We've talked at managersrealm before about the importance of company legends and telling the story of the successes of the company; this is important and necessary.
The key to doing it right though, is to center on the timeless aspects of what made the company what it was, not on the details of what happened. The reason why we should do this is that people will tend to miss the reason behind the success; and copy the details, rather than understand the dynamics behind it.
Chris Trimble talks some about this at Fast Company:
"Instincts are rooted the success stories in your own past. What happens when an entire organization shares the same success history? Instincts become almost unbreakable. Through every conversation, every meeting, and every major decision, shared instincts are reinforced."
That's the exact problem: We reinforce the past success, which makes the process of innovation extremely difficult to implement. After all, to be innovative means that you must challenge the legend of the company. This is a tough thing to do because it can be so entrenched in the company that to go against it is to seem to be destructive to the survival of the company.
We need to tell the story, and then emphasize that it's the underlying vision, concepts and heart that made the company successful, not the specific details that resulted from it. Gut instincts are usually a result of drawing upon past experiences without knowing that it is what we're doing.
Fight it by emphasizing the vision and purpose of the company, while releasing people to be creative and innovative within that context.
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