One of my first jobs out of college was working as an executive assistant in an oil and gas investing firm. I got the job through a friend of a friend's mom who played tennis with one of the managing partner's wife. Along with the normal assistant duties of scheduling meetings, booking travel arrangments and making sure the break room was never out of coffee, I was charged with the task of managing the filing system that included over 90 different well sites across the US spanning three, soon to be four, different equity funds. I was terrified.
For anyone who knows anything about oil and gas well sites, you know that each well comes with a gargantuan amount of data. Seismic readings, well files, fracking data, blah, blah, blah. Not to mention contracts, maps, dig reports, pay-out information for well site personnel - you get the picture. The filing system in place, if you could even call it that, was laughable. I blame two over-caffeinated managing partners who were better at managing the investors' money and picking the next best investing opportunity than keeping their paperwork organized.
Spending a good part of a year with the contents of the filing cabinets strewn about the floor, chairs, and any open table space I could find, I made stacks and stacks of papers, labeled over 300 file folders, divided up the contents of four floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets into a folder by folder masterpiece.
I made it dummy proof.
I created a system so dummy proof that one of the managing partner's 10 year old daughter could find the well report for "X" well at "Y" site from "Z" fund. I made it so dummy proof that someone who knows nothing about the subject of oil and gas investing could find the exact contract for "XYZ" well they were looking for.
I like to consider metadata the key to making finding digital information dummy proof. As mundane (or exciting - depends on who you ask) as it is to break things down to the tiniest level of organization through physical file folders or digital metadata, it is essential for information management and retrieval.
And I dig it.
For anyone who knows anything about oil and gas well sites, you know that each well comes with a gargantuan amount of data. Seismic readings, well files, fracking data, blah, blah, blah. Not to mention contracts, maps, dig reports, pay-out information for well site personnel - you get the picture. The filing system in place, if you could even call it that, was laughable. I blame two over-caffeinated managing partners who were better at managing the investors' money and picking the next best investing opportunity than keeping their paperwork organized.
Spending a good part of a year with the contents of the filing cabinets strewn about the floor, chairs, and any open table space I could find, I made stacks and stacks of papers, labeled over 300 file folders, divided up the contents of four floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets into a folder by folder masterpiece.
I made it dummy proof.
I created a system so dummy proof that one of the managing partner's 10 year old daughter could find the well report for "X" well at "Y" site from "Z" fund. I made it so dummy proof that someone who knows nothing about the subject of oil and gas investing could find the exact contract for "XYZ" well they were looking for.
I like to consider metadata the key to making finding digital information dummy proof. As mundane (or exciting - depends on who you ask) as it is to break things down to the tiniest level of organization through physical file folders or digital metadata, it is essential for information management and retrieval.
And I dig it.
You have an implicit understanding of structured (metadata) organizing!!
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing better than a well organized workspace! It seems like every time I begin a new job, I am faced with inconsistent (or non-existent) file systems. The first thing I do is spend time organizing file systems, creating system maps, spreadsheets, etc to make life easier - not just for me, but for anyone who comes in behind me.
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