As information governance (IG) professionals it’s our job to balance two seemingly opposite organizational goals: tap information for its value, while simultaneously mitigating the potential risk that information carries. But in an increasingly regulated environment where dollars are stretched thin and technology is always evolving, how can we make sure that we are setting our law firm on the right course? How do we set ourselves (and our future selves) up for success?
Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed explores how communities can collapse when they fail to manage resources appropriately. The parable of the stories he relates about ancient civilizations is clear: to be short sighted is to be short lived. It is human nature to focus on short term goals in the pursuit of easily attainable success, so how do we retrain ourselves to think differently and lengthen the yardstick by which we measure ourselves? To apply this lesson to the world of information governance is to see clearly that we must act in someone else’s best interest.
