Activity 1: Determine your organisational priorities

Learn how to use the 10 elements of trustworthy data stewardship to determine your organisational priorities and the role of trust within your organisation

Trust and trustworthiness are multifaceted, as are organisations. The '10 elements of trustworthy data stewardship' are intended to provide a systematic way of examining the trustworthiness of an organisation – as well as its data practices and any data it collects, manages, uses or shares – in a way that accounts for the complex nature of trust and trustworthiness. For more information, see our prototype resource, the '10 elements of trustworthy data stewardship'.

10 elements of trustworthy data stewardship (in alphabetical order)

Element of trustworthiness	Description of element
Active and positive impact	Ensuring that an organisation has a positive impact on society and others, and its data practices uphold norms of equity and fairness.
Engagement and accountability	Ensuring that the interests and concerns of stakeholders are actively sought and addressed, and that the organisation can and will be held to account by external parties if necessary.
Ethics and transparency	Ensuring that an organisation states and adheres to its ethical principles, and is as open to public examination as possible.
Financial sustainability and revenue generation	Ensuring that an organisation has business and revenue models that can support the activities necessary to sustain it.
Governance and strategic oversight	Ensuring that an organisation and its data practices are robust, in line with stated organisational purpose, meet requisite standards and are subject to internal oversight and correction.
Legal standing and compliance	Ensuring that an organisation and its data practices abide by relevant laws and regulations.
Privacy and security	Ensuring that an organisation protects the privacy of its employees, customers and partners; and that any risks to data it collects, uses or shares are understood and managed.
Quality and accuracy	Ensuring that any data the organisation collects, uses or shares meets requisite standards and is fit for purpose.
Readiness and mitigation	Ensuring that an organisation is ready to evolve, scale and adapt to changing circumstances, and that it is capable of doing so in a manner that limits harms and respects existing stakeholders.
Skills and knowledge	Ensuring that an organisation’s staff have the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their roles and deliver on organisational objectives.

How organisations can use the '10 elements of trustworthy data stewardship'

The 10 elements of trustworthy data stewardship can be used in a variety of ways. For example:

• As a framework to develop a more detailed, holistic assessment of the trustworthiness of an organisation as a steward of data. This might be:

  • An internal assessment of an organisation, across the various areas of activity within the organisation, or

  • An assessment of the trustworthiness of external stakeholders or potential partners.

• As a means of spotlighting specific areas within an organisation where trustworthiness can be built further.

• As a way to demonstrate an organisation’s trustworthiness to others, by using the elements as a framework for highlighting and communicating the range of systems, processes and structures it has in place in order to be a trustworthy steward of data.

• To better understand organisational priorities, assess the degree to which those priorities align with organisational goals or principles and see how their priorities compare with those of partners and stakeholders.

Once you have familiarised yourself with the 10 elements of trustworthy data stewardship, a useful exercise can be to rank them according to the importance you place on each element within your organisation. This can help organisations get a different perspective on their organisational practices and examine whether those practices are in line with organisational priorities and principles.

We recommend representatives from multiple departments within your organisation take part in this activity order to get each department to rank the elements on their own before presenting their rankings to the group.

Step 1

Ask yourself:

• When we strive to demonstrate to external organisations the trustworthiness of our organisation, our data practices and/or the data we collect, manage, use and share, what elements do we prioritise? Why?

• When we strive to assess the trustworthiness of other organisations, their data practices and/or the data they collect, manage, use and share, what elements do we prioritise? Why?

• Which elements are non-negotiable?

Step 2

Before moving on to the next activity, settle on a final prioritisation of the elements of trustworthy data stewardship that you feel are most important within your organisation. There are no right answers. Different organisations will rank them differently based on things like the sensitivity of the data they steward, existing regulatory regimes, maturity of the sector, etc. (You will examine each element of trustworthy data stewardship within the next activity, so do not be overly concerned about the rankings – eg whether a specific element belongs at #7 or #8.)