Category: Organizational Identity
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Lead With A Story: Book Review
I’m suspicious of the idea that people who want to be leaders should tell more stories. While I get the arguments that stories are persuasive because they are emotional, have a predictable arc that makes it easy for people to get engaged with them, are easy to remember, etc. etc. I’ve sometimes wondered whether using stories…
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Is there a Business Model behind that Values Statement?
There are many fledgling businesses that have laudable intent and shaky commercial foundations. This is a problem because, in an ideal world, the businesses that stand for values we share should also be able to sustain themselves as businesses. That’s the key premise underneath social entrepreneurship and conscious capitalism. Purpose-driven organizations need compelling values, but they also need coherent…
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Company Character Grows From Place Identity
What do start-ups and coffee beans have in common? For both, the place they grow shapes who they become. We don’t talk much about the role of place in shaping organizational identity, but the physical circumstance of where we are located as we do our work together helps to determine who we become as a…
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Connecting to the Company Story: Coding is Crafting for Etsy’s Engineers
Every organization has a story. Any group that wants to be an important part of that organization needs to craft a place for itself in that story. The story an organization tells itself and shares with others helps everyone make sense of who the organization is. For members, the organization’s story helps them articulate their…
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Make Distinctiveness Matter by Linking It To Organizational Purpose
Does it really matter if an organization is “distinctive”? When an organization’s distinctiveness (identity) is linked with the organization’s purpose (greater social goal), the organization’s unique qualities provide the unique resources needed to achieve that purpose. Organizational Distinctiveness is more than Positioning Managers often dismiss the concept of organizational “distinctiveness”, thinking that distinctiveness is only…