Oct 11
Why you need to get rid of the ”bad cop” dynamic

Why you need to get rid of the ”bad cop” dynamic

Ever had to chase someone to complete a course, assessment or just respond to your questions about data protection? You are definitely not alone.

Getting people to contribute and engage in your privacy program is one of the hardest parts of being a privacy professional. And it’s pretty understandable sometimes – after all, how would you react if someone came and asked you to spend possibly hours of your time pouring over risks for something you didn’t know was a risk?

On the other hand, you have an expectation that people will fill out your assessments. After all, you were hired for your skills and ability to solve complex problems in data protection – not be the ”bad cop” having to continually chase, pester and sometimes force co-workers to invest their time in giving you the information you need.

Deflect accountability 

There’s obviously more to the problem than you being the bad guy (you can read all about getting people to actually engage here), but at the same time, you don’t want to have to be chasing people with emails, asking them if they have done the things you asked them to do. And an easy way to get out of that is by removing yourself from the equation – instead of you sending out spreadsheets and questionnaires for people to fill in, you use a system (like DPOrganizer) to send out risk assessments, training material and more – and whenever they don’t pass a test or haven’t filled something in on time, a reminder is automatically sent out. If the problem persists, you can reach out as support – but since you’ll probably pull a report from the system to show to higher-ups, the person is now accountable for getting the work done, instead of it all falling on you.

Build sustainable processes

Of course, this is just one piece of the puzzle. You do want people to buy-in. But by using systems to remove a lot of the tedious stuff – like chasing people – you have more time to drive actual change and get buy-in in your organisation. That doesn’t only help you – that also makes your colleagues less frustrated when you do reach out about anything related to data protection.

If you’re curious to see how DPOrganizer can help you get out of the ”bad guy” dynamic, you can set up a demonstration with one of our product specialists here.

See more related posts »

Related blog posts