Saturday, July 15, 2006

Illustrating institutional memory

As some organizations grow they lose track of their own stories. Sometimes remnants of their early successes are housed in dusty storage rooms or reside only in the minds of a few old-timers. That is a shame not least because of the danger of losing institutional memory.

An example of an organization that tells its story well is PATH. The other day I got a tour of its Seattle office, where staff members have made an effort to represent the story of the organization visually. In addition to displays of awards and high-profile media coverage, there are display cases of technologies the organization has developed and a large installation made up of images that reflect different aspects of the company’s international development work.

These displays help the visitor understand the complexity behind applying technology to public health issues and instill in the employees sense of how what they are working on fits into the larger institutional picture of the organization.

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