Organizational Design

Tools for Authentic Organizations: Dotmocracy

March 23, 2009

Tweet The end of “business as usual”   Please, let us be coming to the end of “business as usual”. Conversations about whether MBA programs caused the financial crisis and what the future of capitalism should be suggest that ways of doing business that have long been seen as acceptable and even admirable are now […]

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What if … Executive Compensation was based on Sustaining Organizational Authenticity?

January 3, 2009

Tweet I’m a big fan of linking compensation to business outcomes … as long as the amount of compensation isn’t vulgar and the right kinds of outcomes are part of the formula. So I was intrigued by a recent article about Ethics and Executive Compensation . Ed Konczal , writing about  over at Corporate Eye […]

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Designing for Authenticity: More on the NY Jets

December 8, 2008

The December/January 2009 Issue of Fast Company has a lovely online slide-show of the NY Jets facility that follows up on the ideas in my post from September, on the 3 Things The New York Jets Can Teach You About Authenticity. ” The Jets demonstrate in their new facility ways that your organization can use its physical environment — the space where you put yourselves– to help it be more authentic.”

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…You can really see why New York  Jets EVP Sheehy would say: “Our building is the graduate school of football.”

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3 Things the New York Jets Can Teach You About Authenticity

September 10, 2008

Tweet Who knew that the New York Jets knew so much about being authentic? The New York Jets moved into their new training facility in Florham Park, NJ, just last week. Stories about the new building (designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP) describe it as huge, high-tech, state of the art, and light filled. […]

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B Corp Identity: An Opportunity for Organizational Authenticity

May 1, 2008

Tweet What are for-profit organizations to do, if they want to pursue social purposes and be authentic? Until recently, organizations facing this authenticity dilemma had three options. They could: Attempt to manage the incongruence between their actions and their identity, and forgo authenticity, Resolve the inconsistency by giving up for-purpose actions and become an authentic […]

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Can a for-profit business organization that also pursues a social purpose be authentic?

April 24, 2008

Tweet There are so many examples of for-profit organizations whose for-purpose actions are suspect that it’s a little scary to bring up the subject. Where do we even begin? We should probably start by acknowledging that the questionable relationship between a ‘for-profit’ organizational identity and ‘for-purpose’ actions (aka: non-profit, socially responsible, charitable, philanthropic, etc.) is […]

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3 Questions for a “Quick and Dirty” Assessment of Your Organization’s Authenticity

April 12, 2008

Tweet An authentic organization, very simply, is an organization whose identity, image and actions are congruent with each other. Identity is reflected in image and actions, Image accurately describes identity and actions, and actions express identity and image. How can you know whether and how your organization is authentic? It takes a deep inquiry and […]

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Can an employee be “too authentic”?

February 28, 2008

Tweet “The guy was too authentic to do his job!” The employee in question worked for an organization that created “lifestyle” products for the action sports market. He worked as an editor and was responsible for updating the organization’s website every morning. The organization positioned itself as having authentic insight into the action sports community, […]

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