Help Me Compile a Reading List on Authentic Work?
I’ve been in a cull-de-sac for much of the first half of this year in regard to my book The Authentic Organization. I had a breakthrough of sorts in the last few weeks, which involves a slight broadening of focus, a likely change of working title, a revised outline, and a request to my readers for some assistance. I write to you now to make that request.
I need to compile a superb reading list on the topic of authentic work. This list will naturally emphasize books, but I am open to academic papers, online articles or entire blogs, audio or video shows, and even just the names of experts. But mostly I’m interested in books. I will put this list to use in several ways, including: (1) I will use it as part of the market research for my book. (2) I will compile and publish the most interesting titles as a sort of reading list, with credit given to those who suggested them (unless you prefer to remain anonymous).
Each of us probably has their own notion of what authenticity in our work means, but that’s what many of my articles here have been exploring. Feel free to adopt a pretty liberal notion of the idea and when in doubt, go ahead and include the resource.
Please submit your suggestions (and links to them) in the comments. For spam prevention reasons, if you’ve never commented before, your first comment will be held up for approval, but after that your comments will appear immediately. Feel free to submit as many resources as you want. The most important thing is that you include the URL to the resource.
Posted: August 1st, 2008 under Research.
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Comments
Comment from Eileen McNerney
Time: August 5, 2008, 11:33 am
I’m glad you’re back to nurturing “authentic work”. Two authors who have inspired me over time are Robert Greenleaf (Servant Leadership) and Parker Palmer (The Active Life: Wisdom of Work, Creativity and Caring, The Company of Strangers, The Undivided Life (audio)). I have been a Catholic nun for 50 years and have worked for 48 of those years — there’s a lot of congruence between being a nun and “authentic work” (not having to pay a lot of attention to personal income, the encouragement to pay attention to the world’s needs, etc). The two men I noted have kept me on track, humble and visionary.
Comment from CV Harquail
Time: August 5, 2008, 6:03 pm
Michael,
I’m glad to see you back at your blog…I’ve been wondering where your ideas were taking you. …
You’re probably on top of all the resources for authentic leadership, but another related place to look is at the work on Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS). The largest academic site is at the University of Michigan. Also, there is a site/blog oriented more towards practitioners, at http://pos-psych.com. The POS folks look at authenticity as an element of a positive relationship to work and to others at work. Someone’s work to keep an eye on is the research on meaning at work, by Amy Wrzesniewski at Yale. I’m blogging about authenticity at the level of the entity, at http://www.AuthenticOrganizations.com. I don’t define authenticity in the same way as you do, since your definition embraces more of the positive moral and ethical elements of authenticity. (My working definition is about congruence.) But who knows, there may be something useful there for you.
I’ll be looking forward to some new posts, now about being authentic in our work.
Comment from David Wilkes
Time: August 6, 2008, 2:35 pm
Here’s an excellent book about meaningful work:
The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time, by Matthew Fox
Calling on the mystical teachings of world spiritual traditions, this book lays out the difference between a job and work and between inner work and outer work and how to fuse the two.
1995, HarperSanFrancisco
353 Sacramento Street, Suite 500
San Francisco, CA 94111-3653
Phone: 415-477-4400
(translated in to German, Spanish, Swedish)
Comment from K
Time: August 6, 2008, 8:17 pm
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition – Her description of the differences between work, labor, and action has proven very fruitful perspective for me.
Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit – This is not a smart-aleck comment. Whenever I think about authenticity, I recall Frankfurt’s deconstruction of sincerity, and wonder what it means to pursue authenticity–what kind of organization, what kind of person has to strive for authenticity?
Comment from Jillaine Smith
Time: August 7, 2008, 6:27 am
I would second the suggestion of Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership and add
* Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest, by Peter Block
Comment from Jane Arsenault
Time: August 7, 2008, 6:30 am
This isn’t a book…at least not yet, but I have recently completed some consulting with Making Connections Providence, an initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. During that work, I learned about their concept of Authentic Demand for health and human services, a very different, and I think, very powerful set of concepts. You might contact the foundation and ask for the Making Connections lead staff…they can direct you from there.
I have tried to reach you a couple of times, Michael. Our website is up and running and I would love to reopen our conversation about the Authors Network.
Comment from Jillaine Smith
Time: August 7, 2008, 6:34 am
It also occurs to me, Michael, that you might want to take a look at “authentic movement” for correlations between movement/dance considered to be “authentic” and other areas of life.
Now, I’m off to read Harry Frankfurt’s “On Bullshit” for some balance. ;-) [Who's "K"?]
Comment from Debra Berg
Time: August 7, 2008, 7:25 am
The Power of One: The Unsung Everyday Heroes Rescuing America’s Cities (ISBN 141203201-6) is the culmination of eight years of personal time, resource investment, and travel to 23 cities (1995-2003). I interviewed over 100 of the nation’s contemporary and under-publicized human service social enterprisers. Thirty-five are chronicled in the book. The research was life-transforming not only because of the stories of great sacrifice but the insights into their motivation, creativity, technique, and compassion. Also documented are the techniques and styles by which they’ve come to replicate or “civic-franchise” their initiatives nationally and even internationally. An update to this book is underway and planned for release in 2009.
Debra J. Berg, Director
National Institute for Civic Enterprise
P.O. Box 350331
Grand Island, FL 32735
Comment from Jody Corriveau
Time: August 7, 2008, 7:25 am
Some new books we have in our library that I think would fall under the category of “authentic work” are:
“7 Measures of Success,” by the American Society of Association Executives, 2006, which is the result of 4 years of research on differences in culture, focus, impetus and action that distinguish organizations that achieve remarkable results from those that don’t.
“Good to Great: why some companies make the leap…and others don’t,” by Jim Collins, 2001.
“Good to great and the social sectors: why business thinking is not the answer,” by Jim Collins, 2005.
“What counts: social accounting for nonprofits and cooperatives,” 2nd ed by Laurie Mook, 2007.
Hope this helps.
Comment from Brenda Blakely
Time: August 7, 2008, 8:02 am
Suggested reference, “Say It With Love” by Howard Hendricks pub. Victor Books. Best reference I know besides the Bible, which is the most authentic work I know and tells of the most authentic organization “The Body of Christ”. Thanks for your work and may God bless and guide you as you research.
Comment from Deb Dowdall
Time: August 7, 2008, 8:35 am
Hannah Arendt, certainly, and I’m afraid I’m also with K in worrying about the use of “authentic in this context. Being British, I have a slightly difference use of language, but if I don’t understand quite what it means here, and am obviously expected to, it sounds like jargon – exclusive rather than inclusive.
Comment from Peter Crosby
Time: August 7, 2008, 10:34 am
Two books by Stewart Levine – who calls himself a ‘Resolutionary’ – entitled The Book of Agreement and Collaboration 2.0, offer many practical processes for getting folks to be real enough to work together well.
Comment from Loretta Gallegos
Time: August 7, 2008, 1:55 pm
Bill Somerville’s book on Grassroots Philanthropy, Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker is an interesting take on philanthropy and Bill’s personal grantmaking style. It’s refreshing too!
Comment from Robert Weiner
Time: August 7, 2008, 3:51 pm
Values-Driven Business by Ben Cohen and Mal Warwick.
Comment from Lucy Glover
Time: August 8, 2008, 3:20 am
http://www.authentictransformation.co.uk
This guy has written quite a lot on authenticity in business – mainly for entrepreneurs I think.
[related links, added by Admin]
Neil Crofts (author)
Authentic: How to Make a Living By Being Yourself
Authentic Business: How to Create and Run Your Perfect Business
Seven Stages of Authenticity
and a couple free e-books available on his site as well.
Comment from Fred Huxley
Time: August 8, 2008, 9:18 am
Hi, Michael.
Thanks for inviting our suggestions. On “authenticity” through work I’m considering Bateson (Bateson, M.C., 1990, Composing a Life, New York, Penguin Books USA) for ideas about process, and Studs Terkel (1985, Working, New York, Ballantine Books) for additional examples.
Please let me know if you find these useful.
Comment from Paul Dupree
Time: August 8, 2008, 5:41 pm
Robert Fritz (1984). The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to become the creative force in your own life. see also The Path of Least Resistance for Managers. “…once an individual makes a conscious choice to be the predominant creative force in his or her own life, that life is changed forever: possibilities open up, projects are born from other projects and the practice of being true to yourself, your project, your vision of life, becomes more and more effortless… Creativity is a skill that can be learned, practiced and mastered.”
Peter Vaill (1996). Learning as a way of being: Strategies for survival in a world of permanent white water. “All experience is a learning opportunity or learning process.”
Robert Quinn (1996). Deep Change: Discovering the leader within. “Most of us build our identity around our knowledge and competence in employing certain known techniques or abilities. Making a deep change involves abandoning both and ‘walking naked into the land of uncertainty.’”
Robert Quinn (2004). Building the bridge as you walk on it: A guide to leading change. “I began to think of leadership not as behaviors and techniques but as a state of being. Leadership is first about what we are. I call the new model the fundamental state of leadership.”
Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers (2004). Presence: Human purpose and the field of the future. “What question lies at the heart of your work?” “…deep listening, of being open beyond one’s preconceptions and historical ways of making sense.”
C. Otto Scharmer (2007). Theory U: Leading from the future as it emerges. “The purpose of this book, and of the research and actions that have led to it, is to delineate a social technology of transformational change that will allow leaders in all segments of our society, including in our individual lives, to meet their existing challenges. In order to rise to the occasion, leaders often have to learn how to operate from the highest possible future, rather than being stuck in the patterns of our past experiences.”
Marty Neumeier (2006). The Brand Gap: How to bridge the distance between business strategy and design. “Who are you? What do you do? Why does it matter?”
Margaret Wheatley (1999). Leadership and the new science: Discovering order in a chaotic world. “How will we navigate these times? The answer is, together. We need each other differently now. We cannot hide behind our boundaries, or hold onto the belief that we can survive alone. We need each other to test out ideas, to share what we’re learning, to help us see in new ways, to listen to our stories. We need each other to forgive us when we fail, to trust us with their dreams, to offer their hope when we’ve lost our own.”
Marvin Weisbord (1987). Productive Workplaces: Organizing and managing for dignity, meaning and community. “We hunger for community in the workplace and are a great deal more productive when we find it. …The world is changing too fast for experts, and old-fashioned ‘problem-solving’ no longer works.” …”How to manage the inner dialogue — between parent and child, hard guy and soft guy, decisive self and passive self — within each of us. This Theory X/Theory Y dialogue energizes our darker as well as our more enlightened selves, making the search for productive workplaces a risky voyage into the hidden reaches of our own psyches. Changing our workplaces is inevitably bound up with changing ourselves.”
Comment from Paul Dupree
Time: August 9, 2008, 1:29 pm
And the theory base
Chris Argyris, Donald Schön (1974). Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness
Chris Argyris, Donald Schön (1996). Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method and Practice. Double-loop learning and espoused theory vs. theory-in-use.
Comment from Robert Moore
Time: August 16, 2008, 12:40 pm
I propose that A Hidden Wholeness by Parker Palmer will complement the list of authentic works very nicely.
Pingback from Help Me Choose the Most Compelling Material » The Authentic Organization
Time: August 21, 2008, 9:31 pm
[...] you very much for the resources on authentic work that you suggested to me, in email and in the comments of my recent request. Now I have another favor to ask of [...]
Comment from KFM
Time: August 28, 2008, 10:22 am
Michael:
YOU definitely need to read a new book – out of UK:
Regeneration & Co-Creation: Changing Change, by Keith Humphrey
contact below:
email: book@corecontext.co.uk
or T (Karen) on + 44 (0) 7956080696.
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