Organisational politics, records management and the new skills required to succeed
The written rules of the game go something like this - when an organisation employs you, it will -
1. Fully support you to do the job.
2. Follow your advice
3. Back you up with enforcement actions.
Meaning that as long as you know what you're doing, success is basically assured.
20 years ago, I think that we mostly worked in that world.
Everyone knew that paper at scale made things impossible to find if they weren't managed, and at some point the need for physical space compelled people to hand over their records.
In this world, technical proficiency was the main thing that made records either succeed or fail.
Now though, I think the rules have changed, and no one has written them down. Now, the unwritten rules go something like -
1. We all have stuff to do.
2. If you can't tell me why your stuff is important to my stuff, I won't do it.
3. The only way to make me do something I don't see as important is to get someone with more power to "convince" me.
Does technical proficiency seem like it's going to be the primary driver of success now that the rules have changed?
RM today is much more about soft or professional or interpersonal or whatever you choose to call them skills: project management, change management, communication, etc. As you note in 2., if as a records manager you can show me that RM directly contributes to making my job easier and more efficient, I'll listen. If you can't, no amount of "convincing" is going to work over time, as eventually those in the convincing position move on to something more meaningful. Lasting RM improvements have to be tied to business improvements, both day-to-day and longer term.
It seems to me, in my experience, that RM falls into two categories. 1. in "hard" RM like accounting, contracting, HR, etc where the RM process has been inculcated into the mindset and is not questioned and 2. in "soft" areas like sales, marketing, administration where RM is not "inculcated" into the mindset and probably never will be. RM in #2 is sketchy at best. I think your points above apply to the #2 group in a company.