The One Piece of Records Management Advice You Actually Need

If I could only give you one piece of advice about records management — which, trust me, would be extremely difficult for me — it wouldn't be about retention schedules. It wouldn't be about folder naming conventions or digital asset management or even compliance.

It would be this: get humble and start asking questions.

I know. That probably doesn't sound like the riveting records-nerd insight you were expecting. But stay with me.

The Book That Changed How I Work

When I was working as a Deputy for a large city, I was lucky enough to be part of a leadership book club. The very first book we read was Humble Inquiry by organizational psychologist Edgar Schein. The central premise is simple but deceptively powerful:

most of us spend too much time telling people things and not nearly enough time asking questions and genuinely listening.

Read Humble Inquiry by Edgar Schein →

Schein argues that when we slow down, admit we don’t know everything, and truly listen — we build trust. And trust, it turns out, is the actual foundation of effective records management. Nobody hands over their filing system to someone they don’t trust.

Why Government Records Are So Emotionally Loaded

Here’s something they don’t teach in records management training: government employees have BIG feelings about their records. Like, really big feelings.

The idea of not being able to find something exactly when they need it can send a person into full panic mode. That emotional intensity is usually what drives the three most common records disasters I see:

• Franken-folder structures. Nobody thinks alike, so everyone saves things in a way that makes sense to their own brain. The result? A folder hierarchy that reflects the combined logic of every person who’s ever touched that department.

• Duplicate everything, everywhere. Joe can’t figure out Jane’s system, so he saves his own copy somewhere he can find it. Jane saves in PDF. Joe wants Word. The duplication piles up for years.

• The ‘just in case’ archive. Records kept forever because “maybe someday.” (Spoiler: someday almost never comes, and the retention schedule said you could have destroyed it ten years ago.)

At the root of all of this? People need to trust that they can find their records when they need them. If it takes more than a few seconds, panic sets in — not unlike how irrationally furious we all get when a webpage takes five whole seconds to load.

The Instinct to Fix Things (And Why It Backfires)

As records managers, we tend to operate in a Mother/Nanny/Teacher/Gatekeeper mode. We see a mess, and our instinct is to fix it. Tell people what to do. Make it right.

I’ve been there. I am there. But I’ve also been that person — lovingly referred to as “that records lady” — who has watched people literally turn around in the hallway to avoid having to talk to me.

That’s when I had to get honest with myself: I was so busy being the expert in records management that I forgot I wasn’t the expert in their job.

“Stop telling. Start asking. The rapport you gain is massive — and it’s what earns you the right to tell later.”

How Humble Inquiry Works in Practice

The shift is simple: before jumping to solutions, ask questions. Not to be polite. Not performatively. But because you genuinely don’t know what’s actually going on in their world.

Questions like:

• What do you actually use this record for?

• Is there a reason you’re not using the original file in [location]?

• Did you know this record could be destroyed under [retention schedule]? What’s your hesitation?

• What do you like about your current system?

• What’s your biggest fear when it comes to your records?

You will be surprised what you find. I once discovered that an entire finance office was keeping duplicate printed copies of every document — not because they thought it was best practice, but because their software had been misconfigured to print two copies of everything, and they assumed they were supposed to keep both. Years of unnecessary duplication, solved in one conversation - after having dug deeper with questions.

That’s the power of asking before assuming.

A Word of Honesty

Humble inquiry isn’t magic. Sometimes you ask great questions, get honest answers, and the answer still doesn’t make any logical sense. Some people genuinely can’t see that their system is broken. And occasionally — I say this only with the greatest respect — you’ve just got to leave a department alone until circumstances (or people) change.

But more often than not? The reason behind the chaos is surprisingly simple. And fixing a simple problem is a whole lot easier than untangling years of assumptions.

So the next time you hit a wall of illogical records practices, try getting humble before getting prescriptive. Ask the questions. Listen for real. I promise: you’ll learn something that changes your approach — and probably earn yourself a lot more goodwill in the process.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve discovered by simply asking questions? Drop it in the comments — I’d genuinely love to hear.