ARMA Canada's 2021 Information Conference happened last week, and we were excited to join as a participant and sponsor. It was fun catching up with the community, even virtually! Kudos to the organizing team for a thoughtful programme and coming up with creative ways to connect.

Here are a few insights and observations from the event – we didn’t have space to cover everything, so if you have access, we’d recommend watching the recordings which are available until Dec 3. Well worth it!

The pandemic showed us a path to digital transformation

ICMYI, catch the panel featuring Michael Schweitzer on “The Pandemic and Digital Transformation”:

It was a great conversation about ‘cleaning up’ after the rush to the cloud during the pandemic, and the changes in digital transformation adoption at organizations.

A theme of “Connection”

The conference theme “Connection” was emphasized early and a great reminder to be proactive with connecting, especially for a virtual conference. The virtual booth rooms and lobbies were fun to interact with, and the ‘Spatial Chat’ was interesting!

It was our first time seeing that and seeing how easy it is to eavesdrop on conversations :) It was fun to see everyone trying out new ways of interacting, but of course we can't wait to see everyone in person next year!

Ecosystems, networks, and serendipity

Several talks focused on the ways we’re adapting to working and managing information in this digital age. Networks are common in our lives with the internet, Bitcoin, self-organizing groups, and more. Networks as an organizing principle mean decentralization, self-organization and autonomous operation. At work, this could mean changes, where isn't one person in charge – it’s a ‘network’. The "governance" officer isn't in charge of governance – there are multiple people contributing to it.

There were lots of reminders to be agile, and, as Nick Inglis says, "Embrace serendipity to drive success.” Serendipity might seem like chance or luck, but he suggests ways to use it with intentionality. For example: hold open office hours, happy hours, random 1:1s, check the 25th page of search results, listen or watch unrelated content, and use quiet time to think about combining ideas.

"Embrace serendipity to drive success.”

As IM professionals, we love structure, so this is a good reminder that the world is changing and to challenge all that structure sometimes.

AI and ML are ever-present, but we need a focus on humans too

There were several thoughtful and nuanced talks on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and automated decision-making. Automated decision-making and AI are based on training data that we humans provide, and several discussions centered on showing where biases creep in, as well as our overreliance on historical data.

The focus on humans with technology extends to training as well. In Kelvin Coleman’s cybersecurity talk, he mentioned that “Only 15% of training and awareness budgets go towards people.” We think that means that the rest of the budget goes towards tools, technology, and platforms needed to deliver training.

Only 15% of training and awareness budgets go towards people.

Yet, he also notes that human error is the reason behind 80-85% of all security breaches. Prioritizing people in cybersecurity (and we’d argue in compliance and information management too) is essential because these processes are critical to healthy organizations. He highlighted that it’s important to implement psychologically-based behaviour changing approaches to employee training, and we wholeheartedly agree. In a blog post, we discussed how we use what we know from psychology to train people on Microsoft 365.

Privacy is about control over one's information and data

In a couple of talks, it was reiterated that people often conflate privacy with secrecy. Brent Homan highlighted that maintaining privacy is not about being secretive or ‘having something to hide.’ Instead, “privacy is about control over one’s information.” The laws and regulations around privacy are playing catch up around the world, but they are just a baseline and not where we ultimately need to be. The EU is a leader in this space, and it’s worth paying attention to how they are assessing risk in automated decision making especially in education, justice, lending and other industries.

Privacy is about control over one’s information.

This was a jarring example shown in one talk (among many, many out there), so it’s important to think about how personally identifiable information will be used not only now, but in the future: 

Relatedly, during Graham Sibley’s talk on “Protecting Your Data & Ensuring Regulatory Compliance”, he noted that we should not forget the value of our data, highlighting the need for data protection.

Data is everywhere and there's (still) too much of it

Data and information are everywhere, and as we all know, it’s growing faster than ever. The pandemic created even more fuel to execute on digital transformation. Information is beautiful…right?

But perhaps it’s not data or information that’s beautiful, but more so Knowledge and Wisdom. As this diagram from the “Data Governance vs. Information Governance: What’s The Difference and Why Does It Matter?” talk shows:

It’s less about all that data and information. Instead, what we all want are more wisdom and knowledge! Alistair Kroll gave a thoughtful talk on two kinds of knowledge: normative knowledge, which is what the past tells us, and formative knowledge, which is what we're learning. The rapid pace of technical change gives normative knowledge a best-before date, meaning that wisdom gets stale quickly and we must adapt. Normative knowledge is still useful because we can learn how the future is different but we should not neglect formative knowledge. Will tools and technology help us here? We think it remains to be seen.

Ann Snyder also taught us about the implication of information doubling. We don’t know when we’re overwhelmed until we’re just about to be…it’s an important math concept she illustrated with lily pads. Ann gave us an inspiring value proposition for information governance: "By enabling us to use our information better, Information Governance frees us to be more human and to actualize true human potential. In short, we need Information Governance, because without it our information will govern us."

By enabling us to use our information better, Information Governance frees us to be more human and to actualize true human potential. In short, we need Information Governance, because without it our information will govern us.

Achieving success in digital transformation

Various speakers also shared with us some valuable lessons and advice on how to achieve success in an organization’s digital transformation, records management, or information management project.

Beverley Flynn, Megan Rattenbury, and Bruce Miller shared how they achieved compliance with record keeping and highlighted the importance of proper planning, a manageable pilot group size, automating record keeping, and more.

For small organizations looking to improve or begin their records and information management processes, Rick Sterling offered helpful advice. Anyone who is managing such a project in a small organization should begin by looking at what they currently have within the organization and building from there. He also highlighted the importance of making users the focus of your records and information management project. We couldn’t agree more with Rick’s emphasis on the need to focus on users in our projects!

Leanne Kinnear made a compelling case for the integration between records and information management and IT teams. To help both groups of the organization speak to one another, we should   encourage cross-training, involvement with the other team’s projects, employee engagement, and ongoing education.

Embracing equity, diversity, and inclusion in our field

In an important and insightful discussion, a panel consisting of Shingai Manjengwa, Kristen Many Bears, Jia Zhu, Roslyn Chambers, and Ann Snyder shared their experiences and perspectives on equity, diversity, and inclusion in the Information profession. All the panelists emphasized the need to continue making our profession as equitable, diverse, and inclusive as possible. We can take steps such as being conscious of some of our hiring practices to not only bring qualified professionals into our organizations but also instill confidence in individuals from different backgrounds who are considering a career in the Information field.

Kevin Coleman offered a high-level explanation of diversity, equity, and inclusion and offered some valuable advice on promoting these values within one’s organization. Kevin taught us that we should not overlook the value of having candid conversations. Having such conversations in a sincere way and with humility will help us to create real change and foster these values, at the workplace.

This is an ongoing focus for us where we’re always learning, and we’re honoured to recently receive a Best Workplaces™ for Inclusion Award.

See you at ARMA Canada’s 2022 Conference!

Attendees may continue to access the Virtual Conference for Information Conference 2021 until December 3, 2021 to view sessions, download documents and slides, and re-watch recorded content.

Information governance and information management matters more than ever, and thanks to ARMA Canada for organizing a conference on the topic! We can’t wait to see everyone next year in Toronto.

Authors

Lutfi Shoufi

Lutfi is a skilled Technical Writer at Gravity Union with experience in writing technical reports, technical proposals, and user-focused documentation.