The venn diagram that determines success in information and records management.

I teach a course in executive engagement for RIMPA global. I put it together because I'm a huge believer in the value that we can provide our organisations and I don't see that value being realised. There are a series of barriers to being able to realise it, but the first is the simplest - we just aren't getting funded the way we need to.

The venn diagram below expresses the core of the problem for us, and a large part of the course. There's work that represents a funding opportunity because it involves an outcome we can deliver, and an outcome an executive wants, then there's the other work.

Most of the failures to get funded in our industry come about because we focus on outcomes we can deliver, but that an executive doesn't want. Often we delude ourselves - we take an outcome that we can deliver, and that we think they want, and we take it to them. When it doesn't get funded, we take it as a 'not this time' instead of facing the hard truth - we took them something that we could deliver, but that they don't care about. If they cared about it, they would have funded it.

It's worth noting something too, part of the big trap I've seen people fall into, particularly in government, is the 'soft no'. The 'soft no' comes across as 'we'll see if there's funding later in the year'. Projects executives care about get funded early in the new financial year, the things they don't really care about get funded later. Sure, sometimes you can get money like this - you get nuisance money, and next year when you ask for more money, you're not going to be asking on the back of the virtuous cycle of having deliverd an outcome they care about, and wanting to deliver more outcomes they care about, you'll be asking on the back of having been given 'a lot of money' to go away, something you'll likely be reminded of.