The Authentic Organization

In the authentic organization, a person knows that they are understood, knows that they are known. But what does this fundamentally subjective experience actually mean?

It’s easy to come up with examples where people feel known but aren’t. Romantic love, has its moments of projection and other collapsing of boundaries. A person may feel known by an author they have never met, as a result of reading an evocative passage. These are both well understood illusions, however compelling they may be in the moment.

But to know that you are known: Does that state even exist? I don’t think it does. I think that it is an experience that is continually renewing, a trajectory of sorts, rather than a state. There is an edge that we live on, when we are growing, either in our self-knowledge or in being known by others. That edge has an element of risk to it, risk that is subsequently rewarded.

Despite my earlier remark about projection, that is a bit like the feeling of being in love, isn’t it? The way you take a little risk and it turns out fine and then you take another and that turns our fine too. There is something similar in a group where you can explore the edge of your self-knowledge, where you can safely become, not just be.

So, let me see if I can take this topic away from my tendency toward abstract musing toward a practical direction instead. What does it take for an organizational environment to support this dynamic? What does it take for people to have the experience of being known? What does it take for that to persist over time, so people can explore the edges of their own self-knowledge?

What is required is an environment in which we can take risks of self-discovery and self-disclosure and have those risks rewarded. What would it take to manage an organization toward that goal (among others, of course)?