Data Story Telling : Secrets Above the Cliff
Long before satellites and drones became part of everyday conversation, the world still had corners that nobody had properly looked at. Explorers found them the old way: by stumbling into them. One of the most unusual stories I’ve ever come across begins in northern Mozambique, where an enormous block of rock rises out of the landscape like something that shouldn’t be there. Walk toward it and the ground seems ordinary at first. Then it folds upward into sheer walls that look less like geology and more like the ramparts of some ancient fortress. The top sits roughly a kilometer above sea level, and reaching it takes the patience of a seasoned climber, plus the grip strength of someone who has spent half a life tied to ropes. For centuries, those cliffs kept the summit almost entirely to themselves.
That isolation did something remarkable. Up there, sheltered from storms of a very different kind, were trees, vines, pools of water, and miniature ecosystems that had been left alone since long before anyone drew a modern map. In 2018, a team of researchers paired up with elite climbers and made the ascent. They expected interesting plants, maybe a few unfamiliar insects. What they found instead was the kind of biodiversity you normally read about in descriptions of ancient forests. Small creatures moved through the branches and soil; several unknown even to the scientists who spend their careers identifying things with tweezers and magnifying lenses. One delicate butterfly turned out to be a brand-new species. And beside a narrow stream threading through the plateau, the team came across a handful of terracotta pots, placed there generations earlier. Someone had made this climb long before climbing gear was built from anything we’d recognize today.
There’s something irresistible about a discovery like that. A sealed forest, perched high above everything around it, thriving simply because nobody disturbed it. The image stays with you. Oddly enough, it also mirrors a pattern I’ve watched play out over decades in data governance. Not the vines and butterflies, obviously, but the misdirection that comes from judging a landscape by whatever parts are easiest to see. Governance has more hidden corners than most organizations realize, and in my experience the aspects that look straightforward on the surface are often the very ones concealing a dense forest of dependencies and long-standing problems, tucked beneath layers of legacy tools, policies, procedures, and unwritten expectations.
I’ve spent more than thirty years helping organizations make sense of their data, and they’re still often surprised by how many hidden summits appear the moment we start mapping their governance approach. The parallels between that mountaintop ecosystem and the work of building a governance strategy are worth spelling out. So let me walk through four of them, each anchored to a keyword. All four start with the same letter (partly a mnemonic, partly a small indulgence) so they’re easier to recall on the days when your governance roadmap feels less like a straight path and more like an uncertain climb.
Clarity
From a distance, the mountain looked solid and uncomplicated. A giant rock with steep sides, nothing more. But once the climbers stood on top, they saw how much detail had been hiding up there: streams, habitats, species found nowhere else. Clarity in data governance works the same way. Executives often believe they know their data landscape because they can name the big categories: customer information, operational data, financial records, the usual suspects. Those broad shapes look simple from the ground. Climb into the actual systems, though, and the picture gets complicated quickly. Examine how fields get populated. Track how information moves between teams. When I help an organization search for clarity, we usually turn up inconsistencies, forgotten tables, inherited rules nobody remembers writing, and naming conventions that made perfect sense twenty years ago but now baffle every new hire. Finding clarity takes curiosity and patience. It also takes a willingness to look directly at the corners most people would rather leave untouched.
Consistency
That mountaintop forest survived partly because its isolation kept disruption away. Conditions held steady long enough for species to develop at their own pace. In governance, consistency is what keeps processes functioning at all. Without shared definitions and clear ownership, everything drifts toward chaos. You might assume your company already has this sorted out because there’s a documented policy or an enterprise glossary somewhere. But the real test arrives when two departments try to answer the same question from the same data. If they reach conflicting conclusions, your consistency is an illusion, and those inconsistencies harden into fissures as real as the cliff walls themselves. Teams start building private interpretations because the shared one can’t be trusted. Most governance problems begin exactly this way. I tell people often: consistency isn’t an audit exercise, nor a compliance checkbox. It’s the quiet stabilizer behind every analytical decision you make.
Custodianship
Untouched doesn’t mean unvisited. Those terracotta pots prove someone reached the summit long ago and left behind signs of deliberate care. Custodianship in data governance is about taking responsibility for what you manage, even when it’s inconvenient. Every dataset has a story, and stories need caretakers who actually understand them. Notice that this doesn’t quite entail ownership in the hierarchical sense; rather, it’s stewardship built on expertise and accountability. Looking back at the organizations that mastered governance best, they all made stewardship part of the culture rather than a job title. Without that, people dump information wherever it’s convenient, and the digital clutter compounds year after year. Designate custodians, though, and you empower them to protect the ecosystems under their watch: preventing harmful changes, encouraging healthy use, and teaching others how to navigate the terrain.
Curiosity
The summit was reached in modern times because a few people looked up and wondered what was up there. Curiosity makes people climb mountains. It also shapes good governance. The best data professionals I’ve worked with were never satisfied with surface explanations. They wanted to know how systems transformed values from one stage to the next, why a particular field existed, whether it still served any purpose. They chased anomalies instead of shrugging at them. That habit pays for itself. Curious teams catch problems while they’re still small, produce documentation people actually use, and design better systems. Organizations that nurture curiosity tend to surface issues in hours rather than months. And along the way, they stumble onto opportunities nobody had noticed, which is its own reward.
What I enjoy most about these parallels is how naturally they grow out of that isolated forest. A place concealed for generations reminds us the world holds more detail than what meets the eye. Every governance strategy starts with grand ambitions: scaling analytics, improving quality, supporting better decisions, staying out of regulatory trouble, and more. But the real work happens in the areas tucked behind steep metaphorical cliffs; that is, where forgotten rules live, where unexamined data sits in storage layers nobody visits until something breaks, and where teams quietly build workarounds that erode trust in the broader environment. Search those spaces and you’ll find the equivalent of unique species, lost artifacts, strange paths, and intricate relationships. Occasionally you’ll find things that survived only because nobody disturbed them.
Anyone who hears the story of that summit tends to laugh and say the mountain sounds like half the legacy systems they’ve inherited. The terracotta pots, meanwhile, are an irresistible stand-in for the mysterious fields sitting in data warehouses everywhere, labeled in cryptic abbreviations nobody dares delete. Humor aside, the analogy holds. If you assume your data governance environment is simple because a quick glance suggests it is so, you will miss the vibrant ecosystem hiding above the cliffs.
In conclusion, the next time you sit down to map your data governance approach, keep that forest in mind. Picture the climbers hauling themselves up a sheer rock pillar just to see what lived on top. Imagine their surprise when the summit turned out to be not a blank surface but a thriving world, protected by nothing more than inaccessibility. Then ask yourself where the inaccessible places are in your own data landscape. Use Clarity to understand them, Consistency to stabilize them, Custodianship to care for them, and Curiosity to keep exploring. Follow those principles and your governance strategy will stop feeling like a mysterious plateau and start feeling like terrain you actually know. And if you happen to discover a new species while digging through your legacy CRM tables, call me. I want to be the first to hear about it.
Bringing Data to Life and Life to Data”
About the Author:
Dr. Joe Perez,
Team Lead / Senior Systems Specialist,
NC Department of Health and Human Services
Dr. Joe Perez ( Dr.Joe ) is also the Chief Technology Officer – CogniMind
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Dr. Joe Perez was selected as the 2023 Gartner Peer Community Ambassador of the Year.
Dr. Joe Perez is a truly exceptional professional who has left an indelible mark on the IT, health and human services, and higher education sectors. Dr. Joe Perez journey began in the field of education, where he laid the foundation for his career. With advanced degrees in education and a doctorate that included a double minor in computers and theology, Dr. Joe Perez embarked on a path that ultimately led him to the dynamic world of data-driven Information Technology.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Joe Perez transitioned into IT, starting as a Computer Consultant at NC State University. Over the years, Dr. Joe Perez’s dedication and expertise led to a series of well- deserved promotions, culminating in his role as Business Intelligence Specialist that capped his 25 successful years at NC State. Not one to rest on his laurels, Dr. Joe Perez embarked on a new challenge in the fall of 2017, when he was recruited to take on the role of Senior Business Analyst at the NC Department of Health, Human Services (NCDHHS). His impressive journey continued with promotions to Senior Systems Specialist and Team Leader, showcasing his versatility and leadership capabilities.
In addition to his full-time responsibilities at NCDHHS, Dr. Joe Perez assumed the role of
fractional Chief Technology Officer at a North Carolina firm in October 2020. An Amazon best-selling author with over 21,000 followers on LinkedIn and numerous professional certifications, he is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker and recognized expert in data analytics and visualization.
Dr. Joe Perez’s contributions have not gone unnoticed. Dr. Joe Perez is a recipient of the IOT Industry Insights 2021 Thought Leader of the Year award, the 2023 Gartner Peer Community Ambassador of the Year award, and Top Ten Global Thought Leader for several categories at Thinkers360 in four consecutive years (2023-2026). Dr. Joe Perez holds memberships in several prestigious Thought Leader communities, and was recently inducted into the United Nations Global Network of Data Officers and Statisticians. Dr. Joe Perez’s reach extends to more than twenty countries worldwide, where he impacts thousands through his speaking engagements, articles, and status as a Distinguished Fellow in the Public Sector Network’s Future Government Institute.
Beyond his professional achievements, Dr. Joe Perez’s passion for teaching remains
undiminished. Whether as a speaker, workshop facilitator, podcast guest, conference emcee, or team leader, he continually inspires individuals to strive for excellence. He treasures his time with his family and is a gifted musician, singer, pianist, and composer. Joe also dedicates his skills through involvement in his church’s Hispanic ministry. Dr. Joe Perez manages the publication of a widely recognized monthly military newsletter, The Patriot News, and is deeply committed to his community.
To maintain a balanced life, Dr. Joe Perez is a regular at the gym, and he finds relaxation in watching Star Trek reruns. He lives by the philosophy that innovation is the key to progress, and he approaches each day with boundless energy and an unwavering commitment to excellence. Dr. Joe Perez’s journey is a testament to the remarkable achievements of a truly exceptional individual, and more importantly, to the amazing grace of God.
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Also read Dr. Joe Perez‘s earlier articles:
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