Organizational Timeline: Writing the History of Your Organization
Objective of the Tool is to appreciate our history, trends we have experienced, as well as what the past means to us.
In an institution, it is important to create a common body of history in a participatory way. Historians accept, to a growing extent, the findings of cognitive psychology and neuro-biology. As Wolf Singer, the director of a private German research organization for brain sciences puts it: "We just perceive what we expect anyhow." That means that history, in particular the recording of oral history, is always related to the construction of reality people make in their minds. Whoever is recording the history of the organization will be selective, often over generalize, and sometimes distort information. The more views on organizational history are collected, the more people are involved in the selection of relevant issues to be interpreted and recorded, the greater the chance for successful organizational change.
Time lines are a part of an organization's history. They encourage people to tell their own stories and to compare them with those of colleagues. Overall, they help to identify trends and important events that changed the flow of the organization's history.
Worksheet for participants to be used in a workshop:
| Step 1: Drawing the time line
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- Alone, think about events that represent notable milestones and/or turning points in your personal life, globally and in the history of your organization. Try to identify a couple of assumptions that you made at certain times of the history. There are some sheets attached that will help you to focus on important events.
- Use a marker to write (or draw) your milestones on the time line which is displayed on the pinboards. Use black markers for the "facts" that happened and red markers for the "assumptions".
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| Step 2: Analyzing the time line
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- The participants form groups of 6-8 persons. Each group will analyze one of the three different time lines with the following questions:
- What were important trends are noticed at different times?
- What assumptions did/do people make on the future?
- How did the trends and assumptions shape what happened next?
- Are there important lessons for the future?
- What does the personal time line say about the people working within your organization?
- What does the global time line say about the position of your organization in the world and
how the organization has reacted to global trends?
- What does the institutional time line say about the learning processes within the organization?
- The group should prepare one flip chart that summarizes their main findings. We have prepared templates for the preparation of individual time lines, which you can download as PDF-
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PERSONAL: What you did and what happened to you?
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| 1974-1984 (what happened)
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what did you expect to happen next?)
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| 1984-1994 (what happened)
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what did you expect to happen next?)
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| 1994 to 2004 (what happened)
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what did you expect to happen next?)
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| 2004-2014 (what do you expect to happen next)
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Table 1: Template for Personal Timeline
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GLOBAL TRENDS What outside influences shaped the work you are doing?
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| 1974-1984 (what happened)
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what did you expect to happen next?)
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| 1984-1994 (what happened)
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what did you expect to happen next?)
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| 1994 to 2004 (what happened)
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what did you expect to happen next?)
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| 2004-2014 (what do you expect to happen next)
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Table 2: Template for Global Timeline
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YOUR ORGANIZATION What happened in your organization?
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| 1974-1984 (what happened)
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what did you expect to happen next?)
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| 1984-1994 (what happened)
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what did you expect to happen next?)
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| 1994 to 2004 (what happened)
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what did you expect to happen next?)
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| 2004-2014 (what do you expect to happen next)
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Table 3: Template for Organizational Timeline
