The Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan is a hotel near Japan’s Mount Fuji. It has 35 rooms nestled among trees on the east bank of the Haya River. Each one of us could learn from this hotel. Why? It was founded in 705 C.E. and has been managed by the same family for 52 generations. Hardly any of its wood, stone, or glass is original. But Keiunkan remains, a lasting pattern made of people.
Patterns of people
Institutions are patterns of relationship. They are lasting structures for how people connect, conflict, align, and entwine. We can think about them in two categories.
Behavioral institutions reflect patterns in how people act over time. Consider marriage, high school reunions, or neighborhood barbeques.
Organizations are the institutions that provide structure to collective activity. They are the companies, agencies, teams, and schools.
In the work of social change, we find ourselves in constant interaction with both types of institutions. They are an essential context for our work. We have to work within and through them. Sometimes they are a target for our work; we are trying to change the behavior of an organization or a group of people. And very often, they are a vehicle for our work; they provide the structure for what we do.
The term “institution” can conjure ...
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