Before you start promoting and advocating for records management, you need to define your goals and your audience. What are you trying to achieve? Who are you trying to influence or persuade? How do they perceive records management? What are their needs, expectations, and pain points? How do you measure your success? By answering these questions, you can tailor your message and approach to suit your specific context and purpose.
I agree with Villy but want to add in that you need to push your story out and not wait to be asked. As a practitioner I was always one to involve myself in meetings and opportunities that may not always been readily available to me. If I knew something was happening, I made sure I was invited and then let the stories roll. My other piece of advice which is again similar to Villy is to tell your story using terminology that is meaningful to your audience. If you use acronyms and jargon, you will lose any interest you have. A good example of this is I always gained attention when I explained classification of records like sorting your knives, forks and spoons in the kitchen drawer. This example easily resonates with the majority of people.
I use the analogy of plumbing. Most people give little consideration to it, until it stops functioning, then it's the most important thing in your life! No point in investing in a fancy toilet, or designer taps, if the underlying pipelines don't work or are leaky. It requires specialists to design and install, it's not a great idea to have a go at it yourself as an amateur. Also, it's not cheap to install during the building of your house foundations or superstructure, but incredibly expensive and disruptive to retro-fit once you are living in it.
For Records Management always endeavor to tell it like a story. As a matter of fact everyone in an organization or at a personal level handles Records (create, manage or keep) Make it relatable to them in every day practice and they will begin to find value in Records Management. I am reminded of an incident where you loose your passport for Travel for example. What effect can it have on your trip. If it is torn or tattered who will believe it as a credible document. Just make Records Management relatable and you will be home and dry with that conversation!
Keep it simple. You don't really have to go thru all the hoops to id your audience. Your goal is to provide one place for documents for every department.
Launching a records management initiative taught me that success hinges on clarity. By defining our objectives—whether it’s compliance, efficiency, or risk reduction—we could tailor our message. Understanding our audience—executives, employees, or IT—allowed us to address their pain points and expectations. Metrics like adoption rates and reduced audit findings helped measure our impact.
Oh, that's easy. Just show them what their company will look like without records management. It also helps to mention lawsuits, audits, and money.
Goals: Define what you want to achieve. Are you aiming to improve compliance, streamline processes, or enhance data security? Audience: Understand who you’re addressing. Is it executives, employees, or external stakeholders? Tailor your message accordingly. Perception: Assess how your audience views records management. Are they aware of its importance, or do they see it as a burden? Needs and Pain Points: Identify their pain points. Are they struggling with document retrieval, legal requirements, or data sprawl? Success Metrics: Determine how you’ll measure success. Is it through reduced audit findings, increased efficiency, or user satisfaction?
Le Record management est un moyen plus efficace de rendre pérenne et en toute sécurité la détention des documents d'une structure, garantissant ainsi la mémoire et/ou l'histoire d'une organisation.
Ensure your records program has open and honest communication that emhasizes transparency. Let people know what you are working on, what the priorities of the program are, and what the time lines for those initiatives are. The best way to obtain buy in is by taking advantage of the relationships you've built and the trust you've gathered.
One of the common barriers to promoting and advocating for records management is the lack of clear and consistent language. Records management is a broad and complex field that encompasses various concepts, standards, processes, and tools. However, not everyone is familiar with the terminology or the implications of records management. Therefore, you need to use simple, plain, and jargon-free language that your audience can understand and relate to. You also need to use consistent terms and definitions across your communication channels and materials to avoid confusion and ambiguity.
This statement is much ado about nothing. It gets so far into the weeds you can't see what you are trying to accomplish. If you want to spin your wheels and waste time go right ahead with this step. The only thing you need to do is develop a good naming convention.
Average college grad reads like a 13 year old. You heard that right. They "can" read at college level. But most won't. Unless it interests them. Or is critical for their job. This is why your sentences should be short. Your words easy. And your text broken into tiny pieces. Just like the style in here. On a serious note: Most of your senior leaders (the people you need to convince) won't be curious about records. It also won't be their biggest priority. If you want them to invest in records, you need to educate them first. If they don't read any of your emails because they are too long and complicated, they won't be educated. So, Keep It Simple and Short
Certainly! Here are some key actions for promoting and advocating for records management: Define Goals and Audience: Clarify your objectives and identify your target audience. Understand their needs and expectations. Use Clear Language: Avoid jargon and complex terms. Communicate in plain language that resonates with your audience. Consistent Messaging: Ensure consistent definitions and terminology across communication channels to prevent confusion. Remember, effective records management benefits everyone! 🌟
Focus on standardization... Either through ISO standards or through an organization like ARMA for example. Both provide consistency across the industry. Ensure that you consider the audience for any level of communication. You don't want people becoming lost in the role or job specific jargon.
If you're discussing training or education you must always use consistent and clear language. If you don't it will become confusing if you refer to a retention schedule as a records schedule. Even though we know it means the same thing colleagues that we are training might not.
In promoting records management, I encountered the challenge of communicating its complexities to a diverse audience. The field's broad scope, filled with specialized terminology, often led to misunderstandings. To address this, I adopted clear and consistent language. I simplified jargon into plain terms, ensuring everyone could grasp essential concepts, regardless of their familiarity with the subject. Consistency in terms and definitions across all communication channels was key to avoiding confusion. This approach not only made records management more accessible but also fostered greater engagement and understanding, ultimately advancing our goals effectively.
Another way to promote and advocate for records management is to demonstrate the value and impact of records management on your organization and its stakeholders. You can do this by providing concrete examples, stories, case studies, or testimonials that show how records management supports your organization's goals, objectives, strategies, and operations. You can also highlight the risks and costs of poor or inadequate records management, such as legal liabilities, compliance issues, operational inefficiencies, reputational damage, or loss of information. By showing the tangible benefits and consequences of records management, you can appeal to your audience's emotions, interests, and motivations.
Director, Data Management | Group Chief Data Office | Standard Chartered Bank
Sound record management practices backed by an Enterprise Standard is essential to meet Legal / Regulatory / Client / Management / Operational needs of the organization. It's simply a part of how efficiently the organization is run. In today's scenario, with the burst of digital platforms & systems, there's just too much data an organization holds and most of the time without knowing the purpose or for how long to hold the data. Apart from the above mentioned drivers, well executed record management practices can help the organization save a good amount of $s from being wasted on storage and support costs.
Records management programs are a fundamental component of any organization's information governance strategy. They help in managing records from creation, through active use, to secure destruction, in compliance with legal and organizational requirements. Involving IT in the development and implementation of these programs is crucial because they are key stakeholders in ensuring the technical feasibility and security of the systems. Records management programs often involve digital storage and retrieval systems, which are areas where IT professionals have significant expertise.
60% of your data is ROT. Yet it still costs you $1200/TB every year. Up to $3600/TB/year on the cloud. This doesn't even include the risk of ROT. Everyone is trying to cut costs. People are worried about recession. So, convince your teams to cut the obvious cost. Cost of ROT. With Records Management.
To demonstrate the value of Information governance/Records management show how it can help with the goals of the organization and the individual departments/business lines. Also tie it into the values of the business.
The value relies on gathering and organizing the institutional memory. Each institution member contributes at different levels and in various ways; this richness of content should be kept as a legacy for the next generations. This simple principle guarantees knowledge management progress so that future institutional challenges can be overcome gracefully. Each contribution must be treasured (lessons learned and best practices) because it may/will save time and money. The maturity of any institution can be measured by the quantity and quality of its records management. The stakeholder engagement must begin with the following questions: Are you ready to contribute? Let’s start!
To promote records management, I focused on demonstrating its value and impact. I provided concrete examples and case studies showing how records management supports our organization's goals. For instance, I highlighted a case where proper records management saved us from a costly legal issue by ensuring timely access to critical documents. I also shared testimonials from departments that experienced improved efficiency and compliance. Additionally, I outlined the risks of poor records management, such as legal liabilities and reputational damage. By showcasing these tangible benefits and consequences, I effectively appealed to our audience's emotions, interests, and motivations, garnering strong support for our initiatives.
Promoting and advocating for records management is not a one-way communication. You need to engage and educate your audience to foster awareness, understanding, and appreciation of records management. You can do this by creating and sharing relevant, useful, and engaging content that informs, educates, or entertains your audience about records management. You can also use various formats and channels, such as blogs, newsletters, podcasts, webinars, videos, infographics, or social media, to reach your audience and spark their curiosity. Moreover, you can invite feedback, questions, suggestions, or opinions from your audience to create a dialogue and build trust and rapport.
You don't have to do it all. LinkedIn has a ton of great content on records management. So does ARMA. Use both sources to your advantage. Find the content you like, that require no knowledge, and are easy to understand. Then send it to your audience based on their interests.
Engaging and educating the audience on records management requires interactive communication. I created relevant and engaging content like blogs, newsletters, and infographics to inform and entertain our audience. Utilizing diverse formats and channels, including podcasts, webinars, and social media, helped us reach a wider audience and spark curiosity. Additionally, I invited feedback, questions, and suggestions to create a dialogue, fostering trust and rapport. This two-way interaction not only increased awareness and understanding of records management but also cultivated a community that appreciated and supported our records management initiatives.
Basically all you need to demonstrate is the loss of one document. What was it, where was it, where should it have been, why was it lost, who was responsible. Doesn't take a rocket scientist
Share the success and fumbles of your Records Management Program. Allow constructive feedback and improvement to be a cornerstone of your program. Be open to the user experience and the value that relationships and trust means to your program.
Listen to your users. Hear what their pain points are when it comes to records. How can you help will go along way in educating them.
Finally, promoting and advocating for records management is not a solo effort. You need to collaborate and network with others who share your vision and passion for records management. You can do this by joining or creating professional associations, communities of practice, working groups, or committees that focus on records management issues and initiatives. You can also participate in events, conferences, workshops, or forums that provide opportunities to learn from experts, peers, or practitioners in the field of records management. By collaborating and networking with others, you can leverage their knowledge, experience, influence, or resources to amplify your message and reach a wider audience.
Talking to others helps you know that you are not alone in the records work. Networking with others helps you find possible solutions that you might not have thought of.
Don't think this is really necessary. Collaborate is giid but doing your own research is better first, then you can do a proper comparison before getting others opinions.
Take advantage of resources out there. Like ISO, ICRM, ARMA, and etc. Many of those type of organizations offer professional forums and education sessions and courses. No need to travel alone on your programs journey. Besides you'll need to gain trust and build relationships with those around you to effectively accomplish your goals and objectives.
If securing funding presents a challenge, consider identifying overlap with existing well-funded initiatives, such as cybersecurity. Many records management tools inherently possess security features. By aligning records management with cybersecurity objectives, you may unlock additional financial support and increase your chances for investment in a records management tool.
Always have the end user in mind - and make it as simple easy and intuitive as possible for them to do what they need to do and incorporate into their ways of working as much as possible
Records Management is just crucial if we consider and keep in mind the following: 1. Can lead to cost savings by reducing storage space, minimizing retrieval time, and ensuring regulatory compliance, thus avoiding potential fines or lawsuits. 2. Proper records management protects sensitive information and supports data privacy and security measures, assuring stakeholders of data protection (compliance with industry regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, and others). Applicable also in safeguarding intellectual property, proprietary information, and trade secrets. 3. Ensures business continuity and disaster recovery by maintaining critical documentation and data for recovery efforts in case of natural disasters or cyberattacks.
Make your program and what you are doing is open and accessible for others. Let people know what you are working on and how it may impact them. Communication and relationships are absolutely necessary for adoption and effectiveness of your program.