If you're working with standards, maybe helping to make others see the vital role and value of data standards, then metaphors often help to bring the subject to life. Standards are not glamorous or exciting in themselves. But what standards do is magical and crucial. So I really appreciate this metaphor:
“There is a ‘two-headed dragon’ in our midst as research administrators. One head is out-of-control administrative burden and the other head is unmanageable administrative data. Both heads share a common body of poor information flow and reuse within and between all the organizational units that make up the entire research enterprise. Slaying the dragon means having common agreements on the information we need to flow along our work processes – information about people, projects, equipment, funding, organizations, etc.”
This is a great way to make people see how local symptoms often trace back to the common problem of nonstandardized data. While different teams have their unique challenges, those challenges are created by a single, shared dysfunctionality. Apply data standards across the community, and the local problems shrivel and die. Webinar Video