Organization

Readers’ Question: Can we shift to more authentic communication?

February 11, 2010

Last weekend Bob Sutton and I got a pair of emails from readers who are frustrated by a specific kind of inauthentic participation within their organization. They wanted some ideas on how to name this behavior, in the hopes that labeling the behavior would help them get a handle on it. Here’s a snippet from [...]

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Networks and the Myth that Flatter Organizations are Better

January 15, 2010

Are flatter organizations really “better”? If they are better, how? Hey, I already wrote a dissertation, so I’m not going to take on that question in its entirety. And, I’m not going to do the proper academic thing of being super-specific and qualifying my points. You got complaints? Email me and I’ll send you the [...]

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Networks and The Myth of Flattening Organizations

January 14, 2010

I was excited to hear from a few social media/Enterprise 2.0 advocates after my post last week asking When will social business become social change business? Special thanks to Jon Husband of Wirearchy, who not only confirmed that he has a revolutionary agenda behind his networked models of organizing but who also sent me some [...]

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When Will “Social Business” Become Social Change Business?

January 7, 2010

Just a quick rant here, triggered by and not quite in response to Rachel Happe‘s post on The Social Organization & Womenomics. In her post, Rachel wonders whether a truly ‘social’ organization or business might be more accommodating to the real-world, real-life pressures of managing work and family demands, not only for women but also [...]

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Beyond an Online Dress Code: A ‘Look Code’ for Work Avatars & Employee Branding

November 3, 2009

We need to go beyond dress codes and consider “Look Codes” for the work avatars that employees use online. Online look codes will help employees translate the qualities of their organization’s brand into the avatars they create for themselves. Organizations should care about their members’ work avatars because these avatars are representing the organization, and [...]

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Focusing on the Authentic in the Individual

October 2, 2009

Jamie and Maren Showkeir, authors of the book Authentic Conversations, also write a blog about the same concept. Their work is inspiring, and I often find myself referring to their book when I talk with organization members about how they can bring more authenticity into their organizations through their relationships with each other. Just yesterday, [...]

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Work-Life Initiatives are the foundation of Authentic Organizations

January 28, 0010

Earlier this week I met with a group of organizational change advocates, each of whom is dedicated to reshaping the relationship between work and life. Work-Life issues per se aren’t really my gig, although I’ve had a fair amount of work-life conflict in my day as an employee and as a manager. However, I invited [...]

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