The Authentic Organization

In the early Nineties, I used to teach a workshop called Making a Living, Making a Difference. One of the things I explored in that workshop is the perverse relationship we have to the word “work”. I’m not going to debate here what the word truly means or doesn’t mean. Rather, I’m interested in what is useful in the pursuit of an authentic organization.

In common use, the word “work” has taken on meaning that can prevent us from facing the challenge of transforming the workplace. Rather than simply referring to labor and its products, it refers to the things we get paid for. It has come to mean the opposite of play or even the opposite of life itself. One of my least favorite examples of this is in the phrase “life-work balance”, which expresses our desire for meaning in dualistic terms that are sadly destructive of our chances of making that meaning real.

The distortion of this word is understandable. Having our food and shelter held hostage to our work is part of what distorts our thinking. (Note that the making of food and the making of shelter can be entirely authentic work, although in our economy it mostly isn’t.) Our alienation from the workplace and its power relationships makes us want to think of the more pleasant parts of our life as “not that”.

For me, work is just what we do when we make something. Maybe we make dinner. Maybe we make people laugh. Maybe we make a tool for people to use.

In this book, I would like to reclaim the word, at least a bit.