Bie and Metis, and why understanding them will help you develop a records strategy that has a chance of winning.

Bie and Metis are the concepts of brute force and cunning from greek antiquity (brute force and cunning don't quite capture it, but they're close enough).

If you've ever watched the movie Troy (or read the Iliad), you'll know Achilles (aka Brad Pitt) - and how he was Bie personified. For Achilles, there was one way to win - and that was to attack and overcome the target directly.

You'll also have encountered Odysseus (AKA Ulysses) - about as different from Achilles as it's possible to get while still being human. Odysseus is Metis personified - concerned only with being effective, he mostly achieves his ends through means that are indirect and psychological in nature.

What does this have to do with Records strategy?

Almost all records strategy is based on Bie - brute force.

We write a policy, we get someone with authority to sign it, and then we go off to implement it by telling people what to do based on the authority that we've allegedly been given.

The problem of Bie, is that brute force only works when you're the strongest, or your champion is the strongest - and is prepared to turn up and use their strength for you.

And we are never the strongest.

And our champions have a really lousy record of turning up and using their strength for us.

So the alternative? Metis.

Very little records strategy is based on Metis.

Which is strange - because records management doesn't produce any revenue in the companies it serves.

The value is always indirect - always based on the improvement it helps other people make to the work that they are doing.

So why not a less direct strategy?

One that's more Metis than Bie.

One that considers the limits to authority and its use, and that the gap between what authority can deliver, and what we need to be successful has to be bridged without authority.

A strategy based on creating desire for what we can deliver - instead of using authority to beat people into doing what we tell them.

Achilles was the most famous warrior of greek antiquity, he was brute force personified.

And his ashes are scattered on the beach at Troy.

Odysseus made it home.

We need more records strategy that gets home.

We have too many records strategies fighting authority battles and losing.