Creating reasons to sustain a records management capability

Ultimately there is only one reason to continue sustaining anything.

It pays for itself.

If we can't draw a straight line between the work that we do, and how that work pays for us, we won't be sustained.

This is true of all management disciplines.

The expectation in hiring any manager is that performance improves relative to the same thing being unmanaged.

Ultimately, we have to be able to tell our organisations how we improved performance relative to having something be either unmanaged, or managed by amateurs.

This means we need a results oriented way of thinking about practice.

I'm backing the DIKAR model.

Data

Information

Knowledge

Actions

Results

Each item leads directly to the one after it in the list - and most importantly, constrains the quality of what can be achieved by everything after it.

Information constrains results.

Offer up low quality information, you'll get low quality results.

The model is also flexible enough to talk about lots of characteristics.

If your information is 4 hours away - the fastest time you can achieve a result is 4 hours.

If your information is in storage and it costs you $80 to get it back and process it - the cheapest price you can possibly achieve a result for is not $80.

If your information only provides enough certainty to make the right decision half the time.

These are aspects of information quality - how long it takes to get it, how much it costs, how good the decisions you can make using it.

The main point is that establishing how your information quality constrains your results is the first step to having your organisation take information quality seriously.

Establishing records management as the part of the organisation that can systematically understand these factors, explain them to management, and improve them is the core of giving your organisation the reasons it needs to sustain records management.

It starts with the right models - I'm backing DIKAR, and you'll see it a lot more often on this blog.

What model do you use?