Институциональная память и инновации: поиск баланса между опытом и новизной в организациях

We are fascinated by newness. The younger generations will always grow weary of the older generations slowing everything down. We fall into the trap of confusing enthusiasm with wisdom. I am now old enough to be bemused by those who have just stumbled into a brand-new insight that is hundreds of years old. I also provided such bemusement to my elders in years past. In any organization there are people who have been around for decades that understand how things work. They embody the tacit rules and help those who are new to the system learn to navigate those rules. They know the procedures and remember the mistakes. They have lived through correcting bad decisions and being surprised by good ones that seemed bad at the time. They can slow things down enough to give the organization time to think. There are always, it seems, those leaders who hang on longer than is good for them or their organization. However, even an incapacitated leader is an anchor to memory. I have seen this in church leadership, business, and politics. The friction is massively frustrating, but that friction is not always bad. Anyone who has lived through a clearing event of upper management knows how unsettling it can be for those in charge to have no institutional memory. Anyone who has been part of a church which has lost its founding leadership knows how hard it can be to reinvigorate a congregation with a renewed vision that still honors the founding vision. There has been a call in the past few decades for term limits in congress. It is interesting that term limits are usually a talking point for the challengers, but almost never the incumbents. I would argue that those arguing for them are far more self-interested than those who are silent. Sounds like a good idea, until we think about where institutional memory lies. If elected officials are term limited, then institutional memory shifts to special interests, lobbyists, and think tanks. In other words, those who know how things work and get things done shift to unelected groups with agendas that may or may not be aligned with where a member of congress is from. We have already seen a massive increase in presidential power over the past fifty years. Congressional term limits would increase that even more. That is a path that leads to a more unstable and unpredictable government. One of the reasons that our nation has been relatively stable (with a couple of serious wobbles) for two and a half centuries is because the legislative process is meant to be slow and inefficient. Now, let’s consider institutional memory in churches and synagogues. I recall a time in my life when thinking of the church as an organization was not what the Bible taught. It was a living organism. I am thankful for those who were patient enough with me to allow me to grow out of that thinking. It was those people with a long memory that had seen it all before that guided me. I had to learn that it is both – organism and organization. Paul uses metaphors of the body and the temple to describe the church. I wasn’t saying anything new. It was just new to me. Staying connected helped me work through a fault in my logic much more quickly than if I had struck out on my own. There will always be tension between what we are doing and what we should be doing — in government and practicing faith. That tension is often seen in generational differences. The tension is often seen between those who want to try something new and those who have been around longer know, through experience, will not work. It is also seen in those who want to innovate and those who do not want to fix what is — to their minds — not broken. As always, those who carry institutional memory should be tenacious and flexible. Those who want to move forward should be patient and determined. Just keep in mind that if we remove all the wisdom, the power will shift into the hands of those who may have their own interests ahead of the whole. If we prevent newness from flowing in, we will stagnate. This is an important balance for nations and for churches. Boats need a motor and a rudder working together. Without a motor it will not go anywhere. Without a rudder it could go anywhere. Sean is always interested in feedback and conversation. He can be reached at [email protected]. He publishes a daily devotional via Substack at seanniestrath.substack.com.