Making records management a collaborative discipline

To collaborate is to work on something together.

The only way records management works, is as a collaborative discipline.

To often though, we end up with half-hearted collaborators.

People who won't do what we need them to do, in order for us to be successful.

Typically, we try and solve this with authority, or with reminding people that they said they'd do things.

The thing about great collaborations though, is that they don't require coercive power.

They're made up of people working together on things that they believe are important.

In a great collaboration, there’s always a sense of everyone running quickly to catch up with everyone else - and when everyone feels that, it’s almost impossible to avoid producing work that everyone is proud of.

The way to get away from having half hearted collaborators in records management is relatively simple.

It's to work with people on things that they think are important.

It's strange having to say this when records is such a practical discipline.

For thousands of years, records tools and techniques helped people work beyond the capacity of their memories.

Most of the modern world is only possible because of records.

Information being recorded to help people organise their work, remember their children's birthdays, be in important places for moments that are important to them and the people they care about.

There is so much meaningful work that can be done with the way information is recorded, moved around and made accessible.

It can make a huge difference to people's lives and the work that they do.

If we can't find a way to deliver something that someone wants to collaborate on full-heartedly, there can only be two reasons that I can think of.

We're not really interested ourselves - and not trying.

We are the ones who have forgotten what records is for.