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What Kind of Energy Does your Organizational Identity Have?

In the world of physics, there is ‘potential’ and ‘kinetic’ energies. Kinetic is the one that is easily observed. It’s force and motion – it’s seeing things happen. Potential is a bit more challenging. It’s the amount of energy held in suspension that is waiting for its moment to become Kinetic. Think of a ball at the top of a hill yet to start rolling – it’s feeling the anticipation of what will happen. What is most critical is to understand that there is no kinetic energy (movement) without a source of potential energy (motivation) So what does this have to do with organizations and their identity artifacts… Whoa, wait – rewind Justin – what is an organizational identity artifact? An organizational identity artifact is any articulated component of who we are as an organization – think values statements, visions (what we call community aspirations), missions (what we call approach), outcomes, guiding principles, theories of change, beliefs, and assumptions. Add to this, strate
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We Need to STOP Undervaluing Our Values: A Call to Board Action on Values and Culture Integrity

Quick question (really a series of questions because you all know by now that, I never stop at one...) How regularly does your board evaluate the financial position of the organization? How regularly does your board evaluate the community outcomes and impact of the organization? How regularly does your board assess the organization's progress against a strategic plan? How regularly does the board assess organizational culture and behavioral alignment with values? Notice anything about the answers... In my experience, the answers to the first question are usually in line with 'every time the board meets' and then the frequency progressively decreases as you step down through each question - often landing on 'not regularly' or 'never' as the honest answer to the last question. This tells us something about what we are led to believe we are supposed to do as board members and what it is that we actually value. If we are not regularly assessing something, that g
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How Creativity Can Inform Our Work (aka how my mother influenced what I do)

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My mother recently gave an intimate talk on creativity. She has been creating for over seven decades as a painter, gardener, chef, house renovator - really in everything she does. So she has bona fides in the subject area.  In all those years, this was the first time she says she has ever publicly talked about her paintings and she revealed that she was a bit anxious talking about the idea of 'creativity.' - How do you describe something that just is. Spoiler alert - she was amazing at it.  Two things in particular snuck up on me, and then, with the force of a compass needle finding its place pointing north, revealed the influence my mother's creativity has on my work. First, she spoke of how creativity is about coming into something without 'any rules about a certain product expected [of the work].' Second, she explained how she always started with just observing - seeing what you see without judgement or expectation.  (In fact, I can still hear her instructing my
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Stop Serving and Start Affecting

I sit on the board of an organization called Creating the Future . The tagline is ‘Change the questions, Change the world.’ The underlying principle is that we can create more equitable and healthy strategies to create and sustain a thriving world by basing our decisions and actions on a different set of questions than we often are conditioned to asking. In my own practice as a coach, consultant, and educator, I spend most of my time trying to figure out the question, not the answer. (I think that is actually what I earn a living doing…)  So here is the one question we absolutely need to change. Stop asking about whom you serve Start asking about whom will you affect In my experience working with organizations around strategy, design, and programming, people with decision-making power spend a lot of time thinking about whom the organization serves - whom the client or customer is and what their needs are. This is not an inherently bad question. Who doesn’t want to help impro
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