identity

How to Design Social Business Systems For Engaged, Social Organizations

June 23, 2011

Organizations are social — they always have been. But, organizations have rarely been designed intentionally to help us flourish as social beings while we work together. Neither our analog systems nor our digital systems have been designed to help us bring more of our social selves to our work together. But, it’s not that hard [...]

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5 Ways That Systems of Engagement Bring Out Our Full Social Selves

June 22, 2011

Technology has a way of sucking the humanity right out of us. Consider how we describe, design and deploy ‘enterprise 2.0′ and work system technologies in our organizations: – When we talk about technology systems, we talk about machines, platforms, inputs and outputs.  We forget about values, emotion, flourishing, meaning and purpose. – When we [...]

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Measuring Meaningful Differences: College Rankings and Identity

September 16, 2010

Here’s a mini-exam for you. College ranking systems are: A. A great way to sell magazines and get your publication’s name in the news B. A scam that preys on the social and economic insecurities of educational organizations C. A somewhat-helpful guide to prospective students D. A process that is entirely gamed by the organizations [...]

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Does the iPad Signal a Change in Apple’s Core Brand & Identity?

February 2, 2010

If products reflect an organization’s values and an organization’s identity, does Apple’s new iPad tell us something about where Apple as a company is headed? And, if that’s where Apple is going, do we all want to go there too? Here’s a proposition: Apple as an organization is changing, from an organization that’s “about” creativity [...]

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Don’t Let Personal Branding Stifle your Authentic Voice

June 9, 2009

There is a battle brewing between the concepts of Personal Brand and Authentic Voice. If you’ve been paying attention at all (and I’m sure you have) you’ve seen the articles and the individuals touting personal branding. Everyone from Tom Peters to Seth Godin to Dan Scwabel is online telling you how to create your personal [...]

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Can Organizations Regain Authenticity by Bringing Back Their Original Visionaries?: Where to, Starbucks?

October 30, 2008

Too many organizations feel inauthentic. Some organizations never had authenticity, and they feel empty. Other organizations had authenticity once but have since lost it. These organizations feel hollow. In an effort to address its own hollowness, Starbucks has over the last year brought back not one but two of its original visionaries, Howard Schultz and [...]

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Organizational Identity, Employee Branding and Political Contributions: Should you care if The Body Shop leans Republican?

October 27, 2008

The Body Shop is Republican? Anita Roddick must be rolling over in her grave. Released last week were the results of a study that shows how organizations have supported the Republican and Democratic parties. The data include direct corporate support (through Political Action Committees) and/or the support of these organizations’ employees (through individual donations). You [...]

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Obama’s Website Made Me Cry

September 23, 2008

It moved me from intent to action. It snuck past my shield of cynicism. It struck me at the core of what I care about. And it made me remember that what really connects people and organizations is the chance for them both to be authentic. What hooked me wasn’t the way the Campaign organization [...]

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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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Defining Organizational Authenticity

December 9, 2007

What does it mean to be an ‘authentic organization’? I’ll be trying to answer this question in a number of different ways, but for this particular post, let me offer a somewhat academic perspective: Authenticity is a quality of experience that a member has of an organization, when the member feels a congruence between what organization believes [...]

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