Defining Authenticity

Tweet Yourself Like the Person You Want to Be

February 18, 2009

In nearly every corner of my blogging universe, someone is excited about Twitter. Other organizations & leadership bloggers, social media experts, branding experts, and even my info junkie friends are all finding something useful in the opportunity to share information in the super-condensed form of 140 characters. We think that Twitter is a tool for [...]

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Online Reputations and Authenticity

January 19, 2009

Through Andy Beal , the Marketing Pilgrim , I saw this interesting visual presentation (embedded at the end of this post) on the importance of online reputation management. The presentation is interesting in its design (more dense and active than your regular power-point presentation) but more importantly in its content. And, the presentation simple and [...]

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The Case Against A Marriott Boycott (part 2): Marriott is not Anti-Gay

December 4, 2008

Another reason not to boycott Marriott? Marriott is not an anti-gay organization. Marriage equality activists who advocate boycotting Marriott hotels are encouraging consumers to punish the Marriott Corporation for its connection to the Mormon Church. Boycott activists argue that the Marriott Corporation’s profits ultimately  subsidize the anti-gay activities of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. [...]

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If Stephen Colbert were the CEO of Zappos: Explaining a layoff to your employees

November 13, 2008

On The Colbert Report , it’s called "The Word".  In Web 2.0, it’s called "transparency ". Historically, it’s called "telling the truth". As I was working on a more serious post about Zappos , I could not push aside my annoyance at the contradiction between the way the Zappos layoff has been discussed in the [...]

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4 Ways Palin Creates a Fake “Reality”

October 3, 2008

In my earlier post, Use Real Authenticity to Establish Fake Authenticity: Sarah Palin shows organizations how , I argue that Palin is a useful role model for organizations in the way that she has gone about creating "Fake Authenticity." Establishing Fake Authenticity has two steps, and in this post I’ll discuss Step 1: Creating a [...]

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The 3 Inviolable Rules of Authentic Organizations

September 17, 2008

While working on some ideas in the pipeline, I realized that I have a few absolutes about what defines when organizations are being authentic. I’ve tried to whittle these down to their basic descriptions and to take away a bit of the specificity that makes the ideas seem academic and/or too complex.  Here are these [...]

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Black Organizations: Authenticity through "an obligation to our own"?

September 5, 2008

What makes an organization or business authentically “Black”? [Or for that matter, what makes an organization authentically "feminist", authentically "Mormon", authentically "Republican", and so on?] By my definition, an organization is authentically “Black” not when the majority of its members or employees are Black, but when the organization promotes the interests of the Black community. [...]

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An Authentic News Organization Doesn’t Photoshop Pictures

July 7, 2008

Show me a liberal — heck , show me a thoughtful American — and I will show you a person who says that the name "Fox News" is an oxymoron. With their fake name, Fox News claims that it is a news organization. Fox News works very hard to make viewers think that what they [...]

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Authentic, but how? What questions would you ask this organization….

May 21, 2008

Readers- I found a great story in my local paper about a woman in my town who sings in a men’s chorus. Yes, you read that correctly–She is in a Men’s chorus. While not exactly like the photo, above, I think the ratio in this chorus is at least 75:1 men to woma n. Which [...]

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

April 12, 2008

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 thoughtful [...]

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