Arma Canada Conference 2017 Why your IG Strategy is Failing - Keith Atteck

Presented by Keith Atteck
Atteck Consulting © 12017-05-29
ARMA Canada Conference 2017: Toronto, May 29 – Session M31

Keith Atteck, Principal Consultant
Atteck Consulting
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
 Keith Atteck is an experienced and results-driven Information Governance
(IG), and project management professional facilitator, mentor, and coach,
who provides IG, ECM and KM expertise and support to organizational
initiatives and projects. He helps companies achieve their goals and deliver
value by deploying efficient and effective information governance and
management strategies. His business and stakeholder analysis is guided by
outcome expectations that in turn drive tactics to support implementation
plans, policies and programs.
 ARMA Toronto Chapter – Board Member 2016-2017
 ARMA Toronto Chapter – Member of the Year 2011
 ARMA Canada Mentor – 2014 - 2017
Atteck Consulting ©
2
2017-05-29

Purpose
To provide a basic understanding of the nature of IG failures
and why an Information Governance (IG) Strategy is critical for
success.
Process
Presentation and discussion of key topics that prevent IG
Strategic success, followed by a process to initiate the strategy
development process.
Product
An audience better informed with respect to the impact poor IG
Strategy formation and what steps to take to turn it around
toward as successful IG Strategy.
3
2017-05-29

“The IG strategic plan must support the
achievement of the organization’s business
objectives, and therefore must be melded into
the organization’s overall strategic plan…...
goals, and business objectives”
Source: Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices, 2014
Robert, F Smallwood
2017-05-29Atteck Consulting ©
4

IG effort is truly a Change Management
effort, in that it aims to change the
structure, guidelines, and rules within
which employees operate.
The change must occur at the very core
of the organization’s culture.
Source: Information Governance: Concepts, Strategies, and Best Practices
Robert, F Smallwood
5

Critical Thinking and Strategy
Strategy: Are you a Strategist?
Visionary high-level strategic
planner for action designed
to achieve a specific goal.
Strategic planning
drives the required
tactics needed to
win or succeed.
Tactic: Are you a Tactician?
A tactic is a conceptual
action or plan implemented
as one or more specific
tasks.
Tactics are
selected or
designed to
support a strategy.
6

No Strategy is a Strategy!
An Uninformed Strategy!
Source: Strategy and Organization: Realizing Strategic Management, Loizos Heracleous, Cambridge University Press, 2003

The so-called “IG Strategic Plan” is nothing more
than a collection of budgets and vague directions
that do not provide clear guidelines for action.
Top ten reasons
why Your IG Strategy is
Failing!
8
2017-05-29

Limited Budgets and Vague Directions
 Are you fighting fires and
overwhelmed without control?
 Working from the bottom is hard
work, and does not get anywhere.
 Solving big problems with small
solutions is a Band-Aid.
 Colleting your pennies from
meager budgets is underfunding.
 Can’t muster enough energy to
get to the top.
9

Thinking Tactically Vs. Thinking Strategically
 Implementations of tactical solutions without cohesion to
a well developed and defined strategy tend to divert
resources, or do not achieve anticipated collective
results.
 Tactical thinking tends to lack the enterprise-wide scope to account for
all of the business needs of the organization, so saleability and
extensibility is problematic.
 Tactical thinking often leads to the acquisition of tools before
governance, which don’t have a clear focus on business objectives, or is
too focused as a point solution.
 Tactical thinking often does not lead to a complete Total Cost of
Ownership (TCO) accounting in the business case benefits realization
as other efforts may overlap or create gaps in coverage.
10

Thinking Strategically Vs. Thinking Tactically
 Information Governance (IG) is by its nature a strategic
management approach, so one must change the level of
your thinking.
 Think from the top. Bottoms up approaches to implementation efforts is
preformed by people without a good understanding of IG, are often
fragmented and misdirected, and collectively lacks a common and
cohesive strategic focus.
 Be clear about your vision, mission, values, goals and objectives. It is
difficult to obtain senior management support for efforts that do not
clearly support the organizations strategic objectives and goals.
 Understand the breadth and depth of your organization. It is hard to
have a conversation with senior management and convince them of the
benefits of the value of IG without strategic objectives that they support.
11

The IG Strategy does not correspond to market
realities because it has been developed by
strategic planners with little or no understanding of
information management and with no grass roots
input.
Top ten reasons
Failing!
12
2017-05-29

Reality Check – Alternate Reality
 The blind leading the blind.
 Can’t see the wood from the
trees.
 The grass is greener on the
other side.
 Trying to drive a square peg in
a round hole.
 We never asked for directions.
13

Lack of Organization-wide Environmental
Scanning
 Partial analysis of the organization does not provide you
with sufficient understanding of the grass roots issues
that collectively comprise the overall real world
environmental condition of our organization.
 Trying to develop a strategy without sufficient understanding of the
organizational context lacks the awareness of realities, adverse
conditions, hidden assumptions, and business risks.
 Each level of management could challenge your strategy with issues that
may have not been considered, or dealt with sufficiently, to have an
effective response.
 Lack of inclusion of other departments or workgroups business
requirements and needs limits your ability to obtain broader buy in to your
efforts.
14

Lack of Strategic Review and Realignment
 Strategy formation was a one shot, and not been
reviewed periodically and updated to current market
realities.
 The business environment is evolving very fast and challenged by so
many events and interrelationships that will challenge your strategy.
 The best laid tactical plans are challenged by the heat of battle with new
and unanticipated events challenging or derailing efforts, and without
strategy to guide the effort, ones efforts can easily be derailed.
 Periodic reviews are necessary to reaffirm the strategy and to review the
assumptions and risks to ensure that it still has integrity and is aligned
with the current organizational objectives.
15

The IG Strategy does not enjoy support from and
commitment by the majority of employees and
middle management because they do not feel
consulted in the development of the strategy.
Top ten reasons
Failing!
16
2017-05-29

Lack of Commitment
 You didn’t ask me, and I don’t
agree to this.
 What you are proposing does not
align with our ways of working.
 OK, but we can’t provide our
resources at this time.
 OR, we need our resources back
to do more pressing work.
 We’re too busy. Come back a
see me next month, we might
have time then.
17

Lack of Broad Stakeholder Engagement
 Insufficient participation of a broad cross-section of the
organization to be sufficiently inclusive and allow
stakeholders to take ownership of the strategy execution.
 Without a comprehensive understanding of the organizational strategies
and objectives one can select the wrong sponsor or not have enough of
the right change agents embedded in the business.
 The sponsor may not be fully aware of the organization-wide issues and
may not be able to obtain sufficiently broad committed to the effort.
 The lack of broad participation may lead to missing critical stakeholder
targets who feel left out and are not supportive.
18

Lack of Broad Stakeholder Engagement
 Insufficient participation of a broad cross-section of the
organization may result in ineffective communications
and management of change efforts.
 Your planning does not have enough inclusion of requirements and one
can’t effectively tailor communications to suit the various stakeholders in
a way that speaks directly to them.
 Your communications can backfire and reduce your stakeholder support
as it might conflict or undermine their strategic objectives.
 Missing stakeholders may fell that the messaging and communications
are not intended for them addressing their needs, or conflict with their
views.
19

Middle management does not think the IG Strategy
is the right one, or does not feel it has the requisite
skills to implement it, so they subvert or sabotage
the implementation.
Top ten reasons
Failing!
20
2017-05-29

Middle Management
 Why are we doing this?
 I just can’t agree with you.
 I just don’t have the time for
you.
 I don’t have the resources
available for you.
 We have our act together
and don’t need your help.
21

Lack of Middle Management Support
 Lack of inclusion of middle management may not account
for the alignment with their organizational objectives and
operational targets.
 This leads to a misalignment of objectives with critical stakeholder agents,
often leads to uncommitted agents that may not support your strategic
objectives, and they may not put sufficient effort in support of your tactical
elements.
 Because of their lack of inclusion these stakeholders often have not
prepared resources or do not have the skilled resources you need, and
become incapable agents.
 This results in resistant targets.
22

Insufficient top management time is spent on
communicating about, selling the new IG Strategic
direction, and managing the organizational
changes involved.
Top ten reasons
Failing!
23
2017-05-29

Lack of Commitment
 The message just can’t get out.
 It’s not my job.
 My boss told me to go the other
way.
 I did not sign up for this.
 What’s in it for me?
 I don’t have time for this.
24

Lack of Senior Management Involvement
 Lack of senior management communicating your IG key
strategic messages creates a gap or vacuum that others
can use against you.
 Without senior managements engagement in the communications
and change management strategy limits the power and potential
of your effort.
 Your message will not reach the intended targets and have the
impact required to drive cultural change.
 Resulting in potential resistance to change where managers
consider your message interferes with their objectives.
25

Lack of Senior Management Involvement
 Managing organizational changes that impacts the
culture of the organization needs demonstrated senior
management involvement even at the tactical and
operational level.
 Leading by example is the best way to motivate your organization
to undertake cultural and operational change.
 It is much easier to communicate the need for change from
leaders that lead not just in words but lead by their actions.
 Strategy implementation can’t be demonstrate by senior
management without visible participation in the change efforts.
26

No provision is made for developing the new skills
and competencies required by the employees
successfully to make the transition and operate
within the new IG strategic direction.
Top ten reasons
Failing!
27
2017-05-29

Lack of Skills
 How do I do this?
 This thing just can’t do
the job.
 Where are my crutches.
 Old habits die hard.
 I knew how to do it in the
old system.
28

Lack of New Skills Training
 Management of change efforts need to be informed by a
thorough analysis of the current state and a clear vision
of the future state.
 Implementing the tools of information management requires employees to
learn new skills and change their habits.
 Employee training requires instructional design methods based on
defined Use Cases and Personas to help identify the competencies and
skills required at all levels and job types to develop an effective training
program.
 Learning styles and available delivery methods for all types employees
must be a consideration in instructional design that must be part of the
business analysis.
29

No provision is made for instituting the appropriate
organizational systems for the supporting,
sustaining, motivating and rewarding people in
accordance with the new IG Strategy.
Top ten reasons
Failing!
30
2017-05-29

The Carrot and the Stick
 How do we motivate them?
 Who’s policy do we follow?
 Who makes the rules around
here?
 What is our policy for this?
 I can’t figure out how they do it.
 Giddy Up!
31

Lack of Supportive Incentives
 Organizational change can’t be based solely on the
“stick”, it needs “carrots” too.
 Organizational inertia prevents changes from getting started without a
leaver or power source to initiate movement from intractable states and
sustain actions with sufficient momentum to accelerate to escape velocity.
 Organizational policies need to be implemented and integrated into a
cohesive framework to effectively institute a culture of compliance.
 The change plan must also integrate management and employee
incentives to empower the process of cultural and habitual changes.
 Employees must be held accountable for their decisions and actions,
where good behavior is rewarded and poor or unacceptable behavior is
treated seriously and consistently.
32

No provision is made for creating a close fit or
coherence between the business-level IG Strategy
and the various functional-level strategies that can
operationalize it.
Top ten reasons
Failing!
33
2017-05-29

Coherency of effort
 Go Left – Go Right.
 These messages are
confusing.
 Why are we spinning our
wheels?
 We are working against each
other.
 Its like trying to go up river
without a paddle.
34

Lack of Alignment to Organizational Objectives
 One must align your IG efforts with other organizational
strategies and objectives and cascade this alignment
from the top to the bottom of the organization.
 Not having a vision that is inclusivity will limit your ability to scale and
extend your IG program to all aspects of your organization.
 Your efforts may be working against other efforts that already underway
that may undermine your strategic objectives and scuttle your effort to
fully operationalize your strategy.
 IG failures do not appear until some time has passed and this makes it
hard to predict or sell your message when you need key stakeholders to
move on and support your efforts.
35

There are factions in the organization which disagree
with the IG Strategy because, if implemented, it would
reduce their power and influence, so they sabotage it
by deliberate actions or inactions.
Top ten reasons
Failing!
36
2017-05-29

Factional Disagreement
 We did not sign on to this.
 This is a loose-loose situation.
 There is no winning here.
 Count me out.
 We just don’t have the time for
this.
 That’s not what I agreed to.
37

Subversive Actions by Others
 At times stakeholders may feel threatened and become
malicious influencers, working against your efforts.
 Organizational power structures and struggles are a part of the
reality that must be understood in order to develop strategies for
success.
 It takes effort to bring all the required stakeholders onto your side
of the table and have them interact in a way that keeps them there
throughout the journey.
 Negotiation is a part of management of change efforts and
understanding the power of leadership and influence will be the
key to your success.
38

No attempt is made to analyze the culture of the
organization and identify aspects which would be
barriers and facilitators to change and manage
change accordingly.
Top ten reasons
Failing!
39
2017-05-29

Culture Shock
 That’s not how we do it
around here.
 That is just to hard to take.
 Slow down, we just can’t
keep up.
 Don’t make us look bad.
 We just can’t do that.
 What?
40

Insufficient Management of Change
 Underestimating the effort required to implement your
strategy undermines your chances of success.
 Remember it’s not about technology, It’s about people! Technology is just
the enabler. Unfortunately in todays world, without the enabler we can’t
succeed.
 Without sufficient management of change efforts you will not have the
intellectual tools necessary to dislodge intractable employees and
overcome adverse situations that could easily have been accounted for.
 Trying to devise and implement unplanned last minute management of
change efforts cost three to five times more than if it was devised early as
part of a comprehensive effort, and won’t have the same impact.
41

Insufficient Management of Change
 It is easier to implement new processes and systems in a
Blue Ocean than a Red Ocean.
 Most IG implementations are done in a Red Ocean business environment
that has been through many change efforts in the past, and many have
failed, leaving a bad impression.
 It is easier to draw people to the Blue Ocean who want to go there on
their own, than it is to drag them kicking and screaming through a Red
Ocean and try to make it blue.
 If you can’t engage your stakeholders in a realistic vision, and have them
help you build it, then you will not have the buy in and energetic
momentum necessary to change the paradigm.
42

How do we change the paradigm to a
Winning Strategy?
1. Participate in organization wide initiatives.
2. Gain a better understanding of IG.
3. Start collecting organizational information.
4. Start the conversation with key managers.
5. Identify potential sponsors and influencers.
6. Target messaging on IG to stakeholders.
7. Organize meetings on IG with stakeholders.
8. Initiate a IG strategic planning workshop.
9. Initiate your project planning efforts.
44

Strategy Planning Workshop
 A facilitated strategic planning workshop can assist your organization
in addressing the issues raised in this presentation and build a
“Winning IG Strategy”.
 This strategy is used to guide your organization or department as it
plans to initiate new IG programs and systems, or upgrade your
current information management practices, systems and tools, or
plan to improve your overall program maturity.
 Use the power of a strategic thinking to provide you with all of the
tools necessary to support your initiative or project.
45

Outline Description Stakeholders
Part 1
Setting the
Workshop Context
and IG Primer
Setting the Context and
understanding what is
required for
Information Governance.
Key stakeholders from RIM, IT, senior management,
including the sponsor, and LOB operations that need
a solid common grounding in IG and RIM principles,
frameworks and models to develop a winning
strategy, before undertaking Parts 2 - 5.
Part 2
What are we trying
to accomplish, and
why?
Develop your strategic
thinking skills and frame
the key questions of
‘What?’ & ‘Why?’.
Key stakeholders, identified in Part 1 above, who
must contribute to a common vision, mission, and
objectives in order to lead your strategy
development.
Part 3
How will we
measure success?
Develop the Key Success
Measures & internal
controls framework.
Key stakeholders identified, in Parts 1 and 2 above,
who must contribute to the objectives, measures of
success and verification of the development of your
strategy.
Part 4
What other
conditions must
exist?
Tease out your winning
conditions, and
understand and frame the
risks.
Key stakeholders identified above, in Parts 1, 2, and
3 plus stakeholders who understand the existing
business environment to frame the strategy, and
participate in the identification of business risks that
play a role in your strategy development.
Part 5
How do we get
there?
Develop your initial high-
level project plan.
Key stakeholders as above, in Parts 1 to 4 and
additionally those stakeholders who are
knowledgeable of the supporting and driving program
development, technology acquisition and overall
implementation planning.
46

Develop Your Strategy Framework
Objectives Success Measures Verification Assumptions +
Goal
Then
and
Purpose
If
Then
and
Outcomes
If
Then
and
Inputs
If
Strategy Internal Controls Risks -KPIs
TacticalPerspectiveStrategicPerspective
47

Strategic Framework supports…
 Stakeholder Engagement Strategy
 Major Outcomes and Key Deliverables
 Risk Management Strategy
 Key Success Factors and KPI Strategy
 The Business Case
 The Project Charter and Execution Plan
 Internal Controls Strategy
 The Operational Readiness Plan
 Management of Change Strategy
 Communications Strategy
48

Who can benefit from this?
 You have a initiative or project and need a winning strategy.
 Need to bring stakeholders together to build a common strategy.
 You are in a new job or role as a Records Manager and need a strategy.
 The business environment has changed & your old strategy simply does not work.
 Your program or project is failing due to the lack of a strategy and needs rescuing.
 You need to refresh your existing paper-based records management program.
 You need an imaging program, an ECM system, SharePoint, a digital archiving
system, an e-mail archiving solution, and do not know where to start.
 IT has an initiative and needs IG and RIM to give the system the structure and
business rules it needs to build for a sustainable and viable implementation.
49

Keith Atteck
Atteck Consulting
katteck@icloud.com
1.416.428.0674

Arma Canada Conference 2017 Why your IG Strategy is Failing - Keith Atteck

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Arma Canada Conference 2017 Why your IG Strategy is Failing - Keith Atteck

Similar to Arma Canada Conference 2017 Why your IG Strategy is Failing - Keith Atteck (20)

More from Keith Atteck C.Tech. ERMm

More from Keith Atteck C.Tech. ERMm (7)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (19)

Arma Canada Conference 2017 Why your IG Strategy is Failing - Keith Atteck