Integral Strategy 115
around which stories collect. Often a specific program or a set of practices will
continue to exercise influence indefinitely because they have taken on definitive
or iconic status, perhaps as part of a saga as described by Clark or as an element
of identity that continues to have meaning. Those who wish to discover and give
voice to an institution’s narrative of identity will do well to consider these various
practices and beliefs. They offer clues about the larger story, and they can be dis-
covered through a disciplined and integrative reading of the institution as a text.
Clark’s discussion of saga and our analysis of story reveal that there are different
layers and levels of meaning in narratives. As a consequence, different forms of
inquiry must be used to understand their significance. As we have seen, they always
begin in the concrete, in specific events, particular relationships, actual places,
and real people. These particulars are then drawn together into accounts that use
language in various ways to describe a sequence of events and outcomes, follow-
ing an infinite variety of plotlines. Often the stories circulate as smaller or larger
fragments, while in some contexts their content is widely shared and understood.
Although organizational stories cannot be invented, they can be discovered and
brought to awareness. In doing so, we may find explanations for all sorts of issues
and peculiarities of an organization that have eluded us. More importantly, we may
be able to take fuller possession of our circumstances and our future as we become
more purposeful in understanding and telling our story. As we seek to know and to
articulate an institution’s story, it becomes important to look for the characteristic
patterns, themes, values, markers, and motifs that they contain, for stories have
been created around and through them. They include the following:
- Precipitating events: the founding, a transforming gift, a dramatic occurrence,
a bold new direction, encompassing change, a crisis survived - Transforming leaders: individuals such as presidents, board members, or faculty
and staff whose leadership and vision created a distinctive and enduring change
in the organization - Salient personalities: individuals whose passions, accomplishments, and endear-
ing eccentricities mark the experience of the community - Generative programs: distinctive educational programs that define the organi-
zation’s practices and self-consciousness in a normative way - Markers of distinction: the accomplishments of the institution, faculty, staff,
students, and alumni that stand out for their special quality and level of achieve-
ment in all forms of teaching, research, service, athletics, and leadership - Markers of distinctiveness: those elements that are experienced as setting the
institution apart, including a special mission, a religious commitment, a particu-
lar location, unusual programs, powerful administrative and academic compe-
tencies, a distinctive campus, special service to a community or profession, or
a relationship with a particular constituency - Features of the culture: the traditions, rituals, practices, values, norms, and
patterns of relationship and forms of community that distinguish an institution
as a human and intellectual community