By Julie Colgan, Director, Information Governance
November 05, 2010 - 1:30 PM
I have a degree in Anthropology, and I can honestly say that I had blast earning it. So why is it that someone who so whole-heartedly enjoyed studying cultures like the Sherpa or reading books like The Bones in the Basement wound up blogging on the AIIM ERM Community and spending her days as a RIM Director for a law firm? Well, honestly, that’s what paid the bills while I daydreamed about exotic places and fascinating people in class. But my degree has helped me immensely in my career … which I’ll explain toward the end of this post.
My mom - the smartest, coolest, funniest, strongest woman EVER - was a librarian. As a young girl, I spent hours in the library with her and loved reading as much as she did. I always thought the draw to the library for her was about the text, the words, the stories; but it turns out, she had the organization gene too. As much as she admired books as art as she carefully placed them on shelves, she also like cataloging them. She liked the ironic nature of cataloging – a task seemingly so structured and straightforward, yet when it came to actual classification based on content it was never as cut-and-dry as you’d think. It was a challenge. It made her think, and that made her smile.
Years later, after working at the pizza joint in high school and a one day career at the local Taco Bell, I succumbed and got a job at the local library (as uncool as that appeared). I knew it right away. Getting to use the alphabetic sorters to sort check-out cards by book title was strangely fun. I was hooked.
Fast forward to today ... As a director, I don’t get the opportunity to roll up my sleeves as much as I used to; but if you ask my staff, I stick my nose into things when I’m feeling too far away from the front-line. Most of my time is spent persuading, negotiating and influencing firm leadership, selling business cases for new initiatives or handling 5-alarm fires that have escalated up to me. I like this role, and the very grey nature of it suits me just fine – like my mom, it makes me think and so makes me smile.
So how has Anthropology helped me grow into who I am today? Simple. Respect. For those who don’t know anything about the discipline of Anthropology, I’ll tell you this - it’s about respecting human nature. It’s about understanding and appreciating the instinct of human beings to group together for survival based on common sensibilities and common challenges. Much has been written about Tribes, and I think the concept is spot-on. We have a natural need to belong to something. It’s real. It’s undeniable. It’s instinct.
The tribe I belong to, in a professional sense, is records and information management. However, for as much as I identify with the RIM tribe, I have also been trained to respect the tribes that others choose to belong to: IT, Compliance, Legal, whatever. I understand that you’re just trying to make sense of what is around you. I want to help. I want to learn.
I get why people stay up at night; I get why they sacrifice time with their families and time pursuing other important things to try to figure out how to make a difference. It’s about principle. It’s about shared experience. It’s about figuring out what your natural talent and affinity is and following and nurturing that. It’s okay if you’re born to organize, I promise!
My plans for this blog are simply to share my perspective on our shared experience. To let you look through the lens of my life and see what I see. Perhaps that change in perspective will give you inspiration, perhaps it will only serve as a moment of escape – either, to me, is my time well-spent.
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This post and comment(s) reflect the personal perspectives of community members, and not necessarily those of their employers or of AIIM International
