Interactive presentation encouraging information professionals to rethink their role, busting myths, developing diverse skills and identifying stakeholders. Recurring 'box' metaphor put into practice, and relevant to conference theme 'Agents of Change'.
4. Context
A Third Force… (burden or benefit?)
Info management legislation
• Public Records (Scotland) Act
• Freedom of Information
• General DP Regulation
Obligations
Data sharing requirements
Customer expectations
Finite staff resources
Public-sector budget cuts
Constraints
5. The Message
“Think outside the box to
avoid being put in a box!”
Are you a…
How about all 3?
… records manager/information manager?
… project or change management person?
… PR, marketing or comms professional?
6. “Policy? What policy?”
Records Management Plan, classification schemes,
retention schedules, SharePoint libraries, information
sharing protocols, MDM…
To records managers – perfect sense
To many others – gobbledygook!
“SO WHAT?” “SO WHAT?” “SO WHAT?”
7. Win Friends and Influence People
Can’t oversee everything or meet everyone in person
Build a network – of the right people... but who?
8. What do they want to know?
Regular information
Targeted messages
Focused on benefits
Continuous support
Approachable team
Managers
What’s the strategy?
What’s the impact?
What’s the cost?
What do I need to do?
What does it all mean?
What help is there?
Admin staff
“Make people feel the problem; then let them own the solution”
11. Closing thoughts
“Most of the time, information management isn’t all that
difficult… …people just need a reason to do it!”
No matter the benefits, IRM will never be a top priority
That’s where communication comes in!
• Targeted, tailored messages – little and often, not one-off
• Highlight available resources, provide support, be flexible
Always be ready to answer the question ‘Why?’
Don’t be put in a box – be an Agent of Change!
Picture the scene – you’re at a party (yes, amazingly, records management people are occasionally allowed in) and someone – maybe a stranger, a friend of a friend or an old schoolmate – asks what you do for a living… argh, what do you say?
What do you say?
Pick on people – stooges – to describe their job in an interesting way.
I could say – I’m Joe and I currently work for the University of Aberdeen on a project that aims to develop an archive of the UK oil and gas industry, to support wider records management within the industry, and to enable greater understanding of the industry’s achievements and significance… SNOOZE!
Instead I should be saying something like -
My work helps to capture and bring to life the rich history of an industry that has been the lifeblood of Scotland’s third city for half a century, employing hundreds of thousands of people and supporting multiple generations of families including my own in the north-east of Scotland and far beyond, contributing billions to the UK economy through boom, bust and back again
My project seeks to ensure that we preserve for future generations a record of the extraordinary technological innovations that allow us to install structures as tall as the Eiffel Tower in the midst of the North Sea capable of vertically extracting hydrocarbons buried deep underground that are then transported hundreds of miles to shore so that we can keep the lights on
My activities help people like me who have never been offshore to get a sense of what it’s like to spend 2 or 3 weeks at a time isolated from your homeland, working 12- to 14-hour days and sleeping in shared bunks on a structure made of (usually) steel legs and a collection of prefabricated modules, teeming with highly flammable chemical substances and battered by icy storm-size waves
… That sounded pretty good – I think I might use some of that again in future!
I’m also the Communications Officer for the IRMS. This is no accident – as you’ve probably guessed, I strongly believe that comms is a huge part of being a records manager, not least because of a constant need to shake off misconceptions and stereotypes of that job title; hence the title of this session.
It’s a mediocre-quality pun that I am now going to bring to life… with your help!
So what are those misconceptions – how are records management people seen by the rest of the business? What are some of the responses that you’ve come across or been on the receiving end of? Friends, colleagues, kindred spirits – let’s come together, here in Glasgow this morning, and consign those things to the archives!
Who’s feeling brave enough to shout something out?
Ask people for contributions, write them and put in the box (have some in reserve in case of silence!).
Possible gag – retention schedule for what gets put in the box i.e. an archivist would keep hold of it forever!
The point is – we need to change the assumptions and perceptions and impressions that people have about the records management profession.
But first let’s think about the context that we currently work in.
On the one hand
– increasing obligations – requirements to share data across departments or agencies
– increasing expectations by customers – making their experience seamless and effortless
On the other hand
– public sector especially but not only – ever greater resource constraints; “doing more with less”
In summary: 21stC Customers expect 21stC service (often at 20thC prices or tax rates)
Long-term efficiency requires short-term investment – onus is on us to make that business case
Third player in this game – often considered an additional burden (RM policies, FOI requests)
But alternatively a helpful framework… GDPR gets IM back on the boardroom agenda
Instructions and Incentive (GDPR) to do what we should be doing anyway!
The GDPR is a game-changer for businesses – and it can be for us too if we position ourselves correctly.
To do so, though, requires us all to think outside the box.
What box? That box!
The box that reveals all the misgivings that others have about records management.
And central to that is the way we express ourselves, the way we describe what we do, the way we reach out to other people – in summary, the way we communicate.
Ask people for hands up in response to the following questions:
Who in this room would describe themselves as a records manager or information manager, or has a job title that says something about information management, data protection, etc?
Who would like to think of themselves as a project management or change management person – maybe even an Agent of Change?
Who would consider themselves to be a PR, marketing or communications expert?
In truth, you need to be all three – especially if you’re self-employed, if you’re a consultant or trainer internally or externally, or just if you ever want or need to find a new job.
In each of those scenarios, you’re going to need to stay relevant, to keep up-to-date, and to be adaptable in order to succeed.
In my last job, I was responsible for information management for a local authority, working on things like file structures and retention policies, SharePoint implementation, information sharing between health and social care, master data management of customer details…
… All of which makes sense (I hope!) to most of you, but means little to many others, at least without an explanation of how that applies to and affects them. One particular senior manager I often encountered there would usually say, in response to some proposal or request: ‘so what?’
Eventually I realised I wasn’t the only one who got this riposte, and that it seemed to be this individual’s default response, but the phrase has stuck.
Compliance with the PR(S)A. So what?
Proper retention of information. So what?
Improved efficiency. So what?
The same could even be said of the GDPR. Even the increased fines will not always cut it as a reason to invest time, money and effort in getting information management right – especially if the threat is not seen as credible because your organisation has not fallen foul of existing rules.
So unless you can clearly articulate the meaning behind the various policies and regulations, they will not be understood and they will not be implemented. This is significant because much of the legislation doesn’t just require procedures to be in place, but also proof that they’re being followed.
How do you know if every Thomas, Richard or Harriet
in every office or depot – or at home – are doing what they should?
You can’t expect to know everything from HQ | You can’t be expected to visit everyone in person
* Build a Community
* Find the Right People
* Sell Them Your Message
* Give Them the Tools
* Share the Responsibility
They need to be the people…
… who get it; who care about it
… who have the capacity
… who have the influence
This requires a change of approach from the usual temptation of records managers to be in direct control –
We need to accept that this isn’t possible, especially with those rising expectations and declining resources I talked about earlier
So who are those people, those stakeholders, do we think – any ideas?
Ask people to shout out stakeholders (seeking the usual answers plus comms team, frontline supervisors, long-serving/popular individuals, etc)
You also want to be sure you’re pitching the right message at the right level to the right people – telling particular stakeholders the things they want to hear and need to hear. This is classic comms and change management advice, and it comes back to that question: ‘so what?’
So when addressing managers, they’re probably wondering…
But when it comes to administrative staff, they’ll be asking…
We need to be able to change the message, and change it again, and again, and again, so that it fits each of the different stakeholders we’ve listed, in turn
Someone once said to me that it’s all well and good if people
understand the issue at stake, and
can see the benefits of resolving it,
but it’s when you make them ‘feel the problem’ – live it, breathe it, express it –
and then bring them together to design the solution (to ‘own’ it)
that change happens.
It’s all about effective information – but what does that mean?
* Regular information – ignored if only once-in-a-blue-moon
--- consistent advice, logical series of messages – gets attention
* Targeted messages – make it relevant, make it matter
--- answer the question ‘so what?’ for each stakeholder group
* Benefits-focused – info management is not an end in itself
--- it must and does have a positive impact on the wider business
* Continuous support – not just shouting from the rooftops
--- be there to help people achieve the improvements you seek
* Approachable team – good working relationships
--- success depends on this; be positive, helpful and available
…and occasionally you might even get yourself on an internal comms video
And that brings me on to this; the idea is borrowed from elsewhere but the points are plotted as I see them.
We get so wrapped up in technology change –
- new ways to Communicate
- new ways to Collaborate
- new ways to Innovate
But how effective are each of these methods? Let’s plot some on this graph
Let’s start with email – where would you put that in terms of its speed and its interactivity?
Go through each method in turn, plotting them on the graph
Order – email, instant message, wikis & forums, phone, video chat, in person i.e. meetings, (reports)
So in my view, there’s still nothing quite like sitting round a table with people
Meetings get a bad press – all you need is an Agenda and Actions
The more you put in, the more you’ll get out
Direct correlation between –
--- face-to-face contact time
--- and speed of progress!
This takes time and effort…
… don’t waste that energy on reinventing the wheel
“If he maintained proper records he wouldn’t have to keep reinventing it!”
Awareness of what’s around you – in other words, ability to look beyond the confines of your own *box*
And especially being a member of the IRMS and attending Conferences like this one,
Means you can arm yourself with a whole range of tools and tips –
– and be among the first to know about changes that are coming, and changes you need to make
Help is at hand; standards are available (and I don’t mean the expensive BSI ones) –
Local Government Classification Scheme (now somewhat neglected but still useful),
Scottish Council on Archives Records Retention Schedules (not just applicable to Scotland),
NHS Records Management Code of Practice (whose creators are up for an award tonight),
Records Management Toolkit for Schools (now evolving to incorporate academies),
Using standards like these confers > Authority > Feasibility
“If it’s good enough for them…”
--- also saves ‘internal political capital’
--- change is unwelcome anyway, and ---
--- people will only listen to you for so long!
Make sure you save that time for the really important stuff
Also – a word about motivational tools:
- use examples from other teams - people will “want what they’ve got”
- celebrate successes (morale) - small steps, long process, big change
People won’t do simple IRM tasks unless they have a reason
No matter the benefits, IRM will never be the top priority
IRM people – don’t lament these facts of life!
--- accept them, work around them
--- build them into your approach
Give people a reason – even if it’s simply
“to help that lovely records manager”!
Build the relationships, the sense of mutual understanding
Be ready for the little word, the big question – ‘WHY?’
Time for questions…
Get in touch via LinkedIn and Twitter!
