“There’s an old saying about those who forget history. I don’t remember it, but it’s good.”

When you’re in the museum business, it’s easy to take for granted the value of history. But truly almost any type of organization can benefit from preserving its past.

For too many companies, the finer points of their rich institutional history exist only in the minds of the employees who lived it—or worse, buried in some uninspired section of the employee handbook.

Granted, it’s hard to make history a priority when there are customers to serve, deals to seal and bills to pay today (…and more tomorrow).

But as leadership experts John T Seaman Jr. and George David Smith caution, “leaders with no patience for history are missing a vital truth: A sophisticated understanding of the past is one of the most powerful tools we have for shaping the future.” (From “Your Company’s History as a Leadership Tool”, published in the Harvard Business Review)

Whether you work for a small business or a huge corporation, here are four ways you can leverage your past for success today and tomorrow.

Keep a Media Archive. While most large companies do systematically file their media mentions and promotional materials, lots of smaller companies have trouble finding (read: making) the time to create and maintain an organized archive. However, a chronological collection of all your press is a tremendously valuable reference, whether you’re looking for a pull quote for a promotional brochure or buffing up for a presentation at the next board meeting. Thankfully, even if you’re a bit behind on your archive (or, er, haven’t exactly started it yet…), you can find a lot on the internet (bless you, Wikipedia!) However, it helps to obtain at least a few physical copies of newspapers, magazines, brochures and other print media whenever available, and be sure to use protective envelopes or sleeves to store them. Jump starting a media archive can be a GREAT project for interns, as it’s guaranteed they’ll pick up some valuable research skills and learn a lot about the company along the way. Once you’re all caught up, set a Google Alert and be sure to designate someone to stay on top of it!

Have Fun with Anniversaries. Amy Poehler’s endearingly over-enthusiastic character Leslie Knope from the TV comedy “Parks and Recreation” is known for making up bizarre holidays to commemorate seemingly mundane activities—for example “Cauliflower Day,” for the first (and last) time she ate cauliflower…right. Goofiness aside, there is something to be said for celebrations, especially when it comes to employee morale. After all, it’s the little things that collectively make up your company culture. Maybe it’s as simple and silly as passing out 100 Grand candy bars on the anniversary of the day your company won its first 100K contract, or a lunchtime pizza party the week your Facebook page hits 10,000 likes (or for a fun twist, make it an obscure number instead, like 9,561. Why not?) Of course, you want to milk the major milestones for some external PR as well, but celebrating some of the small stuff internally is a fun way to motivate employees, reinforce your history, and make the biggest accomplishments all the more meaningful.

Create a History Wall. A well-designed history wall gives physical presence and aesthetic appeal to your corporate story. Well-trafficked lobbies and lounges are great places to install one. To be most effective, the content of your History Wall should be thematically organized and developed through interpretive design methods. You also may want to consider whether and how the history wall might be expanded upon in the future—you know, as you keep rocking those milestones!

Taylor Studios can help you create an attractive and engaging History Wall from concept to completion. We start with an interpretive and design workshop to help hone your content to fit your goals and brand standards. As a full-service design-build firm, we also have the in-house capabilities to fabricate and install your History Wall, and provide you with a maintenance manual (for posterity!) Take a look at one of our History Wall projects here.

Showcase Bygone Branding. This one is especially great for social media’s “Throwback Thursday” tradition and other digital outlets. Advertisements from yesteryear, past iterations of your logo, or even photos of former buildings can evoke that warm-and-fuzzy sense of nostalgia among employees and consumers alike. Especially when shown in contrast to your modern-day presence, it helps paint a portrait of a company that is self-aware and dedicated to continual growth, improvement and evolution.

As Seaman Jr. and Smith write, “to lead with a sense of history is not to be a slave to the past but, rather, to acknowledge its power.”

Take the next step and harness that power by putting your history to work for you.