From passenger to pilot – Taking the lead and building a business critical information management strategy

Introduction

In January 2015, I took the decision to move to my first leadership role, in a whole new industry in order to have the opportunity to create an information management (IM) strategy from scratch. Over my 13 years in the information sector, I’ve developed my own views on how such a strategy should be structured, what it should include and how one should go about implementing it. So when the opportunity arose, I decided I was ready to move from being a passenger to being a pilot – it’s been a turbulent flight! This article is not a step-by-step guide to writing an IM strategy, it’s about the experience of creating a strategy, what you can expect and how you can prepare. I aim to share some of what I’ve learnt in creating our strategy, getting it approved and moving it into implementation. There have been some technical delays, obstructions on the runway, crew delayed on a previous flight and trouble clearing air traffic control, but we’re in the air now and I want to share with you how we got there

Are you ready?

A straw poll of friends and colleagues in the industry suggest that there are broadly two ways that an information strategy begins. The first is that an executive recognizes the needs for some sort of organized approach to their information and goes out to recruit an information specialist to develop it. The second is where a specialist is already in post and she/he recognizes the need for a strategy. There might already have been a policy (if you’re lucky!) and ways of working in place but there’s a need to draw everything together, ensure consistency and make it easier to communicate. Those of us who find ourselves in the former situation have something of an advantage in that there has already been executive level acknowledgement that an information strategy is needed. The challenge for those in the latter situation is to secure that acknowledgement at the outset. However, having one supportive executive won’t be enough to ensure success. There is still a need to ensure broader executive and grass-roots understanding of what can be achieved, why it matters and what is needed to make it work.

In 2008, Gartner launched its enterprise information management maturity model ¹ and while there have been plenty of variations in this theme since, I still find the simplicity of Gartner’s approach to be the most helpful in understanding how you can get yourself and your organization ready for a successful IM strategy. Most organizations are at level 0 or level 1 at the outset and if in doubt I’d err on the side of assuming a lower level of maturity and be prepared to start at the very beginning with what seems like the obvious – building an understanding of the value of good IM and the risks of not doing it.

Before you even think about writing a strategy down, you need to build an audience for it. In my experience, the best way to achieve this is through small successes. As information professionals, we are well placed to identify discreet areas of the business or projects where applying some best practice or taking a different approach could improve outcomes. Get in there and make a difference, even if it’s small. You are building a portfolio of real-life examples of how applying good IM benefits your organization. Keep it practical and easy for people to implement. Will the use of file naming conventions make it easier for a team to find things on their shared storage? Will the introduction of a retention schedule give a team the confidence to dispose of information and free up space? Will changing the structure of an intranet site help people find what they need quicker? Will linking two databases reduce duplication and save time. Take time to review these projects and gather feedback on their impact. I’d go so far as to collect some quotes from the people you’ve helped – how do they feel the change benefitted them? If you can measure impact then do. Although this can be very difficult, even estimates can give an idea of the benefits you’re delivering. If the team say they’ve saved a half a day a month, then think about what that half day could now be used for – serving more customers, processing more payments or even thinking more creatively about marketing – whatever the purpose of your organization is, how has your change contributed?

This stage of the maturity model is about building that audience and building your personal stock. You are building up a network of people at all levels of the organization who get it. They understand the benefits of good IM and they recognize you as the person or team who can deliver it. You are also building your understanding of the organization and making connections between what you know as a professional and what’s practical and beneficial in the context of the business. This is particularly crucial if you’re new to the organization, and doubly so if you’re a solo practitioner without the benefit of an established team who know the lay of the land and who have been building this portfolio of examples. Consider this time an investment in the future success of your programme. You may well need to defend this time if you’ve got a supportive executive champing at the bit to get going with writing a strategy – but without this fundamental understanding and credibility building, future stages will be very much more at risk of failure.

So far we’ve talked about whether your organization is ready, but what about you? Developing and implementing an IM strategy is no small undertaking so what can you expect and how do you know whether it’s time to go there? Firstly, there is no motivator like necessity! Perhaps you’re frustrated by a lack of progress or a lack of structured commitment to IM. Maybe you find yourself facing budget cuts or having difficulty obtaining investment and support for projects you know are crucial to the organization. If this is you, you’re already part way there. However, in addition you need to be prepared to do a lot of groundwork and your progress will likely be slow (give yourself at least 5 years!). Be ready to repeat yourself, to restate your case in multiple formats for a changing audience and to adapt to the prevailing organizational thinking. In the remainder of this article, I’d like to give you some tips and examples that might help you get through it.

Research phase

I’m often puzzled by the media image of information managers as shy, insular, socially awkward people. The reality is that a key part of our work is about people and we’re really good at talking! At the outset of the information strategy process, this skill set really matters. We’ve talked already about inserting yourself and your team into projects that provide opportunities to show benefits, but even before that you need to identify the key stakeholders inside and outside your organization that can support you. A simple stakeholder analysis (see Figure 1) ² is a key tool to understand who’s involved and how you need to interact with them.

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Figure 1.

A simple stakeholder analysis.

Here’s an example of what a stakeholder map for an IM strategy might look like (Figure 2). I’ve included many areas that I’ve found to have an interest, some of whom might be surprising! In your organization there are probably others as well, and you might find even more once things get underway. I find it useful to include both teams and key individuals when thinking about stakeholders. This is because while a team, like Information Technology (IT) for example, will have general aims and objectives that will impact you; key individuals in that team might have slightly different interests and agendas that can really make a difference. Key individuals are not necessarily the most senior people in their teams, rather they are those who have influence for whatever reason. They are the people who others listen to and follow, they might have been there a long time, they might be considered an expert or they might simply have the type of personality that inspires people to come along with them. Decision makers are of course also key but look beyond that at who is influencing the decisions they make.

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Figure 2.

Example stakeholder analysis.

Also keep in mind that you’ll probably want to move some stakeholders from one place on the grid to another during the course of your strategy development. In particular, those with high influence but little interest need to be moved to the right on the diagram. ³

Once you know who your stakeholders are, you’ll have to understand what they want. This is probably the single most difficult part of any strategy project. Ask any IT business analyst and they will tell you just how complex, varied and often contradictory people’s ‘wants’ can be. Carrying out a formal exercise to document what everyone wants from the strategy is one possible way to go and it may be the best way to reach certain stakeholder groups. For example, with your users and customers who are likely a large and widely distributed group, a survey followed by facilitated workshops to get to the bottom of what they really want might be the best way to go. I’m using this approach this year to reach out to users of several key information products. However, this approach has failed me in the past for other stakeholders. Whether they’re short of time and won’t respond to a survey or attend a workshop, or whether they just don’t see it as relevant. For some stakeholders, the personal approach is far more effective. Don’t underestimate how important and effective the face-to-face connection can be. I have found that a simple conversation over a cup of coffee, or even taking advantage of a 10-minute opportunity in the lunch queue can tell me a lot about someone’s motivations and needs. Psychologist Amy Cuddy suggests that people quickly ask themselves two questions when they meet you face to face ‘Can I trust this person?’ and ‘Can I respect this person?’ ⁴ If these two questions are key to how they respond to you, it makes sense to me that trying to build a relationship with someone by email, or even by telephone, is going to be much harder than doing so face to face.

The key to making this work for you is the follow-up. Call them a day later and say ‘I’ve been thinking about what you said yesterday and I wondered if X might work for you’ or email them a short summary of what you think they need and ask them if you’ve understood it correctly. This is part of building trust, you are telling them you both care about what they need and that you’re a professional capable of making it happen. It’s highly likely that you’re not the first person to have tried to tackle these issues and I’ve often encountered a high level of cynicism where people feel that they’ve talked about their needs before and they weren’t delivered on then so why should your attempt be any different? The truth is that you cannot guarantee that they’ll get what they want and you should definitely not promise things unless you are certain you will deliver them – this can damage your credibility beyond repair. However, it is possible to cut through the history to a degree and build trust that’s based on who you are and how you work with people. If you have that trust at the outset, you’re more likely to get people to talk to you about their needs and their concerns and that information gives you a much better chance of succeeding with your strategy.

The downside is that you may end up with a lot of information about people’s needs and wants that you’ll need to sift through and organize. You won’t be able to do it all, so being careful to decide what’s in scope and what’s not is absolutely crucial. Where something is out of scope, be honest with yours stakeholders about this and explain why (cost, already part of another project, time and resources required and so on). Where things are in scope, try and cluster them into groups of key themes and look for order in the chaos – as information managers this is what we really excel at – organizing information! I enjoy this part immensely and watching a structure of priorities and ideas emerge is highly rewarding. Take the time to enjoy this part of the process! If you’ve got a team so much the better; workshop it, debate it and thrash it out together. Your team are also some of your key stakeholders. Whether you’re the team leader or an individual contributor you’ll need your team behind you so this is a great opportunity to understand their needs and priorities and an opportunity to move them individually towards the very top right of your stakeholder grid.

So far we’ve talked a lot about people, and I would argue that people are the number one driver of success or failure of an IM strategy. However, there are other factors that can be barriers and that it’s helpful to understand in the development stage. These include legacy IT systems and infrastructure, legal and compliance frameworks (particularly where you’re working across international borders), site-specific issues such as how many people have regular access to a networked computer, bandwidth availability and speed of connection. Understanding these at the outset avoids embarrassment later, but don’t always take what you’re told at face value. If someone tells you that the network is too slow, get a speed check; if you’re told people don’t use something, get some stats to be sure; and if you’re told it can’t be done because of ‘the law’, get a lawyer and check! In my experience ‘received wisdom’ about the state of an organization’s IM systems and practices is often right but not always.

Organizational alignment

Now you have the lay of the land, have identified your key stakeholders and have done a lot of ground work building trust and understanding what people want and need. You know that managing information in the best possible way will benefit everybody – but you need to secure senior-level support and investment to make it all happen. My advice is to start by looking at the published mission statements, strategic priorities and key objectives of your organization. In most organizations you’ll find these on their website under strategy, in their annual report or in their press releases. You’ll normally find a high-level mission statement like these:

Our objective is to be the world’s leading and most respected international bank

Our purpose is to be where the growth is, connecting customers to opportunities. We enable businesses to thrive and economies to prosper, helping people fulfil their hopes and dreams and realize their ambitions ⁵

The Department for International Development (DFID) leads the UK’s work to end extreme poverty, building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world for all of us which is firmly in the UK’s national interest. We’re ending the need for aid by creating jobs, unlocking the potential of girls and women and helping to save lives when humanitarian emergencies hit. ⁶

Followed by more specific targets like these

We aim to achieve a return on equity of more than 10 per cent by 2017, with momentum for higher returns in the future. We aim to grow business revenues faster than operating expenses on an adjusted basis. We are also committed to delivering a progressive dividend ⁵

If you are to catch the attention of senior executives (often referred to as the C-suite due to the tendency for titles to include things like chief executive, chief information officer, chief financial officer etc), you need to link your objectives to these strategic ones. It is essential to make clear, exactly how managing information better supports both the high-level mission and the detailed targets or objectives. This is not always easy, but it is necessary.

Let’s look at our examples, take HSBC’s objective to be the world’s most respected international bank. A key part of IM in financial services is regulatory and legal compliance, it’s particularly complex when you’re dealing with multiple jurisdictions and information flows across borders. So – the argument here is that better, more compliant IM practices reduces the risk of a reputation damaging regulatory breach as well as reducing the risk of fines or regulatory censure which will impact the bottom line. This latter point ties into the detailed objectives that would be impacted in the event of a significant fine, loss of business as a result of the reputational damage and potential loss of market access that could result from a regulatory censure. You could take this a step further by citing case studies of other institutions who have suffered similar events and the impact of that on their business.

Looking at DFID’s mission of building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world. There are many ways you could approach this but you might start by looking at information as a commodity. Getting information to people, (whether those in need or those trying to help them in the most effective and efficient way will better enable them) to build this safer healthier world. Just to take a simple example, education about waterborne diseases and how to avoid them is a key part in many international efforts to improve health. What could you do with better IM to support the people giving this education? Even indirectly, what if making financial processes more efficient with better information flows between parts of the organization meant that people could spend less time claiming expenses and more time delivering education? Could you measure that time saving across the organization in terms of man-days gained which can be used to deliver core objectives?

The tough lesson here is that if you can’t link something you want to do to a strategic objective then you need to let it go. If implementing best IM practice will not genuinely yield a sustainable and significant benefit to the organization’s strategic goals, then I would not pursue it. A classic example of this is the implementation of shared drive structures and file naming conventions. I have yet to see any organization where doing this has proved sustainable in the long term or where maintaining it has not absorbed at least one staff member. The fact is that everywhere I have worked, the priorities have been such that the resources spent doing this far outweigh the long-term benefits and are therefore better spent on activities that better support those organizational priorities.

However, you can and should use both long-term strategic priorities and shorter term campaigns or projects to your advantage. Most organizations will have short-term drives or campaigns that support their long-term plans, and these are a great opportunity to jump on that bandwagon and demonstrate how IM can support. Tying what you’re doing to the current campaign ensures you’re seen to be on board, a team player, and thinking about the organizational good. In addition, campaigns tend to have budget behind them which you can tap into to develop and deliver things that will have longer term value. Making the most of this opportunity requires some flexibility. You may feel you’re just rebranding or rehashing to fit the latest buzzword, but in reality, this is simply about keeping IM relevant and keeping its profile high. You are demonstrating how central strong IM is to organizational success by showing it embedded in the strategy, supporting the achievement of goals and delivering benefits.

When writing your strategy, I recommend to start by drawing clear linking lines between long- and short-term organizational objectives and your specific objectives. Be clear on how what you want to do supports the organization’s priorities and uses the language of the objectives to ensure it’s crystal clear that IM is absolutely critical to the success of the organization. You don’t need to cover all the organization’s priorities, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to make quality links with all of them, just choose those you can support and demonstrate how that support works. I must emphasize that this is not just a sales tactic, not a smoke screen underneath which you’ll take carte blanche to do whatever activities you like. As I said before, if something you want to do does not truly work towards a key strategic priority – drop it. If you cannot make a strong enough case, then that should tell you something and by continuing you’ll be setting yourself up to fail.

If this all sounds too theoretical, here’s an example to illustrate my point.

One of the key ideas in the RHS Horticultural Information Plan is the review and improvement of technology solutions for a key databases. Here’s an extract from the plan which outlines why this is business critical:

‘The projects laid out here look at how we want to use our information and consider how we manage it so that we can do so as quickly and effectively as possible while safeguarding it for the long term. The underlying management structures for our information affect how easily we can share it with members and the public in a way that inspires them and drives them to change behaviours as well as how well we can use it for research that furthers the RHS’s goals’. ⁸

Here, the italicized words and phrases tap directly into the strategic objectives of the organization and demonstrate not just the IM benefits of the project, but the impact it will have on the success of the organization (Figure 3). This resonates much more clearly with those in the organization who are not information managers and shows the foundational role of the information, rather than focusing on IM as an end in itself.

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Figure 3.

Example of the links between strategic objectives and IM – from the RHS Horticultural Information Plan 2016–2021.

Resources

As an information professional, your budget line is always a cost line rather than a revenue line. It’s often possible to generate small revenue streams, but the reality is that profit or even break-even on an information budget is highly unlikely. I’ve read a lot about how it’s theoretically possible to assign monetary value to the benefits of good IM, but so far I have found making such links to be so tenuous as to undermine my case. As I’ve previously mentioned, it might be possible at a tactical level to understand the value of a piece of work in monetary terms after it is completed. For example, the value of man hours saved. However, at a strategic level, I have found it better to be up front about the costs and explicit about the less tangible benefits rather than making highly extrapolated cases based on monetary savings or theoretical income. It’s one thing to identify that a change in IT service provider will save x pounds over the current supplier, that’s straightforward, provable and deliverable. It’s quite another to claim that the business will get x pounds worth of additional business by making information freely available on the website. There are so many factors that influence the amount of business coming in: exchange rates, current economic climate, interest rates, marketing, and the activities of competitors to name just a few, that in my experience, C-suiters are suspicious of such arguments as you can never prove whether or not you have delivered on this promise. If they give you resources based on this, how will they know if you were worth it? Much better to focus on the benefits to the organization’s overall mission and the additional support provided to revenue generating parts of the business and to make arguments based on measurable facts that you have direct influence over and which can be reported back on.

Every information professional I have ever spoken to declaims the difficulties of ever shrinking budgets and their inability to secure funding for the projects they believe to be critical. In a competitive economy, competition for resources is inevitable so be prepared to negotiate. Have a gold standard version of what you can deliver but also plan for what you can do with less (and with even less) resources. I believe that you must be honest about what resources are needed to deliver your strategy, but that you must be aware of the context you are working in. For example, taking a multimillion pound programme to your board at a time when their concentration is on declining income is just setting yourself up to fail. Be mindful of how the priorities are shifting and choose your moment carefully. Represent what you want to do in the broader context of the business environment and you’ll be much more successful.

Even if no additional resources are available, look at what you can do by diverting your existing resources or by introducing efficiencies. Can you review your own processes and streamline them to free up resources? You may even find that with a strategic programme to get behind, employees are willing to give that bit more or go that bit further to achieve the goals. Within my own team, I have been blown away by the level of commitment that has emerged now that the strategy is in place and the priorities are clear. The key thing here is communication between you and those you depend upon, be that your own team, the wider team you work within or the wider organization. Be honest about what you need and the impacts your change programme will have on them and listen to their concerns. People resources only stretch so far, so be sensitive to the balance between new work and business as usual (BAU) activities. The temptation is to value contribution to the strategic programme over and above BAU – this is dangerous ground. People need to feel both the security of the familiar and the excitement of change and improvement and a wonderful new strategy is no good at all if your core services suffer as a result. That will affect morale and that will knock on to affect your strategy. People resources is at once the most flexible and most intractable of resources. The amount and quality of available people resource within a team of a finite size is directly related to how engaged they are and how their skills fit with what needs to be done.

Hearts and Minds

Perhaps, the greatest learning from my last 18 months has been the importance of bringing people along with you to a successful strategy. This begins and ends with the team around you. Not all information professionals are as lucky as I am to have a large, well-established team around them. However, even the lone professional has those around them they depend on. Whether that’s a network of departmental champions, informal networks or more formal working groups, these people are critical to the success of your strategy. In the interests of not making this an essay on communications or leadership skills, I’ll just cover three key things that I have learnt will help you engage your team.

1. Solve small, immediate problems

Every team has them, annoyances like broken IT equipment/systems, uncomfortable chairs or even smaller projects that have stalled or other teams that aren’t supportive. If you can tackle some of these things at the outset, you build trust and ensure people feel valued, increasing their engagement. This goes back a bit to my earlier section on delivering small benefits, but I draw it out again here to be clear that this applies to your own team as well as to the wider business.

2. Develop people

Look at what skills people need to deliver the strategy. Talk to them about what they want and ensure your strategy includes how you will build the necessary skills to deliver it. A commitment to developing skills (both technical and soft skills) sends a message that you want to support people through the change and that they are valued and worth investing in. This is a double whammy of people resource building – better engagement, better skills! As an aside, I’d also encourage you to think creatively about the skills needed and how to develop them.

Getting proper buy-in is dependent on people feeling the strategy delivers real benefit to them and is achievable. That benefit might be in terms of job satisfaction, easier working practices or professional credibility, and, in order to make the strategy do this, you need to understand what motivates people. This means a lot of listening and that needs to be ongoing throughout the development and implementation of the strategy. Listen and accept they may know better than you and be prepared to adapt and adjust your thinking and approach. Flexibility again may be necessary to adjust ‘the what’ and ‘the how’ in order to achieve ‘the objective’!

Conclusion

In writing this article, I’ve realized just how much I’ve learnt in my 13 years in the information profession and, in particular, in the last 18 months. I’m encouraged to find that the role of pilot, while sometimes scary and occasionally bewildering, is as exciting and rewarding as I had hoped. Perhaps, the main learning point is that much of the role of the information strategist is about soft skills rather than technical ones. This is not dissimilar to the difference between management and leadership. Building and implementing an information strategy requires leadership skills, regardless of the level you find yourself at in the organizational hierarchy. To continue the airplane analogy, you need a co-pilot, cabin crew and a whole host of engineers to get the plane in the air and your success depends heavily on your ability to secure their help and support.

I can’t say yet whether my own information strategy flight will land softly and deliver its passengers to the paradise island they are hoping for. However, I’m glad I set off, there’s only so much back seat driving you should do before taking your turn at the wheel (my analogy is stretching a bit thin here ….) and I hope this article encourages you to give it a try.

With thanks to everyone in the Horticultural Information and Advice team who has supported me in taking off!