Doing Information Right™

The most efficient and effective governance projects tend to be those that follow some sort of emergency: a breach, a lawsuit, a flood, etc. Hence the expression "never waste a crisis" – a phrase of which I was recently reminded by Cheryl Banke, CEO and Founder of Belvedere Consulting and my special guest in this episode of Speaking Of.Have a watch and let us know what you think as we discuss scenarios and recommendations regarding:- Paying attention to what's happening in the business - Paying attention to what's happening in technology- Anticipating crisis points- Thinking beyond just recordsYou'll be glad you did!--Steve Weissman - [email protected] Cheryl Banke - [email protected]© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

You know how important metrics are to doing governance right. (If you don’t, have a watch of our May 2025 Roundtable on the subject!) But simply collecting them isn’t enough; rather, you have to ensure they are viewable, analyzable, and actionable on an ongoing basis, and reportable in easily-digested ways to senior executives and external overseers.In practical terms, this means enhancing your dashboarding and auditing capabilities – twin requirements that are critical to the longevity of your program and are the subject of our next IG Community Roundtable.Join us as we dive into whys and wherefores of these too-often-overlooked issues, exploring the relationship between them and the ripple effects associated with doing them well (or not) … effects that can impact your ability to cost-justify your entire initiative. This will be an hour very well spent!Brought to you by governance experts •  Steve Weissman - [email protected] •  Jesse Wilkins - [email protected] •  Donda Young - [email protected] people like you!© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

When pursuing good governance, time needs to be at least as well budgeted as money. Otherwise, you’ll do a poor job of it – or worse, never get done at all.© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

Remember how AI was going to disrupt and transform our businesses? Well, according to research and my own observations, a lot of that hype has since fizzled. Why? Because there’s more focus being placed on installing AI than installing AI of practical value – and it’s the latter that is going to make or break it where you work.  Here's a short list of critical tasks to keep your initiative from stalling out – or to revive it if it has. Have a listen and then give me a ring, and I’ll help you get the most value you can from what you’re doing.© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

Here's a story about that time a client with a privacy initiative almost skipped SalesForce as a system to include in its search for PII – "because it doesn’t have any private information in it"! Note the word ALMOST!--Steve [email protected]© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

Selecting an information solution can be one of the most challenging and time-consuming parts of any governance initiative because a number of factors nearly instantly muddy the waters. For example:•  There are simply way too many offerings on the market to be able to keep track of them all.•  Most of those you do find boast features, functions, and adjectives (“market-leading!” “cutting-edge!” “AI-enabled!”) that sound so similar that it can be hard to tell one from another.•  And even when they can be distinguished, many of the differences are so highly-specialized that they may not even apply to you.So how can you narrow the field and end up choosing something that actually suits your needs?Answering this question is the subject of this IG Community Roundtable, which features information experts Steve Weissman, Jesse Wilkins, Donda Young, and several of our less-shy participants. Don’t miss it — it's an hour well spent.---Steve Weissman - [email protected] Wilkins - [email protected] Young - [email protected]© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

Hear about the time a client asked help installing a culture of governance at his company because, as much as he tried to play Good Cop, “I’m not really getting anywhere.” Turns out he needed a Bad Cop as well – or at least the spectre of one.--Steve [email protected]© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

No conversation about information is complete without talking about data quality. This is especially critical when it comes to AI, of which so much is expected, because – as is true everywhere – you have to put good stuff IN if you want to get valuable stuff OUT. (GIGO, anyone?)But: what exactly IS “data quality” anyway? How is it defined? Measured? Improved?In this InfoGov Community Roundtable, information governance experts Steve Weissman, Jesse Wilkins, Donda Young, and people like YOU address these questions, and more.Have a listen if you prefer real conversation over talking-head webinars, and real-world stories over ivory-tower opinions. You'll be glad you did!© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

Imagine you have a piece of paper and you’re going to peel the information off the page. Why? Because it's the INFORMATION that has the value. The fact that it happens to be on a piece of paper or a disk or hard drive doesn't matter. It's the information that's key. © Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

A lot has been said – much of it by me – about the enormous opportunity AI has to propel records and information professionals into the heart of their organizations’ data-related discussions and deployments. After all, it can be only as effective as the quality of the information it operates on enables it to be. So, truly, AI is something we should embrace and not fear.Explore this dynamic further by listening to my (sometimes gently prickly) interview with EncompaaS CEO Jesse Todd, who describes this exciting potential in terms of “how AI is here to rescue the RIM function” and shares some of his real-world experiences to make the point.© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

One of my go-to pop references is the scene in the 1991 movie City Slickers where Jack Palance tells Billy Crystal that the secret of life is One Thing. The catch, Palance says, is that we have to figure out what that One Thing is for ourselves. The One Thing in information governance is to serve the cause of Doing Information Right™. Fixating on this single principle allows you to evaluate and prioritize each idea you have and decision you make in the context of what you are trying to achieve. Have a listen and learn more!© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

That time a client knew how much the siloed nature of its information was costing it in terms of operational time, money, and efficiency, but didn’t know how or where to start its improvement program.Here’s what we did to help.© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

That time when a client had boxes of paper records all over the place – to the point where the fire marshal ordered it all to be moved so people could get out in an emergency. Here’s what we did to help.© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

Effectively propagating our messages of information governance goodness is one of your biggest and most important challenges, whether you're trying to get your programs moving in the first place or reinforce the successes you’ve already had. Join me and content marketing consultant Bryant Duhon as we talk about the need for, and role of, the kind of communication needed to win people’s hearts and minds and call them to action!© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

People-related issues require people-centered responses. So when the folks in your organization resist your information governance efforts, make it personal by addressing the usual challenges of politics, baggage, and religion. © Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

As information professionals, we deal daily with a mass of details and endless internal politicking. But it’s vital that we always remember that there are PEOPLE at the end of our workstreams who are affected by what we do. My thought is to create an IG Code of Human Ethics to ensure that what we do actually provides human benefit. Are you with me? © Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

Organization not moving fast enough for you regarding information governance? Or getting off the schneid at all? Join me and long-time infogov professional Rich Lauwers as we discuss all manner of points to make in order to foment success where you work. Things like:• Think about technology in terms of both adaptability and adoptability.• Consider your business needs first.• Ensure you have an actual reason to use AI before committing to it (one possibility: language translation).• Make your self-service wikis (for employees and customers) more personal and actionable.This may be the best 20 minutes you’ve heard in a long time!© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

When it comes to making the business case for information governance, we need to seek tangible, readily-understood, administrative and operating costs that our sound information disciplines can reduce. The familiar arguments that things will get “better” and “faster” are all well and good, but you can’t beat adding “calculably cheaper” if you really want to capture your senior team’s attention.© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

Hey guess what? If you're an information governance or records professional, you are foundational to the success of AI in your organization. All you have to do is keep doing you. © Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

Information governance issues like findability, retention, compliance, and privacy don’t stand still … they either get better or they get worse, and they don’t get better on their own. Chances are, you know have to do SOMETHING, but haven’t yet figured out what.The problem is that not making a decision today about how to address these issues IS, in fact, making a fateful decision for tomorrow: namely, to let your situation fester. This is risky on a whole lot of levels ranging from simply finding information when you need it and efficiently handling ediscovery, to imperiling your ability to move to the cloud and even retaining your key information people. Here’s 143 seconds to explain what a big deal making non-decision decisions can be.© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

In the realm of information, where accuracy's paramount,You find vetted truths, a reliable account.Content is deleted, storage space freed,Records disposed of, no longer in need.Sensitive data, you guard with care,Compliant policies, thorough and fair.Your staff is trained, their tasks they do,Technology aligned, targeted and true.If this isn’t you, then put up a fightAnd call me to start Doing Information Right™!-------- Steve Weissman • [email protected] • 617-383-4655© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

 If you or your organization is looking to rationalize the need for information governance, this composite tale should help make the case by speaking to several of the most common risks associated with standing pat – as well as tips for remediation. These include challenges related to (1) findability, (2) privacy protection, (3) compliance, and (4) migration, especially to the cloud.FREE companion download! "5 Steps to Doing Information Right™" – get your copy NOW at https://bit.ly/5-steps-page!© Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655

If you’ve talked your information governance strategy up for months, got what you thought was a clear go-ahead, and upon starting got so much push-back that you couldn’t do ANYTHING … here’s something to remember that may let you to move forward in at least some way, shape, or form.  © Steve Weissman • All Rights Reserved • www. hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655