An assumption underpinning records management that we can re-examine to get more funding.

The assumption is simple - we assume that if we have a record of something, it will get used.

So we spend our time on capture and assume that our job is done once capture has been achieved.

The reality, is that a record that doesn't get used might as well not exist, it's a cost - it's waste.

The question I think we should always be asking, is how easy have we made it to use the records being created?

What are the most likely things that people are going to need to use them for?

How have we made it faster for people to find them? (without impacting on capture)

The reality of any information use, is that there's a speed component.

If it's fast and easy, and people know they can do it - they're likely to do it.

If it's slow and challenging, people are unlikely to try and find it - or it's going to have to be extremely important before they do.

This highlights the unfortunate reality of lots of decision-making - that it gets done without considering information that an organisation already has, because the way that the information has been recorded doesn't lend itself to easy recall at the time it's needed.

The simplest examples of this are cross-sectional.

So many important management decisions can be improved with simple cross sectional information.

But the cross-sectional information is buried in free text fields or documents - leaving no way of extracting it easily.

So it doesn't get used.

Which is awful - because we have the reocrd we need - we just haven't made it easy enough to access, so capture was a waste, for everyone.

I think if we all showed up for work every day, and thought about one way we could make it easier and faster to get access to information managers need on a routine basis, we'd have a line up to our door of people wanting our help - and happy to fund our work.

We just need to rethink that one little assumption.