The Authentic Organization

As we take on new projects and new objectives, very few organizations let go of old ones to make room. In some cases, we acquire new resources, although often not enough to do justice to the new endeavor. In many cases, such decisions reflect an admirable ambition or at the very least an unwillingness to say that any part of their mission is “unimportant”. Unfortunately, by refusing to choose between objectives, we end up sabotaging our commitment to our entire mission, not just parts of it. And even if we manage to give every task its due, because we have given so much that we’ve accepted living in a world we don’t like for the hope of making a world that we do, even then, we undermine our mission because we are refusing to genuinely pay its price.

There is great power in finding and choosing to pay a price for something we want. I don’t mean this in the sense of a market, only in the sense that life involves choices. When we cover up or avoid such choices, we diminish our commitment to our actions. That diminished commitment undermines everything we do.

The authentic organization makes choices and pays the price of commitment to its mission.