IM Blog: Make the most of Records Management
As most of us are one-man armies, our only option is to change the culture.
And change sucks.
So, how do we do it if it's the only way to drastically improve our records management?
Coordinators Network
Coordinators networks, as described by Jesse Wilkins CIP CIPP/US CIPM IGP CRM CIGO ICE-CCP, are people who know just enough records management to be dangerous.
These networks are far more resilient and effective than solo contributors. More eyes on the ground always increases efficiency and when your records program doesn't rely on 3 people, but a fully integrated team, it's much harder for it to fail.
Here is how you create one.
According to Darra Hofman, first step is increasing the number of places we go. Visit your legal team once in a while. Hang out with the guys from IT. Buy donuts for your cybersecurity and compliance team. And if possible, go to their conferences. Conferences are the best places to learn what these people care about.
Your main goal when expanding the network is learning to talk in these department's language. If we want effective change, we need to find the personal meaning in it and communicate it in a way they will understand.
As you talk to more and more people, you will bump into "Change Champions". These people who love change will gravitate towards your ideas, usually love testing out new technologies and new eateries around the town, and are willing to work with you.
Encourage them to hold impromptu knowledge sharing sessions. When it's not an official training session, people are more open to listening.
Just because you have some champions doesn't mean your work is over. Change is emotional and hard. This is where you come in. According to Wendy McLain, CRM, over-communicating early on during the change process and making it playful will get rid of most of the resistance. Holding purge parties and inviting your change champions together with their teams is a great initiative. Who doesn't like purging. And the social atmosphere will make it that much easier for your champions to have those impromptu sessions.
Remember change is a constant, and it takes a while. As long as you are aiming at reasonable goals and not being perfectionist, people will eventually become a part of your coordinators network. It just might take a while.
Saying no is a super power
Not all change is good. And not all change is about adding things. Sometimes, taking things out have much larger effects.
So, how do we find what to change, or what to subtract?
By saying no.
Saying no takes 4 steps
First, you look at the scope of your records management program.
What does my program have to do? What are the defined parameters? What are the regulations that I have to absolutely follow?
Then, you look at your organisational goals.
You start with the mission statement of the company. Then you dive deeper. What is the legal ?department's mission? What is the mission of the eDiscovery team under the legal department?
Next step is figuring out your capabilities and where you can have the most impact.
You find the commonalities across all three. And if a project doesn't fit into any, then you say no. If a process or a responsibility doesn't fit all three, then you find a way to either automate or get rid of it.
A simple beginning point is effort management. According to Michelle Kirk, CRM, IGP, this is where you can drive the most efficiency. Your SLAs with your internal teams are usually random, and can be changed to have drastic improvements. Not every record access request needs to be fulfilled in 24 hours, especially if the person asking for it won't take a look at the documents for the whole month.
At it's core, this approach aligns you with the priorities of the organization and forces you to be cost efficient. It will also help you not fall into the most common trap of records management. Doing it just for the sake of records management and never getting the value, respect or the support you deserve.
At the end of the day, even governments run on $$$.
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Here is more articles by Kaan:
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Meet your blog author:
Kaan Volkan
Kaanhas read over 20,000 technical pages on IG technologies and helped numerous organizations clean up file shares. Now, he focuses on sharing his findings under Records Insights Newsletter to help more organizations overcome data challenges.
His unique take on technology and vendors combined with his brief engaging style makes for some of the most entertaining and educational webinars as well as articles.
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