What's the difference between records management and information governance — and why should anyone running a business care? In this episode of What Counts, Lee Karas and Maura Dunn step back from the weeds of counterparty data to answer a deceptively simple question: what is information governance, and why is it the natural next step? Maura traces the journey from a world where creating a record was hard and expensive — clay tablets, hand-copied scrolls, the Federal Records Act — to today, where producing information takes ten seconds and most of it is noise. Along the way they untangle the vocabulary (governance is strategy and the "why"; management is execution), revisit the records-management principles that still hold true, and show how information governance helps you surface the small slice of information that actually runs your business. They close with practical moves you can make now: stop making copies, send a link instead of an attachment, and standardize and automate your contracts so your best people spend their time where the value and the risk actually live. This episode builds on Episode 134, where Lee and Maura broke down how to keep counterparty and vendor data from sprawling across teams and systems before contracts are even signed. Listen to the previous episode here. "Governance is more strategic — it incorporates the why. Management is execution." Key takeaways Governance ≠ management. Governance sets strategy and the "why"; management executes, audits, and proves it. Records management isn't dead — its core test still applies: does this provide evidence of a policy, process, decision, action, or transaction? Cheap creation is the modern problem. When anyone can publish in ten seconds, the hard part isn't making information — it's finding the small slice that matters. Information governance is how you fight the noise so you can surface what runs the business and demonstrates compliance. Stop making copies. Replace emailed attachments with links to a single, easy-to-reach, always-current source. Unmanaged data is a risk, not just clutter — especially when it contains sensitive or critical-infrastructure information. Contracts are where governance pays off: standardize, automate the routine, and reserve human attention for the high-value, high-risk exceptions. Overall Episode Length: 0018:28 Episode chapters 00:00 — Sponsor: TrailBlazer Insight. Scan your shared drives locally for PII, HIPAA, PCI, and other compliance risks — no cloud, no IT ticket. 00:20 — Welcome to What Counts. Every organization hides a story in its data; meet your hosts, Lee and Maura. 00:47 — Recap & the segue. From Episode 134's counterparty-data cleanup (persistent IDs, central systems, choke points) to a bigger question: what is information governance? 01:33 — Why this, why now. Making your contracts work for you starts with understanding your counterparties — and that leads straight to governance. 02:00 — The vocabulary problem. The words around this work keep changing (including TrailBlazer's short-lived attempt to coin "information design"). 03:21 — Governance vs. management. Governance is strategic and carries the "why"; management is execution — following, auditing, and proving the process. 04:07 — Records management roots. Library school, law firms, and federal records centers — and the definition that still anchors the field. 04:51 — What is a "record"? Information that's recorded (or can be) and provides evidence of decisions, actions, and transactions. 06:13 — When records were scarce. Cuneiform, scrolls, ink, and recyclable paper that fell apart — and the Federal Records Act, the first time the U.S. allowed records to be destroyed. 07:44 — Today's flood. Creating information is now the cheapest thing you can do — so the value of any single piece is hard to find, and most has none. 08:37 — Enter information governance. From information management to data governance to information governance: a...
