Hi, Jessica and fellow List subscribers,

I've seen many references here and elsewhere over the years to records
clean up activities, a common and traditional initiative in private and
some public sector RIM outreach efforts. An additional angle to consider,
if your workplace culture enables it, is one that highlights the other end
of the throw away/delete spectrum--the value of preserving records.
Highlighting this is particularly important in employing organizations
where there are external expectations (some codified in law and all that
entails) that records of decisions and even some deliberative actions are
preserved.  But a sense of history also can help build bonds among
employees, even in a lower risk workplace culture without high external
visibility statutory requirements.

If your employer's culture permits it, you can use a quiz approach that
enables employees to answer basic questions, such as when the organization
first started operations; when the current building where you work was
built, etc.  And in providing answers, link to the pertinent records.  Or
share write ups about history based on existing records.

Employees often are interested in the past but don't always think in terms
of why tracking facts requires making the right decisions on retention
(scheduling and implementation) up front, when records still are active.
The future use component can seem a bit hazy to busy staff focused on the
day to day. As many of you know in records scheduling, business unit staff
often focus on how they themselves use records. Projecting strategically
how and why someone might do cross-business function research a decade or
two later might not be obvious to all of them and can be conveyed in an
enjoyable way as part of RIM  month.

You can see the type of information I mean in this chapter in an employee
centric history of the building I published on the GAO website in 2001.
(The images initially were clickable; I  don't know why that isn't the case
in the current version.)  This drew on agency records but also on
historical records at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA),
including those of the Commission of Fine Arts and other federal entities.
See link to part 7 of my brief web article, "How GAO Built its Dream
House."
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.gao.gov_about_history_articles_gao-2Dbuilds-2Ddreamhouse_07-2Dhowthewar.html&d=DwIFaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=eVIW8WzsjpWFikTN2Ook1PLGVCwTm7iQGDJ9ByWtuwY&s=HQ1wnJlHSH4CvbIDgcAO_o38xAyRrncQRiQj0Ds8wOo&e=
or shorted link
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_2HHF0si&d=DwIFaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=eVIW8WzsjpWFikTN2Ook1PLGVCwTm7iQGDJ9ByWtuwY&s=aPPqdJKP6pbZpcnndv9XiiVD1Kv5PD9OaTEl2V-sC-U&e=

Some of the photos from 1941 at the link are from Record Group 121, Records
of the Public Buildings Service, available for research at NARA.  During my
research in 1990-1991 at NARA on GAO's current headquarters, I found a
series of "condemnation photos" taken in 1941 that documented what the
block where the GAO headquarters building now stands then looked. They were
taken while some of the rowhouses and stores still were occupied, right
before being vacated for destruction to clear the block.  The cool looking
cars provide a sense of time and place in 1941, which I thought many
employees might enjoy.  A note at the bottom of the table of contents for
my web article in 2001 refers to a longer article on the building, which
includes source notes and citations to records used, including those at
NARA.

Employers have differing comfort zones for preservation of records.
Seemingly low risk heritage records suitable for sharing externally, such
as those about a building's history, are among the easiest to preserve.
RIM month provides other opportunities, as well. Depending on the workplace
culture and strategic focus, you can help top management by using records
to connect employees up and down the ranks.

You can see in my newly published 2018 book about GAO how I handled other
workplace issues, including racial discrimination lawsuits, efforts in the
1980s and early 1990s to improve traditional promotion patterns to provide
more opportunities for minorities, change management, services to the
Congress, the impact of a Congressionally required 25% budget reduction
over a two-year period, etc.  (GAO, a legislative branch agency, had a
Reduction in Force in 1996.)

My favorite change management quote that I used in my GAO history book
reflects an astute observation from a senior executive which provided
insights into why the agency took certain actions in the early 1980s.  If
you have records that reflect decision making, not just the press release
versions, they can provide insights into the C Suite and help employees
better understand how executives work. Here's the passage about change
management that I used in my book, after I described the focus of 1950s and
1960s recruiting efforts in the preceding section of my book:

"Frank Fee, then director of GAO’s Field Operations Division, realized in
1979 that many of GAO’s managers—the accountants hired during the 1950s and
1960s—now had to manage a 'new breed of workers.' Did they need exposure to
emerging concepts in the field of management science? Fee observed in 1979
that they might.

'I realized that we were constantly asking our managerial staff to
implement changes, and to manage our work in a different way than the way
we managed it when we were coming up through the ranks. Yet, we had not
spent the time and money to keep our managers up to date on management
thoughts and concepts. At the same time, we were hiring a staff that was
educated in modern management concepts. As a result, we experienced
difficulty in introducing change and getting our managerial staff to accept
it.'

Fee concluded that GAO’s managers needed to learn, absorb, and refine
skills and new concepts themselves before introducing them to staff. He
also believed that managers needed to 'have information as to the "why" and
a conviction of the merits' of changes, in order to implement them
successfully."

Link to my book at GAO website:  https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.gao.gov_assets_700_690041.pdf&d=DwIFaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=eVIW8WzsjpWFikTN2Ook1PLGVCwTm7iQGDJ9ByWtuwY&s=dquyHFeUzpNYGkqKnJucwhpwvWLDRxEKpA43qsfW00A&e=
or short link
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__bit.ly_2pjmQFx&d=DwIFaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=eVIW8WzsjpWFikTN2Ook1PLGVCwTm7iQGDJ9ByWtuwY&s=uX8k8VfKyZGKI8EdoWH20uwB8eC8Xo1SWBlBq6nRuog&e=

Not every employing organization has the means to offer humanizing glimpses
into policy making and operational changes.  But if yours does, and you can
do it, consider collaborating with officials in research and policy
analysis functions (historians or other analysts) to work some history into
your RIM month activities. You know your  workplace best and can show the
value of records in a way that resonates with your workplace colleagues.
There's a wide spectrum of choices, from the easier--the history of a
building--to the more complicated, such as providing context on the often
complex elements that are part of daily life at the top of an organization.
My note reflects a Society for History in the Federal Government, Society
of American Archivists, and to some extent a National Association of
Government Archives and Records Administrators vibe. Bit it's always worth
being on the lookout for enjoyable ways to connect the content of records
with colleagues!

Maarja
[log in to unmask]
Washington, DC
Blog:  Archival Explorations
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archivalexplorations.wordpress.com_&d=DwIFaQ&c=pZJPUDQ3SB9JplYbifm4nt2lEVG5pWx2KikqINpWlZM&r=b5NZPQUb9_r2rQ3Zd74ATT3aSs9yKyRnJLOhqJvd7fE&m=eVIW8WzsjpWFikTN2Ook1PLGVCwTm7iQGDJ9ByWtuwY&s=A8lEbHoXM4pAeAU1A-ftFANzKgkCJvuyGMtZw8jSLRg&e=

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