litigation, lost revenue
- 16:36 — Why these principles work across any type of data
- 17:20 — Why our tools reinforce bad habits (and what’s next time)
- 19:14 — Closing and credits
Frequently Asked Questions
What does “stop making copies” mean in information governance?
It means sharing a link to a single source document instead of emailing attachments or downloading local copies. Every duplicate creates another version that can drift out of sync, so the goal is to keep one authoritative copy that everyone works from.
Why do more copies make data less reliable?
Because each copy can be edited independently, you quickly lose track of which version is current. Ironically, people make copies precisely because they don’t trust the data and every copy makes the whole system less trustworthy. It’s a self-reinforcing paradox.
What is a “data creation point”?
It’s the moment and place where a new record, a contract, location, counterparty, or document officially comes into existence. Focusing on data creation means defining who’s allowed to create it, where it’s stored, how it’s shared, and how it can be changed.
What does “touch once, use many times” mean?
You enter or update a piece of information in one authoritative place, then reference it everywhere else rather than re-creating it. This avoids mismatched duplicates and preserves the history and context behind every change.
How do email attachments hurt data governance?
A single attachment instantly creates copies in your sent folder, the recipient’s inbox, and often their desktop and cloud drive. Multiply that across a team and you’ve created several conflicting versions of what should be one document.
Why are these principles so hard to follow if they sound so simple?
Because the everyday tools we rely on, email and many collaboration platforms, make copying easy and doing it right harder. The payoff (reliable, accessible data) isn’t visible in the moment, so people default to old habits and workarounds.
Who Should Listen
This episode is for information governance, records management, compliance, and data leaders who keep inheriting messy, duplicated data and want practical principles to stop the bleeding. It’s especially relevant for organizations going through acquisitions or managing large geographic footprints, where inconsistent identifiers and untraceable changes create audit, litigation, and revenue risk. Business owners, operations leaders, and anyone frustrated by version-control chaos in shared drives and email will find a clear, honest framework here, plus an unvarnished look at why it’s harder than it sounds.
What Counts is produced by TrailBlazer Consulting, LLC and hosted by Lee Karas and Maura Dunn. Learn more at trailblazer.us.com or email us at info@trailblazer.us.com. Explore compliance-ready training at the TrailBlazer Learning Academy. Read more from Maura at mauradunn.substack.com. Music by Jason Blake. Full disclaimer.