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Some love Mad Men, others love Robert Greene. Both are good.

Law 10: Avoid the unhappy and unlucky. My experience is people who believe they are lucky *are* lucky.  Luck is pandemic.  Let it be said of you as Melanie Hamilton says of Scarlett O’Hara: folks just naturally flock to her.  True, mentoring is not part of an official job description (although it should be).  Mentoring is an unexpressed benefit of your program.  You must decide what type of mentor you can be in your current environment. Some cultures are so frenetic that it’s hard to take on additional responsibilities—especially if the tenured employee has a proven track record of negativity. As mentor, you have the right to decline the applicant.  Your position will be understandable.  But is the mentee new? Don’t immediately distance yourself from the new employee at the first sign of trouble.  You know what that makes you.

Law 11: Learn to keep people dependent on you. Hoo--this one requires a strong ethical compass. You don’t have any negative intentions after all.  In a strange way, this is the very essence of the struggle for Records Management’s legitimacy in an active electronic records world. Once records cross that line into inactive storage their usefulness decreases exponentially (unless the line is muddied by ediscovery).  I’ve often wondered how much of our professional anxiety is a desire to be powerful?

Law 12: Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim. Remember the line from the original Hippocratic oath that implores a physician do no harm? I choose to interpret this mandate through rose-colored glasses.  The wording is wrong, anyway. “Disarm” can mean anything from de-activate to neutralize to charm.  Don’t think of it as disarming—it’s self-serving and bloody obvious.  Personally, I run in the opposite direction from anyone who grins toothily at me.

Law 13: When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude. True. Sorry.

Law 14: Pose as a friend, work as a spy.  “Spy” in what sense? You can be a friend (ally is a better word) and still work for Records’ interests. After all, everyone is a stakeholder in Records Management. Warning: I’ve found that if you advocate so much for records without regard for others’ functional responsibilities, then you run the terrible risk of the selfish label. Your peers won’t be able to separate you from Records—not always helpful in the long run. They must be able to disconnect the two.

Law 15: Crush your enemy totally.  I raise my eyebrows and say, “Oh good lord”. Your enemy doesn’t matter.  Your program matters. Your focus stays there.

Law 16: Use absence to increase respect and honor. This law was obviously written before the digital age. Been on vacation lately? Take your BBerry with you? Thought so.  Today, if you are on twitter or Yammer and you don’t post, your absence is noticeable. Indeed, if you don’t post often you are dropped.  The law should say, “Use knowledge, transparency and trust to increase respect and honor.” Now you’ve got something.

Law 17: Keep other in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability.  Tough to do in a project management-driven organization.  If you have that kind of energy, more power to you (excuse the pun). Sigh. The desire for power is very common.  For some, as with sugar, once they taste that sweetness, they’re hooked. They become addicts.   Moderation is the better part of valor. You’ll stay healthy.

Law 18: Do not build fortresses to protect yourself—isolation is dangerous.  True. Look what happens to most electronic records management solutions—only Records uses them.  This law doesn’t apply to you Records folks, though—you’re in marketing! Don’t wait to return those calls until after 5pm!

Law 19: Know who you’re dealing with—do not offend the wrong person.  TRUE. You never know who can help spread The Good News of Records and Information Management…it comes from the most extraordinary and unlikely places.