Institutional Memory as Strategy: A Board’s Guide to Preserving Organisational Knowledge

In the words of researcher and librarian Alex Byrne, preserving memories gives you awareness and written evidence of events important decisions and changes.

Preserving institutional memory enables future board members and staff to access and utilise organisational knowledge such as artifacts, data, images, and texts. Corporate memory provides a better understanding of buildings, monuments, and sites, and transmits traditions and professional practices.

For information to be useful, it needs to be organised and prioritised, retained and stored, and made available to those who need it. This means having a good storage and retrieval system, and developing processes and rules for accessing, storing, sharing, and presenting the information when needed.

Records and archives are an asset and can be used to make better decisions during strategic planning sessions. It’s not always clear who is responsible for retaining and overseeing these materials. This article explains what institutional or corporate memory is, who is responsible for keeping these documents, and what they usually contain.

What Is Institutional Memory?

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management describe organisational memory as “the knowledge that has been accumulated from past experiences, which resides in the organisation and can be used towards making decisions.” Both institutional and organisational memory refer to the collective knowledge collected and preserved by people. Institutional memory is held by institutions and tends to be more structured, for example, policy documents, historical data, or organisational knowledge related to procedures.

Organisational memory is broader and can include informal knowledge such as organisational culture, stories, and shared experiences. Both have implications for learning, onboarding, and strategic planning. Research shows that organisations store their corporate memories in a company system where archival documents, data, and other informational assets can be stored and managed for long-term use. A board portal or board management software can help preserve and make accessible important records.

Knowledge management is essential for producing, sharing, and storing information and data for the benefit of the organisation and its stakeholders. An open and trusting corporate culture that emphasizes preserving and sharing knowledge and encourages stakeholder engagement creates a strong corporate memory over time, which can have several benefits.

What are the benefits of institutional memory retention?

If done right, institutional knowledge can strengthen stakeholder relationships and help the board achieve its objectives faster and for less money. It enables you to weather changes like employee turnover. One study concluded that a strong system for preserving institutional memory involves people and documents and collecting, storing and providing access to the organisational experience and learned lessons.

Culture and strategy coach Raelynn Randall notes that collective memory in the workplace creates a repository of shared experience and learning. “Drawing from past experiences enables leaders and employees to make informed choices that align with the company’s established principles and long-term objectives,” according to Randall. The information prepares the leadership to meet new challenges and adapt.

Organisational knowledge and memory can boost innovation, give continuity to employees and leaders when someone leaves, and help manage risks by learning from mistakes. For example, indexing is essential to allowing stakeholders to access the information they need,” according to the study.

What does institutional memory contain?

Institutional and organisational memory encompass the collective knowledge, experiences, and resources that shape an organisation’s identity and effectiveness over time. This includes strategic programs and services, key individuals and events, and the materials they produce, all of which contribute to informed decision-making and continuity.

Building collections that capture organisational knowledge and corporate history happens both organically through day-to-day activities and strategically by identifying and making available useful content. Here are the main categories of materials contained in institutional memory:

Strategic Resources

Financial and non-financial resources acquired over time can boost success and provide the blueprint for obtaining funding, developing partnerships, and designing programs, processes, and policies. Records and archival materials give insights into the best practices and strategies available and help boards and staff navigate big changes.

Programs and Services

Saving programmatic information can offer ideas on how to design, manage, and monitor new programs. Tools for measuring progress and impact, assessing risks, and updating policies and procedures can offer insight into past challenges and successes. Annual reports, newsletters, and board meeting minutes are important ways of tracking growth and evaluating whether an organisation is meeting its objectives and purpose.

Key People

Retaining information about the organisational founders and key figures is useful for building authority in the community and sharing stories and background information with donors, funders, and the media. Understanding the original purpose of the organisation from the perspective of the founding members offers insights into strategic planning, helping the board avoid past challenges and find solutions to current problems.

Key Events

Information about events that changed the organisation’s focus, status, or strategic direction is critical to succession planning and onboarding new team members. For example, documents related to a non-profit’s status as a corporation or charity, financial agreements, and tax exemptions help the board understand the entity’s position and financial health. Documenting important milestones such as receiving significant funds, leasing a building, or launching a new program shows progress on specific issues in the community and provides details about budgets and marketing strategies.

Who is responsible for retaining institutional memory?

From the board’s perspective, institutional memory oversight is often the responsibility of the company secretary, although others may play a role in creating and maintaining files or keeping images, videos, or objects. For instance, board minutes and maintaining corporate documentation are often in their job description.

However, corporate history goes beyond the boardroom. On a practical level, anyone who creates files, stores meeting agendas and minutes, designs curriculum for a program, corresponds with partners and agencies, maintains volunteer and employee records, or builds lists of sponsors, venues, and suppliers is creating corporate memory.

From a legal standpoint, Australian companies are required to keep business records for five years and employee records for seven years. Charities registered with the ACNC must keep records for seven years. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) may ask for financial records at any time and can impose penalties if they aren’t in good order. The financial director and finance committee chair may oversee the bookkeeping system, including manual or digital records related to accounting and financial administration.

In short, everyone on the board plays a crucial role in preserving and transmitting cultural information and experiences by building a historical record of people, things, and events. The retention (and occasionally the destruction) of institutional memory is a shared responsibility between those who create the records and those who oversee the organisation.

Final Thoughts

Not everything should be retained since keeping every document, email, and piece of data would overwhelm the system and hide what’s really valuable. Records retention and destruction policies can give your board legal, administrative, and regulatory standards for managing organisational knowledge that will ensure you keep important materials. The information you keep will reflect your corporate history to future board members and other stakeholders.

On the other hand, preserving outdated, redundant, or failing to discard confidential data can create unnecessary costs and administrative burden. Information governance (IG), the approach your board takes to managing information as an asset, emphasises thoughtful planning around records retention, archival preservation, and the destruction of some documents. IG reduces the risk of privacy breaches, makes information retrieval easier, and supports access to meaningful organisational memory.

Additional Resources

Record Keeping Evaluation Tool (ATO)

Overview of Record-Keeping Rules (ATO)

Our Cat Herder Board Portal: How It Works

Australian Rules for Retaining and Destroying Records

Further Reading

Free Minute Taking Course: An Introduction for Boards

Transferring and Securing Wisdom and Knowledge: A Mission Critical Activity For All Leaders

Practical Steps to Good Governance and Risk Management