The Authentic Organization

[slug]why overview[/slug]

I want to tell you a little bit about why I’m writing this book. I’ve already told these stories to readers of Nonprofit Online News, but for completeness’ sake I want to include them here.

Although I’m not sure any of them could truly be considered a prime cause, I could point to at least three intellectual precursors to my interest in authenticity and work. My scientific, my spiritual, and my political educations have each had a meaningful impact on my views of work and values.

I started off as a scientist with a young researcher’s commitment to intellectual integrity and I would like to believe that my early commitment to open inquiry has carried forward into my current work. The core of my spiritual upbringing was my exposure, in the wake of a childhood tragedy, to my father’s less-than-exemplary Buddhism and an entire library of Eastern and Western mysticism. Finally, I came of age politically during the Reagan administration, mentored by Quakers and others who believed that democracy didn’t just belong in the voting booth.

Each of these frames of reference — science, spirituality, and politics — is essential to me and my work and yet I don’t think they actually reflect how I got here. That process is nowhere near so elegant as three cleanly delineated domains. My passion for authentic work can be found in three rather messy sets of stories, which will follow in subsequent posts.