If we leave it at this, institutional thinking risks quickly degenerating into simple
conformity either to what someone else tells you to do or what everyone else is
doing. That is the sort of conformity which some see in the modern decline of
culture, and it is precisely against such a loss of ‘‘will to meaning’’ that institutions
stand guard (Frankl 1993 ). Modern prejudices to the contrary, thinking institu-
tionally is still thinking. Rather than being mindless, it means being mindful in
certain ways. It means exercising a particular form of attentiveness to the world.
- 2 Institutional Thinking as Faithful Reception
As a basic stance toward life, institutional thinking understands itself to be in a
position of receiving rather than of inventing or creating. The emphasis is not on
thinking up things for yourself, but on faithfully taking delivery of and using what
has been handed down to you. Because the known ways are valued, there is no
special premium given to novelty, newness, or originality for its own sake.
Here too, modern minds canWnd this emphasis on receiving to be quite strange,
to say the least. When some issue arises, we expect to consult diVerent opinions,
consider alternatives, and come up with a working solution, preferably something
new and innovative. From the institutionalist perspective, things are diVerent.
What has been received from those who preceded carries authority. It is precisely
the authority of what has been given to us that makes it an institution that is at
work in our minds/lives, rather than some passing arrangement or mood of
convenience.
This does not mean closing oVthought or any form of innovation. Quite the
contrary. Precisely because it regards itself as a legatee of something of great value,
institutional thinking eagerly seeks to understand what has been received in light
of new circumstances that are always intruding. To be submissive to what has been
received is a distinctly unfashionable idea, but it does not mean being servile.
Because some things are regarded as Wxed (such as the essential mission of a
business, the ritual of a church, or in a politician like Lincoln’s case, the ideal of
the Union), there is something against which to be adaptable.
- 3 Institutional Thinking as Infusions of Value
It has been famously observed that to institutionalize something is to ‘‘infuse with
value beyond the technical requirements of the task at hand’’ (Selznick 1957 , 17 ).
This is a helpful view because it points toward the distinction between strictly
instrumental attachments needed to get a particular job done and the deeper
thinking institutionally 735