Being an Information Manager...

How to start dealing with the key problems

Practicing Information Management is a bit like trying to mop up water from the floor while the tap is running. More information will be created in the next ten years than has been created in human history before today and therefore pro-actively solving problems today is key to avoid even bigger ones tomorrow. But the issue is that you can start everywhere and where ever you start the information keeps on flowing in.

The risk assessment is already a way of finding the priorities (only if you think there will be fire you will buy a fire extinguisher), but apart from knowing the risks you need to have a clear Champion in place first before you can even try making a start. The Champion needs to be a pretty senior figure who is there to make things happen for you. As said before - a large part of IM is about changing behaviours - and this cannot be done without high level support. If the person signing your staff report at the end of the year is also pretty keen on getting basic issues with information sorted, then it is more likely IM will get attention (and money!)

This also brings me to the second point: IM elements need to be clearly stated in tasks and targets of all staff - especially if it is measurable then this can make an impact. It is important to describe the responsibilities w.r.t. data and documents and then make it possible to check if people actually met their targets (e.g. a contract is not closed out if the related documents have not been uploaded in the document management system, etc.)

In some cases it also helps to centralise roles into full time jobs. If handling data or documents is 5% of everybody's time, then it is very likely things go wrong. If 19 people have one IM person do the 'chores' for them, then they become more efficient, the IM person is more focused on getting the information sorted and at the end of the day he/she can be an ambassador for IM in the business process.

These things are all low tech, but vital to get to a higher maturity in IM processes in the organisation. And don't forget that only when these things are in place it can be useful to look into technology solutions, else don't even try.

Labels: behaviour, Information Management

posted by Evert Ruijs @ 8:48 AM