Almost no one ever talks about the single most important question in records. "What should we record?" We leave this to people for whom that question is critical - if they record the wrong thing, or don't record something, their job is made harder. But they're not records experts.
But Records Managers (and IT) need to stop advising people to 'keep everything' (Records Managers because 'it's all records' and IT because 'the system can store unlimited data and sort it all out for you).
Perhaps if we started suggesting to them 'do you really need to keep absolutely everything?' we can get in on their process design and help solve 'their' problems as well as 'ours'.
To do that, Records Managers need to be proactive in engaging with business teams, and not wait until business teams come to them with requests to 'archive inactive records'.
Absolutely.
But Records Managers (and IT) need to stop advising people to 'keep everything' (Records Managers because 'it's all records' and IT because 'the system can store unlimited data and sort it all out for you).
Perhaps if we started suggesting to them 'do you really need to keep absolutely everything?' we can get in on their process design and help solve 'their' problems as well as 'ours'.
To do that, Records Managers need to be proactive in engaging with business teams, and not wait until business teams come to them with requests to 'archive inactive records'.