I recently gave a presentation to ARMA International about the human consequences of what we do, and though you probably can get a copy of it from ARMA itself – and for sure you can from me – I wanted to take a minute to reinforce the criticality of my point.
Most of us spend our days trying to improve our organization’s ability to find information when we need it, to leverage and protect it, and to secure and assure it. And that’s all well and good.
But what too often gets lost in the mass of details and politicking is the fact that there are PEOPLE at the end of our workstreams who are affected by what we do.
Everything Was Great Until It Wasn’t
My favorite example of this – though I’m not sure “favorite” is really the best word – is a letter I saw from a health care company that was dated SEVERAL DAYS AFTER the plan expiration date that the letter was written to announce. What this means is that the patient didn’t find out their plan had ended until it was TOO LATE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.
From an IG-in-a-vacuum standpoint, everything about the letter was fine: the addressee’s information was correct, the letter and expiration dates were accurate, and the content said what it needed to. And yet the practical outcome was a dismal failure because the human at the center of the interaction was completely not served.
Wanted: An IG Code of Human Ethics
I see examples like this all the time, and it always disappoints me. Because if we really are to consider ourselves as working in a “profession,” then we must address PEOPLE’S actual circumstances at least as well as we do OUR compliance obligations.
Please consider this as a Call to Action.
- First to commit to remembering there are real-world consequences to our information actions, both good and bad,
- And second to begin thinking about what an IG Code of Human Ethics might look like.
There are many similar-sounding codes out there already, but I’d like to see one that is centered more on the people than the practices. So share your thoughts in the comments or via email or by carrier pigeon, whichever suits you. And let’s see what we can come up with.