The Authentic Organization

In a long, encouraging comment, Larry Hanawalt writes:

Making peace with time means that I am generating/creating/envisioning a future that gives me power in the present, and that I am whole and complete with the past. I am free. (and much more)

I’m delighted by the fact that you frame this, both here and in the rest of your comment, in terms of freedom. I think that’s a critical connection both in regards to the dynamic of scarcity and in regards to fleshing out our definition of authenticity.

If we’re always catching up, if we’re always behind, if there is never enough time, then we are utterly hemmed in. This experience is profoundly personal and subjective, as is evidenced by the freedom that some people have found in prison or close to death. Although some environments are more suited to the inner experience of freedom (political and social freedoms are very important to me), it does seem that it is ultimately about our relationship to those environments. I think it will be interesting to explore the opportunities and responsibilities involved in that dynamic.

Secondly, you’ve identified the connection between authenticity and freedom. I think I’ll wrap up the opening exploration of the definition of authenticity with one last reflection on this connection. As far as I can tell, every philosophical or spiritual tradition that places central value on personal experience, would say that being true to yourself means that you are free.

That makes sense, doesn’t it? The point of freedom would be to be yourself, to make the choices that are consistent with your nature. (Some would argue that, obviously, we can do nothing but make such choices. But that tautology isn’t very interesting to me and doesn’t reflect how people actually experience the tension between their heart and their persona.) The reverse is true as well, in that if we are being true to ourselves, then in fact, we are free.

It will be interesting to apply this to the organizational context. Clearly, agents of an organization are not, by some uses of the term, free to to whatever they want. Indeed, the collective nature of the organization, as consented to by its participants, is one of the things that makes this exploration so interesting.