Today, September 1, 2024, is the 85th anniversary of the German invasion of Poland in 1939.
There are very few people left alive who were old enough at the time to remember that critical date that drove the world into an orgy of destruction, death, and depravity.
Over time we tend to lose the instinctive understanding of the context, circumstances, and drivers of events. This increases the risk that we fail to learn, so we repeat our mistakes. In short, our institutional memory fades, becomes distorted, and is often rewritten.
There is evidence of this all around us.
- After the French conceded defeat and left Vietnam, the US went in, believing they could win.
- The US again, (who deliver us numerous examples), thought their invasion of Afghanistan would work better than the Russian one. Like the Russians and British before them, they failed to have any understanding of the tribal, ethnic and historical context of Afghanistan, so were destined to repeat their mistakes.
- Few saw the 2008 financial crisis coming, despite the intensively researched similarities to the lead-up to the 1929 crash.
- The litany of failure of appeasement as a strategy to harness the aggression of regimes in Europe going back to the Romans. ‘Peace in our time’ sounded good on Chamberlin’s return from Berlin, but was empty hope.
We see it in our personal lives every day.
That bully in the schoolyard is not going to stop being a bully by having the tactic proving to be continually successful.
30 years ago, I left corporate employment, suddenly, after 10 years of accumulating market knowledge, experience, and ‘gut-feel’ insight. I was replaced by a group that had no such knowledge and insight, and who for the next few years made utterly predictable mistakes. This is despite the records left in a great big storage box filled as my former office was cleaned out, and in the heads of my former colleagues, but disregarded.
When we lose institutional memory, we are almost destined to repeat the mistakes of the past. This applies equally to individuals as it does to businesses, families, institutions, and countries.
So, how do we best avoid repeating the mistakes of the past?
Rely on data. This requires intentional and effective documentation and archiving of material. It must articulate the varying views and perspectives and their logical base, the hypotheses generated, tested, reviewed, implemented, and the outcomes of implementation tied back to cause-and-effect chains. In effect deliver yourself a searchable OODA loop for reference.
Leverage technology. The above step used to be a monumental undertaking, but current and emerging technology makes it not just easily doable, but a competitive and strategic necessity.
Knowledge transfer and mentorship. Culturally, there must be a recognition of the value not just of having the information but building on it and sharing widely. This takes a particular skill in leadership that builds a culture of learning and trust.
The successful corporations of the future will avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, which leads to erosion of their values and culture. They will see individual and group productivity and innovation as the two necessary sides of the same coin. They will navigate the tensions created by the order and repeatability of optimisation, with the messy and uncertain terrain of innovation.
They will not be able to succeed in the absence of that critical component, institutional memory.
Today is also Fathers day, a triumph of marketing by the Hallmark card company.
Lest we forget.
