I realised at the end of 2020 that I’d written nearly 20,000 words about Records, Information Management and Information governance over about 100 posts, and that it was getting hard to go back through them, so here’s an index of sorts.
My views have evolved since the first post in October of 2019. I got inspired at the 2019 RIMPA conference and courtesy of in-flight wifi, registered the domain and wrote the first post. Since then I’ve learned a lot through this blog – first through having to organise my thoughts coherently, and then through the discussions that they’ve sparked with professionals in the field. It’s been wonderful, and I’ve learned a lot – so please leave comments, particularly if you disagree.
There are even more posts than this – you can find the rest at metairm.substack.com
137. October 17, 2021 – The connection between mental models and success in records management
136. October 13, 2021 – How many of our “information assets” are actually “information liabilities – and what does it do to our credibility if we confuse them?
135. October 12, 2021 – Language Matters – Putting records and high quality business outcomes back together.
134. October 10, 2021 – The Discipline vs. the role of records management and why we have to stop it crushing the profession.
133. August 5, 2021 – What Woolworths and project management can teach us about the iron rules of classification
132. August 4, 2021 – Where I think the next round of major improvements in records management effectiveness are going to come from
131. August 3, 2021 – When does records practice stop being proven, and how do we know?
130. August 2, 2021 – What it means to be a user in records management, and what it means for professionals to have users.
129. June 30, 2021 – Why we need to define records again (yes really, hear me out – it’s a coherent argument, I promise)
128. June 15, 2021 – How to set records strategy.
127. June 14, 2021 – The first thing a records team should invest in
126. May 26, 2021 – Quantifying the value that records management adds to the organisation
125. May 24, 2021 – The best records systems are built by…
124. April 9, 2021 – One question to ask if you need to understand why record quality matters.
123. April 7, 2021 – How to solve the money problem in records management.
122. March 31, 2021 – What stories do we need to tell about records?
121. March 29, 2021 – Service management of records to avoid questions about “why records is so expensive.”
120. March 26, 2021 – Why you have to be focused on record quality if you want a seat at the digital table.
119. March 24, 2021 – Where are the narratives in records management systems?
118. March 22, 2021 – Why you’ve got problems with information outside records systems (all records systems, not just EDRMS)
117. March 19, 2021 – Why doesn’t records charge back?
116. March 17, 2021 – Why do we talk about managing information as an asset when most of our information isn’t?
115. March 15, 2021 – What is actually important in records?
114. March 12, 2021 – Value producing elements of Records Management vs the costs.
113. March 10, 2021 – How useful is the evidence that we are keeping?
112. March 8, 2021 – Why do we bother with “compliance is mandatory?”
111. March 5, 2021 – A records strategy has to underpin your digital customer service strategy.
110. March 3, 2021 – Evidence Based Non-Custodial Records Management
109. March 1, 2021 – We can’t tell business units that they are the custodians of their records and then tell them that they’re not their records.
108. February 26, 2021 – How can records be a credible supplier of service if it doesn’t talk about its impact on organisational performance?
107. February 24, 2021 – The function that should be part of every records team
106. February 22, 2021 – The executive value of a records management program.
105. February 19, 2021 – The two places records management programs are most likely to fail
104. February 18, 2021 – The business value of electronic record destruction
103. February 15, 2021 – A lesson from Peter Drucker on why records are important
102. February 9, 2021 – Does your classification scheme describe or prescribe?
101. December 18, 2020 – How many of us in records and information management are dealing with our problems in isolation?
100. December 17, 2020 – What is the boundary between a records system and an information system?
99. December 16, 2020 – The shortest supply commodity in organisations where records hasn’t delivered – and what to do about it.
98. December 15, 2020 – What happens when people go to a records system with poor quality records.
97. December 14, 2020 – Why you don’t have enough people in your records team.
96. December 13, 2020 – Why records must be responsible for the quality of records, and what happens when we aren’t.
95. December 12, 2020 – The records project money that records doesn’t get because they “aren’t records job”
94. November 20, 2020 – The only two choices for organisations creating records
93. November 18, 2020 – DIKAR – The acronym that everyone in information and records management needs to know.
92. November 16, 2020 – The real problem with Robodebt was poor records management.
91. November 13, 2020 – Records management standards came from quality management – so why don’t we spend any time on quality management?
90. November 11, 2020 – The worst type of loyalty experience is one that can’t remember you – and it’s a records problem
89. November 9, 2020 – How to help an organisation understand that it has problems that records management can solve.
88. September 9, 2020 – The most important executive perception problem for Records.
87. August 26, 2020 – Those people complaining about the clunky records system – do they want it to be easier or better?
86. August 19, 2020 – 6 Questions to ask if your records system isn’t valued in your organisation.
85. August 14, 2020 – Records – are we storing for storage, or storing for usage?
84. August 12, 2020 – How much record hoarding and non-adherence is driven by loss aversion?
83. August 11, 2020 – One way to make the case for creeping problems in Records Management.
82. August 10, 2020 – Why Data is beating Records for investment, and how we can fix it.
81. July 31, 2020 – How are you keeping score in records?
80. July 29, 2020 – The one critical skill that will make or break your Records Program.
79. July 23, 2020 – How to explain to people in your business that Google.com isn’t really very good at the kind of search they want.
78. July 10, 2020 – Keeping our eye on the prize to make sure the Records profession survives
77. June 18, 2020 – The only way to win at digital records.
76. June 16, 2020 – How to get a records system into your agency that gets used.
75. June 10, 2020 – The questions records answers.
74. May 25, 2020 – The three places records can be, and the change we should be exploiting.
73. May 21, 2020 – Why you need to measure attitude to records in your organisation – before you measure compliance.
72. May 18, 2020 – Should we be abandoning records standards and systems to get better results in records?
71. May 14, 2020 – If the technology is in the way of records adoption, we need to change the technology.
70. May 12, 2020 – Would a move to mandatory destruction fix a lot of the problems with Records Management (and everything else)?
69. May 4, 2020 – How does mandatory metadata affect capture rates in records systems?
68. April 27, 2020 – How to think about records management if you don’t come from records.
67. April 23, 2020 – The fiction of sentencing on creation, and why the model is broken.
66. April 20, 2020 – The report missing from every records management system
65. April 17, 2020 – Do you have a plan for the most important part of Records?
64. April 16, 2020 – What every records system specification gets wrong.
63. April 15, 2020 – The foundation of every evidence based decision making program.
62. April 7, 2020 – Thinking strategically about records and being underestimated.
61. March 30, 2020 – Records – why aren’t we recording the future?
60. March 18, 2020 – The measurement a records system needs to be effective
59. March 17, 2020 – How to be serious about paperless office.
58. March 13, 2020 – How to find the record keeping advocates in your organisation (even if you think you have none).
57. March 12, 2020 – Do we make training too complicated in records? (And everywhere else)
56. March 11, 2020 – Your performance management framework is going to have to include records in a privacy focused world.
55. March 10, 2020 – The work stream we need in every records program to get records to where we all want it to be.
54. March 9, 2020 – Why your audit budget actually needs to go up when you automate compliance processes.
53. March 6, 2020 – The maintenance organisations forget
52. March 5, 2020 – How long does it take to make change in records?
51. March 4, 2020 – Will privacy law remove our ability to roll up retention periods and force classification and sentencing of every individual record?
50. March 3, 2020 – One way to avoid failing on records compliance enforcement.
49. March 2, 2020 – The missing link in most records programs that makes enforcement virtually impossible.
48. February 28, 2020 – The structured data records blindspot is biting us all through privacy legislation.
47. February 27, 2020 – How customer service portals fundamentally change the nature of record keeping.
46. February 26, 2020 – Why we fail at information management when we don’t get policy enforcement right.
45. February 25, 2020 – How to design a classification scheme that doesn’t fail.
44. February 24, 2020 – How to stop your records management system getting in the way of records management system uptake.
43. February 20, 2020 – Response times tell your users how important your Records system is.
42. February 19, 2020 – Why do we tolerate the fiction of “not enough time to keep records?”
41. February 18, 2020 – The legal trend that every organisation needs to pay attention to, and that a Records Manager can solve for you
40. February 17, 2020 – What use of the word “compliance” can tell you about maturity.
39. February 12, 2020 – Constraints on your Records, Information and Digital Strategy.
38. February 5, 2020 – How does the complexity of your information organisation affect your records program?
37. February 4, 2020 – How to get others in your organisation fighting for records.
36. February 3, 2020 – Why we get hung up on the EDRMS bill every year
35. January 31, 2020 – Why don’t records systems tell us what should be there, and what’s missing?
34. January 30, 2020 – Automation needs either structure or AI – and records can help.
33. January 29, 2020 – Why talking about customers in government and inside business is a mistake, and we need to do better.
32. January 28, 2020 – The ongoing values clash between Records and IT is our fault.
31. January 15, 2020 – Trading off accuracy and efficiency in records destroys the future productive capacity of your organisation.
30. January 14, 2020 – The impact of the de-professionalisation of record keeping and the failure of accountability.
29. December 12, 2019 – Why organisations that do records badly are going to have a terrible time with AI.
28. December 11, 2019 – Records are all that’s between your organisation and corruption and failure.
27. December 9, 2019 – What happens when you don’t lead records in your organisation.
26. December 4, 2019 – Why you need to audit automated compliance processes more often than manual ones.
25. December 2, 2019 – How to pass audit every single time, easily.
24. November 29, 2019 – The two types of Records Management project
23. November 28, 2019 – Records Managers – is your WICM worth it?
22. November 21, 2019 – Autoclassification – where it works, and where it doesn’t (seem to yet).
21. November 20, 2019 – The simple end user trade off in records management systems that users need to be reminded to appreciate
20. November 19, 2019 – The economics of Information Management and Records Management are different – so we should treat them differently.
19. November 18, 2019 – Does your organisation have a measure of “records debt?”
18. November 13, 2019 – Why customers get attention and record keeping doesn’t – and what you can learn about compliance from deterrence theory
17. November 11, 2019 – Why it’s important to have a shared definition of Records with your executive if you want to get funded.
16. November 11, 2019 – One reason records ends up “the dumping ground” – and how we can avoid it.
15. November 7, 2019 – What happens when Record Keeping and Management is under funded.
14. November 5, 2019 – Getting adoption – is training the wrong approach?
13. November 4, 2019 – Sentencing is the competency every organisation needs in a post-privacy legislation, breach reporting world.
12. November 3, 2019 – Records Managers – do you know how long a compliance inspection takes you?
11. October 31, 2019 – Great Records Management is largely about composition.
10. October 30, 2019 – Why are we ignoring the cheapest and most powerful tool in the record keeping by stealth arsenal?
9. October 29, 2019 – ”Record keeping by stealth”, and the two approaches to making it work.
8. October 28, 2019 – The actual problem that record keeping has to solve.
7. October 25, 2019 – Crazy idea to get 100% record adoption.
6. October 24, 2019 – The problem for the image of the Records Management profession is Information Management (and the internet).
5. October 23, 2019 – One clear sign that your records program isn’t working.
4. October 22, 2019 – The two ways to fail an audit, and how to avoid one of them.
3. October 21, 2019 – New research paper examining some considerations for switching official communication from paper to digital
2. October 19, 2019 – The relationship between records and compliance, and the risks of doing records badly.
1. October 15, 2019 – If you’ve got an audit problem, you’ve got a records problem
Information Governance 