All about Authenticity

The Secret to Obama’s Social Media Success? The Campaign was one step behind.

November 5, 2008

Tweet Everybody’s talking about how Obama’s campaign has revolutionized politics , due in large part to the way that the Campaign employed social media. But as much as it’s true that the Obama Campaign was one step ahead of McCain (and anyone else) in using social media, it was also one step behind just about […]

Read the full article →

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

October 30, 2008

Tweet 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 […]

Read the full article →

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

October 27, 2008

Tweet 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). […]

Read the full article →

6 Reasons Why Taking Responsibility is Good for Your Organization

October 22, 2008

Tweet In my previous post, Can Taking Responsibility for the Financial Crisis Be Good For You ?,  I argue that taking responsibility is the one thing that you and your organization can do , right now, to improve your organization’s financial future. When an organization takes responsibility, it shifts how it sees itself. It moves […]

Read the full article →

Mix Fake and Real, the Palin Way

October 8, 2008

Tweet People are hungry for authentic leaders and authentic organizations .  Assessing an organization’s authenticity or a candidate’s authenticity is one way that we gauge where to place our trust. To entice people to trust us, we need to make them think the organization is authentic. Sometimes, we may even want to create "Fake Authenticity" […]

Read the full article →

4 Ways Palin Creates a Fake “Reality”

October 3, 2008

Tweet 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 […]

Read the full article →

Use Real Authenticity to Establish Fake Authenticity: Sarah Palin shows organizations how

October 2, 2008

Tweet Almost anywhere we look at this election season there’s something to learn about authenticity.  This is especially true when we’re able to draw analogies between individuals and organizations. Watching the ways that individuals work to present themselves as authentic , we can learn tactics that organizations can use. Sarah Palin has been very effective […]

Read the full article →

Obama’s Website Made Me Cry

September 23, 2008

Tweet 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 […]

Read the full article →

3 Things the New York Jets Can Teach You About Authenticity

September 10, 2008

Tweet Who knew that the New York Jets knew so much about being authentic? The New York Jets moved into their new training facility in Florham Park, NJ, just last week. Stories about the new building (designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP) describe it as huge, high-tech, state of the art, and light filled. […]

Read the full article →

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

September 5, 2008

Tweet 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 […]

Read the full article →