Article

“The Art of Being Plainspoken”: CEP Magazine interviews Mark Diamond

Article

“The Art of Being Plainspoken”: CEP Magazine interviews Mark Diamond

In this November 2026 interview with Bill Anholzer, editor of the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics’ CEP Magazine, Contoural CEO Mark Diamond offers strategies and advice for building effective, leadership-supported records management and information governance programs, with a common theme: clear, plain-spoken communication is a key for success.

Click “Download” to read the full interview as a PDF, or access the article on the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics’ CEP Magazine News & Insights section.

Key Takeaways

Instead of maintaining a separate records retention policy and privacy policy, organizations should build one integrated policy and schedule that includes personal information and documents the business need for keeping it.
Over-retention creates clutter that makes valuable information harder to find amid redundant, obsolete, and trivial (ROT) information. Treat the retention schedule as a consensus-building exercise with the business, then use tools the organization already owns to automate processes so employees can achieve compliance in five seconds or less.
Speak plainly and avoid jargon. Anything in information governance, privacy, or AI can be explained simply if you understand it well.
Frame information governance and records management programs around business value, not compliance. To win buy-in and funding, start with leadership’s priorities. Today, two stand out: employee productivity and generative AI, which is only as good as the information fed into it.
Build a cross-functional coalition to engage and get buy-in from legal, privacy, IT, InfoSec, and business units.
Assess current capabilities, identify gaps, and build a roadmap that aims for the right level of maturity. Target a practical “golf cart” or “Chevy” level of maturity rather than a “sports car,” then improve over time.
Compliant, accurate, and safe AI use is an opportunity to promote effective governance and compliance.

Join us for our November webinar, "You’ve Just Been Handed Your Company’s Records Program. Now What?"