Institutional memory: beyond the fear of losing it

Theme: Team practices | Dealing with change  

A lot of our institutional memory is embodied in our people. So what happens when they leave? How can we preserve institutional memory without the physical container of an office space? How will we know what to keep? And how can we make this part of our work rather than something that sits outside of it and takes away from it?

This session shares case study material from GDS teams to demonstrate different approaches to recognising, categorising, prioritising and sustaining memory in an organisation. 

It will cover components of institutional memory, risks around losing it, times when it’s brought into sharper focus and why a reframing of how to sustain it (and why we should sustain it) can help people and teams act intentionally.

Participant takeaways:

• A practical framework to help you identify and understand the elements of your institutional memory
• A method for assessing the risk of institutional memory loss at team and organisational level
• Tools for teams to help sustain memory as part of, not separate from, delivery