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Institutional Memory
What an organization knows that is written nowhere, how it is lost in generational waves, and what can actually be recorded before it goes.
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01
Inheriting an Institution
You arrive holding the authority and none of the understanding. The first year determines whether you acquire it, and the instinct that got you the position works against you.
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02
Recording What Is Held
An afternoon, a recorder, and eight questions. The output is a dozen cases in the person's own words, which is the only form in which judgment survives a departure.
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03
The Knowledge That Leaves
Institutional memory departs in generational waves rather than one person at a time, and the material lost is precisely what nobody thought to write down because everybody knew it.