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TFPL Training Discussion Corner

Key Training Discussion Points and Thoughts in April

We have run a number of training courses over April in subjects ranging from the Web to Taxonomies and Project  Management.  We are always interested in reviewing and keeping our course material relevant to your training needs now and value your thoughts and comments in these areas.  Have you had similar experiences to those covered below or are other topics more important to you? 

Writing for the Web - How relevant are writing samples and how does this translate into what senior management  expectations are for it? A lot of the time web writing is reviewed by colleagues who have as much or even slightly less knowledge about writing in this medium - Would an online editorial peer to peer review place be of value?  Would there be problems using such a service if what is written is sensitive to the company in question?  Or would your company be interested in engaging in a service that would provided confidential peer to peer reviews of your material with respect to any business sensitivity over confidentiality?

Introduction to Project Management - In these times it is not only budgets that are stretched people are too, time management is a key skill.  The course also discovered current pressing issues around being able to value your work  in financial terms and managing of communication flows and expectations in a multi cultural global environment with  teams that are spread across time zones around the world.  As a direct result of feedback the project plan example is to be developed further into a more detailed on line version.

Introduction to Taxonomies - Facet analysis was key for these course attendees with a recognised need for a number of people to perhaps consider a more detailed look at this area in the follow on Faceted Taxonomies course.  How important is it in an information rich world to consider the role different people's perspectives play in their searches for information?  Individual facets are becoming as important if not more so than browse taxonomies that use hierarchical structures.

Building a Fileplan for Electronic Records - Key topic here was application of records management methodology and practice in a changing technological environment.  Organisations still need good records management but the changing face of technology notably in the form of SharePoint which has not been developed specifically to support the methodology is proving challenging.  Key questions around the pros and cons of tagging on an EDRM system behind SharePoint was also explored and has motivated our trainer James Lappin to write further about these issues - for further information see 
http://thinkingrecords.co.uk/2009/05/10/the-different-approaches-to-getting-moreq-2-compatible-edrm-systems-to-work-with-sharepoint-2007/

Copyright, do you know what's right?

Copyright law is fast becoming a mine field.  Whilst the law itself doesn’t change a great deal, advances in technology and the way it is used are raising fundamental questions on copyright and copyright infringement with fines and prison sentences becoming more common.  A key example is what is happening at the moment with Google Book search settlement in the States.  For those of you that are not aware, this relates to a copyright infringement lawsuit that was brought against Google in 2005 by AAP/Authors Guild after its launch to digitise books from library collections.  Under the settlement publishers and authors will agree not to sue.  Google will make available to search full content of the books it has scanned, enable a user to copy and paste sections and print sections.  It plans to sell access to this resource.  A short synopsis giving more detail on the settlement   is available here.  There are 3 large library associations representing over 139,000 libraries who are asking the court to seriously consider the interpretation and implementation of the settlement to cover the broadest benefit the settlement can enable.  Key concerns are brought around the monopoly that Google will hold over digitised literature (Google has been compiling this since 2004 so it would take any other organisation a great deal of time to get to the same stage to offer the same service) and what pricing will be put on it.  This could “compromise fundamental library values including equity of access to information, patron privacy and intellectual freedom” source ALA full details and updates on the case can be found here

Our trainer and expert in this area, Paul Pedley, has written a number of articles on the subject and offers further insight with up to date examples on his courses.   One of Paul’s recent articles offers great tips and advice on how to ensure you are copyright compliant and avoid running into cases of copyright infringement.  A key tip mentioned is to avoid sharing passwords.  This was recently illustrated by a case noted in the Telegraph where a Private Equity firm, Blackstone was sued by FT for allowing multiple users to use a single ID and password to access thousands of articles between February 2006 and June 2008. 

Paul is running courses on Digital Copyright and Digital Licensing for TFPL in June and July, check the training and events section for more details.

Keeping your skills up to date in a recession

With corporate budgets for training and recruitment being cut or even wiped out completely as the recession continues the question is being asked what is happening to the key knowledge and skills that are being lost?  In an article in People Management (April 2009) 'Companies could be repeating mistakes of the last recession', Lucy Philips quotes Boston Consulting Group figures that state that whilst cutting back on recruitment worked OK for companies in the last recession cutting back on training didn't.  It begs the question that if you cut back on both how does a company hold on to the expertise that has given it key competitive advantage?  If we are not careful we will end up with skills gaps that will make it difficult to progress when we do come out of the recession.

An interesting article has recently appeared in the Grapevine Online entitled Employers need to develop the next generation of leaders further emphasising the importance and need for training still.  The article references recent research and quotes from the Chartered Management Institute.  The post quotes Petra Wilton, Director of Policy and Research at the CMI, as saying that “…. organisations should look at other areas of the business before cutting back on training as skills development is essential if they are to be well placed when the economy eventually picks up. However, we realise that many organisations have now exhausted all other alternatives and the onus is now on the Government to step up to the mark and deliver support.”

There is no question that companies must be careful with their spending in the current environment; however, surely maintenance of key knowledge and skills is integral to company survival.  Companies are becoming more creative with knowledge sharing initiatives taking place, on the job training for less experienced members of staff and training groups of staff onsite rather than sending them away to a training course, avoiding the additional costs of travel and subsistence.  Here in training at TFPL we have seen an increase in the popularity of onsite course delivery when compared with periods in previous years.  Onsite delivery is certainly a cost effective option when you have small groups that can be trained all at once but what is the answer for those individuals that need to maintain their skills and, in some instances, cross train to cover other areas where cuts have been made?

We believe that to send one member of staff to a course is still beneficial as the learning that takes place can be passed on within the organisation.  Investment in personal development is seen as a key motivator to work and with people taking on extra responsibilities training should be seen as a cost effective way to keep up motivational levels within the workforce rather than perceived as an easy target for cost cutting.  To help with the situation of smaller budgets and training needs we have recently launched a savings and discount scheme to enable companies to spread their budgets still allowing individual staff to keep up their skills and cross train if necessary, called Learning Credits.  The scheme offers savings of approximately 30% off the standard course price and can be used by anyone on any course we run on the public access schedule.

Records Management: the big re-think must come soon

Originating in the economic and demographic boom years after the Second World War, Records Management was, and remains, a set of control functions designed to deal with large and steadily growing quantities of organisational paperwork.   The prevailing management ethos at that time was top down, hierarchical, command and control management built on the perceived values of measurement, predictability and centralised long-range planning. 

For me, the concept of Management by Objectives (MBO), first outlined by Peter Drucker in 1954, captures perfectly the control environment in which records management grew up.  Aligned objectives, flowing down from the centrally generated strategic plan, ran through organisations, stifling collective innovation and individual creativity alike in the interests of mechanistic control.

Against this backdrop, Records Managers built large and highly engineered systems that set out to control documentation from “cradle to grave”.  You could see these systems working until the early 1990s in many large companies in the USA and, to some extent, in the UK but most were left abandoned as their parent organisations adapted to new global trading conditions or simply dissolved around them through acquisitions and mergers.

The widespread adoption of the PC, email systems and, finally, laptops throughout the 1990s increased the pace and volume of daily work – established clerical support and filing staff melted away in this period -   leaving Records Managers bewildered and in search of the records they once so successfully managed. 

The backdrop changed too, despite the efforts of many organisations to uphold the principles of scientific management.  Different ways of understanding organisations began to infiltrate management writing and thinking and, for many practicing managers, the old notions of predictability and certainty were consigned to the waste bin.  These ideas have yet to impact on records management which has, for two decades now, stood still while its professionals sought a way to re-establish the control over a world they have lost.

The principles for the re-frame are:

•    Sort work into formal and formless – structured stuff as opposed to messy stuff (rhythm)
•    Look for records that are obviously owned and used by people (proximity)
•    Note when records are not owned or used very much (distance)
•    Let people create the records they believe they need to create (trust)
•    Work with whoever you need to work with to identify and understand the rules you have to follow (compliance)
•    Be a helping hand not a scolding finger.

John D. Davies
Senior Consultant (TFPL Ltd)

Third Sector and Social Enterprise

So refreshing to do some work with social enterprises or, as the government has it, the Third Sector.  Established around the goals of people, planet, profit, the Social Enterprise Movement includes a whole range of organisations ranging from community transport groups to co-ops.  Simply put, social enterprises are businesses set up to tackle a social and/or environmental need.  A very compelling proposition at the moment and one for which all the main UK political parties are actively voicing support.

In terms of size, in 2006, it was estimated that there were 55,000 social enterprises in the UK with a combined turnover of £27 billion. In 2008, research found that 1.3 million people considered themselves to be social entrepreneurs.  The enterprises themselves range from very small community based organisations, (e.g.) a community owned and run shop to multi-million pound transport groups.  For news about the Movement, try the Society Guardian, which regularly features social enterprises.

People I’ve met in the course of this project are working to improve the business capabilities of the Movement and, amidst a broad range of activities,
a number of knowledge management projects are under way across the country aimed at identifying a) areas where knowledge and information could be collectively sourced and shared and b) techniques such as coaching and mentoring that will help knowledge transfer across social enterprises.  The growth of this sector must offer knowledge and information professionals opportunities to get involved in meaningful work.  Watch this space!

 

John D. Davies
Senior Consultant (TFPL Ltd)

Records Management Society Conference, April 2009: ‘Back to the Future’

The RMS has to be congratulated on another successful Annual Conference and especially for attracting such a large number of exhibitors and delegates.

It seemed more like “back to the past” than the future at times with most sessions following the well established RMS format of presentations followed by questions.  However, while I spotted nothing new to set the world of records management alight, it was an excellent practitioner and networking event, peppered with some useful and interesting sessions.

A little controversy always helps a conference and this came straight from the opening session by Heather Brooke, journalist and author of Your Right to Know.  Heather has campaigned to make government more open and accountable using FOI legislation. To me, her talk served as a sharp reminder of why records are so important. As a profession we should not forget that the content of records (and the associated need for structure, findability and connectivity) should not be overlooked as we focus on managing the container and business end of our work.

The sessions from the academic sector were also a highlight for me with Tom Jackson, Loughborough University, and Rachel Hardman and Elizabeth Lomax from Northumbria University leading the way. Tom’s ‘Death by Email’ like ‘Death by Chocolate’ is always guaranteed to be popular. Death by research methodology came to my mind a little during their presentations and I think a little less method and more time on findings and impact would have been welcomed by RM practitioners.

Having said that the new and innovative action/participative research led by Northumbria University is very exciting to hear and participate in. Some of the outcomes from the Continued Communication and  Accelerating Positive Change in ERM research projects are useful and thought provoking.  For more comments on the conference you could listen into the Northumbria podcast hosted by Elizabeth.  

Finally, one of the best sessions for me was one I had the honour of chairing (no bias), from Dr David Reeve, Dorset County Council, who gave a very succinct overview of how they had gone about applying retention and disposal schedules in an EDRM system. The presentation was full of good tips and practices but most important for me was the example David set of how a professional RM can use the theory and their intelligence to take a pragmatic approach to applying solutions taking into account the restrictions of the technology and the business and the realms of possibility. What was also refreshing was to hear that David was not afraid to innovate and take risks in offering new solutions, knowing that one may fail and need mending.  He who dares…

Martin Sanderson
Senior Consultant (TFPL Ltd)