The Power of Digital Policy

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO MINIMIZING RISK AND
MAXIMIZING OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION

Who Should Read This Book?

Digital risk and opportunity is a concern for all levels of the organization; from executives to directors, and even at the mid-level content creators. Whether you are work in a small business, global enterprise, governmental agency, or non-profit, or if you are in a role that involves digital – marketing, communications, IT, product, or services – you need to be reading The Power of Digital Policy.

This guide will help you identify issues and topics that impact your legal and regulatory compliance, as well as protect the organization from brand degradation and reputational threats. It also will help you understand how to address them in a practical way that doesn’t require an army of consultants.

Nobody knows digital policy better than Kristina. And she informs you in clear, concise, readable, jargon-free, non-academic, actionable, practical and enjoyable-to-read prose.  The Power of Digital Policy is the new digital policy bible.

By Mike Elgan, technology-obsessed journalist, author, blogger, podcaster and digital nomad

If you don't have digital assets in your enterprise, then you can skip this book. Every other C-suite executive on this planet needs to make this mandatory reading for his or her organization. In addition to providing a comprehensive list of policies, Kristina shares her time-tested methodology for embedding and measuring the opportunities that digital brings, as well as clarity around risk avoidance. Whether small, medium or large, every business will benefit from The Power of Digital Policy.

By Ashwin Krishnan, COO, UberKnowledge

How do I get the most out of this book?

I started writing this book to help businesses—of all sizes and all stages of maturity—to develop a digital policy program that would help them maximize opportunity and minimize risk. But then I realized that a one-size-fits-all approach wasn’t going to work. Organizations are different when it comes to digital maturity, just like they’re different in regards to how they run their timekeeping or any other aspect of the business. I used what I’ve learned from working in digital policy for 20 years to deconstruct my proven methodology into a framework for those organizations that are at one of the three maturity stages: Starter - Intermediate - Expert.

STARTER

You have few formal policies or none, because you don’t qualify digital risks with opportunities

This section is for your organization if you have been operating informally — either because you have so few employees, or because you’ve been working too hard on your core business to worry about anything else. Starter organizations can be startups, small or medium businesses, or large enterprises that are just getting started in the digital-policy space.

INTERMEDIATE

You have some digital policies to support operations and the general risks associated with execution.

This section is for your business if you have acknowledged the need to have rules or policies, but haven’t yet taken a proactive approach.
You might have made policies for traditional areas of the business — for example, building security, vacation and time keeping—however, digital policies are usually addressed informally, as the need arises.

EXPERT

You are the gold standard for digital policy, with a balanced portfolio of risks and opportunities.

This section is for your company if you already have policy mechanisms in place—some of them might even be digital—and are now ready to develop a world-class digital policy program. You’ve got your primary bases covered, but you know there’s room for a lot of growth in the digital world, and you want to achieve that growth while limiting risks.

Reviews

What others are saying about The Power of Digital Policy.

Understanding what an organization should and should not do online is one of the hardest challenges for businesses today.  In all types of organizations, digital leaders and in-house counsel grapple to find the right balance between opportunity and risk. Sometimes the struggle is so challenging that nothing gets done. The Power of Digital Policy is a comprehensive and necessary resource that helps organizations work through this impasse.  Kristina’s clear and informed guidance reflects 20 years of experience assisting organizations to operate safely and effectively online and should be the starting place for any organization trying to establish a digital policy framework.

By Lisa Welchman, speaker, author, advisor

Kristina’s insightful book is the primer to help propel organizations into the next phase of digital transformation - one in which organizations are expected to act more responsibly in the digital age and meet the heightened expectations of individuals and governments. For the first time, we now all have access to a practical, step-by-step guide to design, operationalize, and monitor the effectiveness of digital policies and standards. Whether just starting or already well into the journey, your organization will benefit tremendously from Kristina’s approach and valuable guidance, based on her 20+ years of experience.

Scott Rosenberg, Senior Director, Global Marketing Operations & Governance, Visa

The complexities of digital presences have grown exponentially, the old models of managing them are not scalable nor can they respond to the rapid changes in technology and users' expectations. Through this guide, Kristina reveals the power of policies as enablers of change. She takes us from the fundamental definitions to practical steps to establish a digital policies program. A generous piece of work that needed to be written.

Carolina Ramirez, Digital Governance Lead, UNICEF

Sometimes “policies” get a bad rap, but this accessible guide shows how you can actually liberate and accelerate your digital transformation.

By Tony Byrne, Founder, The Real Story Group

The landscape of digital initiatives has grown to be incredibly complex. Too many organizations aren't properly recognizing and addressing these complexities, opening them up to exponentially increasing risk. In her book, Kristina offers practical and actionable guidance for your organization to understand the challenge and begin addressing it.

By Zach Wahl, Founder and CEO, Enterprise Knowledge

Two things are certain in the digital world: there is no one-size-fits-all solution for anything and waiting until later to decide only means it won’t be made it until forced under less-than-optimal conditions. The Power of Digital Policy is a helpful guide for any organization who understands that now is the best time to get things under control. Kristina takes a complex subject and makes it easy to understand—and put into practice. This book will make a great complement to the content strategies I help my clients create.

By Carrie Hane, author of Designing Connected Content and founder of Tanzen LLC

If you’re balking at the idea of reading a whole book on digital policies, then think again. The Power of Digital Policy is an engaging read through the landscape of the policies that companies need today to navigate safely through the waters of digital business. The book is chock-full of practical, actionable advice on the policies you need, as well as on how to get them developed, documented, successfully implemented and then monitored. If you’re serious about not only minimizing risk, but actually using policy to drive competitive advantage, you’ll find yourself referring to Kristina’s book over and over again.

By Lise Janody, senior content strategist and global web management specialist

An action-oriented book for any organization, regardless of size, to improve its digital policies. The book is well organized so that digital policies that all businesses need are described first, and then more advanced policies when you are ready.

By David Hobbs, website transformation consultant