 | Corporate Extreme Hoarding
Are all organization guilty of Extreme Hoarding? I ran across a show on TLC the other night that I was fascinated and disgusted by. The show was about Extreme Hoarding where people have an addition to the “collection” of things. In this particular episode a woman lived in a small two bedroom apartment in Chicago. A camera crew followed her through her apartment as she described the contents of each room and justified the piles of junk. Each of the rooms seemed to have a specific theme. One was books, one was clothes, one was household items, each piled in some semblance of order. As I watched this show it was all to familiar. The collection of things in a semi orderly fashion with no intent of disposal. I see this on a regular basis in most organizations. They are compulsive hoarders of information. Organizations collect data, documents and digital files at an exponential rate. It is estimated that financial companies add 40% more information year over year. The problem is digital so it is only visible to a small group of individuals in the organization, but it manifests itself in many ways. Increased storage costs, costly backup solutions, increased cost in discovery and out of court settlements to reduce litigation cost are only a small number of ways the hoarding presents. Looking at the symptoms of hoarding as defined in clinical terms you can quickly draw a comparison:
| Symptoms of Hoarding | Comparison to Corporate Information Hoarding |
| The acquisition of and failure to discard a large number of possessions that appear to be useless or of limited value | Information on file shares, content repositories, email repositories and local hard drives that is duplicate, out dated, incomplete, etc. |
| Spaces sufficiently cluttered so as to preclude activities for which those spaces were designed | It is estimate that 50% of the digital information in an organization is not of business value and is taking up space and resources. Is this space designed to be a junkyard of information? |
| Significant distress or impairment in functioning caused by the hoarding | A report from Delphi Research finds that at least the equivalent of a full work day per week is spent trying to find electronic information. This impairs the productivity and increases the stress. |
Does this make most if not all organizations guilty of Extreme hoarding? I think that the answer is yes! I have not run across an organization yet that did not exhibit most if not all of these symptoms. Why is this? The root cause is much the same as the cause in general for hoarding. Hoarders have no defined plan for the removal of unneeded items. The excuses are exactly the same:
- They will need that information later
- They have spent the time to acquire that item and don’t want to have to spend that time in the future should they need it
- Someone else may have a need for that item
- It does not hurt anyone to keep it
The reactions to trying to take away the information are stunningly similar. A quick sense of panic sets in on the hoarder. They become defensive and argue each point even when faced with the consequences of their actions. They deny there is a problem and promise to clean up the issue. They make excuses for the situation and blame others.
Understanding the cure for hoarding can give us some insight into curing companies from hoarding data. Some of the same techniques that are used to treat hoarding in people can work for organizations as well. I'm not suggesting giving everyone in the company an antidepressant and quickly deleting information before they come out of it, but it is an alternative. For most organizations the type of psychotherapy needed can be delivered by a certified records manager (CRM) and an electronic cataloging of the information across the organization. The CRM can help define the retention process and file plan to provide a road map to be followed moving forward. The cataloging can be accomplished using Content Analytics for Legacy Data Retention, this will use the CRM's information to crawl through all of the content and identify what is needed and what needs to be disposed or looked at. Unlike the TLC show where your sister-in-law stands in your living room holding her nose with a look of disgust and indignation, the solution to corporate information hoarding is less painful and has significant financial benefits.
Sources:
Analytics in corporate retention
Compliance with eDiscovery
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