I’ve been reflecting on a meeting I facilitated last week. About a dozen friends and acquaintances met above a local pub to talk about our common interest in authenticity in organisations. I must say it turned into one of the most satisfying meetings I’ve been to with a lot of good conversation and a willingness to debate and engage with candour and a distinct absence of posturing. So a good experience of authenticity.
Tim Kitchin was there and has written an interest blog of his experience here. I don’t share his anxiety about the dangers of authenticity…
Preaching authenticity could be interpreted by many people as an endorsement of primal self-indulgence, towards gratification of our most visceral desires
although I realise that it’s a concept which may lend itself to hijacking. This quote does sound a bit like the words of a hellfire preacher itself… all it needs is the congretation trembling at the prospect of all that gratification of visceral desire. (Sorry Tim). Still, that’s the trouble with authenticity, talking about it can not capture what it’s like to experience it. So I’ll stop there for now!
