Why we have to stop talking about records management as though it's crucial

There's an advantage in telling someone that they have to do something - that it's crucial.

If they believe you, they'll do it.

What happens though, when they call your bluff?

I'm sure your organisation has a file server - that's what happens.

Because it turns out that there aren't many things that we really MUST do - there are just the actions that we can take, and the gains and losses that they cause.

When you start talking about things like they are critical or crucial, and people can provide lots of evidence that they aren't (by surviving perfectly well without doing them) - you fall into the boy who cried wolf trap.

And the truth is, that we cry wolf all the time - which could be why we are currently being eaten by the wolf of no budget and the wolf of all the budget going to people with "data" in their titles.

I believe that the key to getting past the current crisis, is to recognise that records management isn't critical, or crucial, and to get in touch with what it really is, and what it can do for people - and to focus on delivering that pragmatically.

What Records Management is, is a way to solve a set of problems around how to have the right information in the right place at the right time and level of quality, and our ability to manage the ongoing costs of carrying that information - relative to the gains from carrying it.

There are other ways of solving those problems.

The decision not to solve them at all is also a perfectly rational decision - because the problem has a set of economics, but so does the solution.

When the solution to a 10c problem is to spend $10, not solving "the problem" is smart.

The point of all of this, is that most business managers are pragmatists.

Offer then a 10c solution to a $10 problem and they'll take it every time.

Tell them that a $10 solution to a 10c problem is crucial - and they'll make a point of providing evidence that we're wrong.