Do Organizations Have a Soul?
Susan Franzen
Founding Principal @ PatternShifts, LLC | PatternShifter, Neuroscience of Leadership, International Coach Federation, Prosci Change Management
When I need to get clear on something, I write. Some people talk and others may sit in silence, but I write. So I hope you don't mind if I use you as a sounding board to help me find clarity.
A few weeks ago, I re-read a 2017 interview between Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft) and Adi Ignatius (Editor-in-Chief, Harvard Business Review) in which they discuss Microsoft's efforts to rediscover its soul. Nadella states, "...it was about creating technology so that others can create more technology. That's who we are at our core, in our soul..." Those words resonated with me in 2017 and even more so now as a variety of headlines have us all wondering what's real and true and how organizational leaders can so easily turn a blind eye to events that seem to diminish the soul of their organizations.
So I ask, do organizations really have a "soul"? If so, what is it made of and how do you learn about it?
VDOT Statewide TRIP Project Manager at Parsons Corporation
6 年I believe organizations have champions and leaders. Those folks drive the culture. If an organization does have a "soul" I think it only exists as long as the leadership cultivates the necessary message and backs it up in practice. The soul of a company can be easily lost or forgotten when the leadership messaging gets watered down or falls by the wayside over time Champions and leaders are not the same as managers. They are special. They drive the operation. They own everything they touch. They, and by extension, those that follow... are the soul.
Board Certified Trial Lawyer and Business Strategist
6 年Depends on what the word "soul" means in that context. Do organizations have a "soul" like humans are believed to? Of course not.
Professor of Practice, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at University of Texas at Austin,
6 年SOUL
Professor of Practice, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at University of Texas at Austin,
6 年Tomas Rivera said" There is a sense in which all reading, all study, but particularly reading in the humanities puts one in touch with the oldest human value----justice" He often quoted John Rawl's "Justice in the first virtue of social institutions" Indeed our institutions require and need a transparent should.