Reflections on RIMPA SA/NT Panel on Executive Engagement

For those of you out of the ANZ Region, RIMPA is the Records and Information Management Professionals Association. I'm a committee member in South Australia and occasionally contribute sessions at our quarterly meetings.

Recently I had the real pleasure of running an executive engagement panel as a part of the yearly conference satellite event in Adelaide. I chose executive engagement because I believe it is one of the areas in which we as IRM professionals can significantly improve.

The panel consisted of -

• Deanna Fleming - Information Manager at the Department for Treasury and Finance South Australia.

• Rowan Dollar - Consulting Partner at the Public Sector Network and former CIO of multiple government departments.

• Dr Duncan Holt - CIO at Homestart - a South Australian government agency and former CIO at Return to Work South Australia.

I chose these three people because I consider them serial winners in information management and people from whom I have learned a great deal about executive engagement that has helped me - and I couldn’t think of any better way to help the community than by getting them together to share what they know and I am forever grateful to each of them for saying yes.

I have made a few points below for the time poor. For everyone else, you can watch the whole panel here -

Here are three of the points I think were common to each presenter -

1. Establishing the value of information is critical.

2. It is about picking winners. Some executives engage easier than others, and engagement does get easier when you have wins on the board.

3. The reasons any organisation moves will be unique to that organisation - you have to build the relationships and understand the priorities of your organisation so you can tailor your approach to it.

Two other things -

1. Towards the end, there's a great discussion about strategy and tactics.

2. At about the four hour mark (an hour into the panel), Anne Cornish (RIMPA CEO) asks a great question about how someone who may not be as forward a personality can insert themselves into the executive discussion.

I'd love your thoughts and comments, and if you have your own executive engagement stories to share, please do. I’d also love to run another panel in the future, so if this is a topic that you’ve struggled with and learned a lot about that you wouldn’t mind sharing in a similar format, I’d love to hear from you.