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How do you engage business users and help them understand the value of records management?

This is a tough one. Carrot or stick? Compliance is not a business driver per se and does not normally resonate with the business.

The answer? Clearly the carrot is the preferred method. To create a carrot I used Information Management Workshops very successfully to help business teams understand the value of managing information effectively and at the same time sold them on the value of records management.

What are Information Management Workshops?

An Information Management Workshop is a quick way to help a team understand a business challenge and how managing information more effectively can help address that challenge. This very focused workshop which is conducted over two to three weeks (elapsed time) and requires about three days involvement by the business team to understand their business requirements, explore solution options, and then develop a “proof of concept” (POC) solution for the team to experience.

The Workshop includes a 90 minute kickoff session (conference call or web meeting), a 60 minute follow up session, then a two day requirements gathering workshop on Monday and Tuesday followed by a final half day solution POC solution test drive at the end of the week.

The objectives of the workshop was two fold. The first objective is to provide an experiential learning process for business teams to recognize the benefits of managing information assets by applying the same rigor and strategic focus as they have for managing cash or physical assets.

The workshop attendees:

• Were provided with a deep understanding of the issues of poor information management and the value of managing information assets strategically
• Experience a structured methodology to elicit and document the information management requirements for a portion of their business, or for one of the key business processes. During the workshop attendees identify the information that they receive, create, or use to support the business process or to support critical decisions which impact the business unit or function.
• Can test drive the information management solution configured to meet their requirements
• Get a chance to experience first hand the benefits of improved information management processes powered by recommended best practices and technologies currently used by the organization

The second objective is to build an operational capability for a small control group business users who will pilot best practices, new policies and standards, and technical solutions designed to support the effective management of information. This group can serve as early adopters who will highlight the benefits of managing information as an asset.

The Information Management Workshop process starts off with a 90 minute introduction and education session to provide context , present the benefits of managing information effectively, and set expectations for the rest of the Workshop. During this session the business team is asked to focus on a specific business challenge (or process) and to start thinking about the information that they create, use, or manage which is related to this challenge or process. This first session is followed by another 60 minute meeting to start reviewing the business challenge or process the team has chosen and to help get the participants focused for the requirements gathering two day workshop.

Within a week or two the business team attends an intense two day requirements gathering workshop to elicit and document the information management and business challenge/process requirements. Now the Workshop team can take these business and other information management requirements and start building a potential solution to help the business team envision the possibilities and impact of managing information more effectively.

In my next post I will talk about some of the results we had and some other lesson learned from this approach.