Category: Employees/Individuals
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Can Starbucks Touch Your Soul?
When an organization is being authentic, you can feel it. Even when its character is being expressed in a very small way, or through a very small action, an organization’s expression of its authentic self can touch your soul. I was reminded of the power of small, authentic acts to touch your soul while I…
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Focusing on the Authentic in the Individual
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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The People Make the Place Authentic
When you think about “the organization” or “your organization”, do you simultaneously overlook the actual people in it? This tension between thinking of an organization as an entity and simultaneously recognizing that it is also a collection of individuals runs through all our conversations about organizations. When managers and leaders are considering their organization’s strategy,…
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Who is advising the NY Jets Management?
Whoever it is, they are doing a good job! I’m not talking about rosters, game strategies or coaching assignments– I’m talking about using a deep understanding of how to support your whole organization in moving towards a goal. Last fall, I posted about the Jets’ new training facility, and how it was designed explicitly and…
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Peek inside an Authentic Organization: Blogging at Berrett-Koehler
Years of following industries that create culture have left me with a special fondness for book publishers. Year after year, season after season, page after page, book publishers create objects that convey what I love most — great ideas. Increasingly, book publishers do this in an embattled industry, towards a customer base with a dwindling…
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Representing your organization on Twitter: A Logo or a Face?
What is the best way to represent an organization visually on social media like Twitter? On every social media platform, a participant can be represented by a username, screen name, or “handle” and also by a visual image. So along with choosing a good handle, an organization and/or its online representative needs to choose an…
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EmployER Branding vs. EmployEE Branding
Sometimes the distinctions between terms are irrelevant; they don’t make much of a difference. Not so with the distinction between employEE branding and EmployER branding. Just the switch of one letter, and the switch of the organization’s focus, makes all the difference. EmployER Branding EmployER branding is all about creating a sense of place. It…
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How are Brandividuals special?
What is it that makes Brandividuals a ‘special’ kind of organizational representative or spokesperson? It seems to be all in the balance that brandividuals strike between displaying ‘who they are’ and advocating for ‘what the organization wants’. More than "Spokesmodels" Brandividuals do all kinds of important stakeholder contact, communication and problem resolution work. In this…