Community and Organizations
Thursday, March 22nd, 2007Community does not exist for organizations. Organizations exist for the sake of the community in which they belong. Community is about people, and organizations exist to serve those people…not the other way around. Organizations can often wander through years of trouble and frustration (even economically) when they see their own organization as their end purpose and goal. And organizations experience tremendous freedom, empowerment, and productivity when they become a bit self-less.
Organization-minded people are concerned with the activities, productivities, responsibilities of the internal and external affairs of the organization. Community-minded people are concerned with human activities, our sense of mutual well-being, and the truth of our connectedness as members of this global society. As a result, community-minded people must embrace an element of chaos as they consider not how the community can integrate into their organization but rather how their organization can better integrate into the community.
As organizations re-orient themselves toward community, they will find the golden-rule at work and surprisingly effective. But this effectiveness might come at the expense of the organization’s previous sense of control and certainty. This new effectiveness will most likely require adjustments in the DNA of a organizationly-centered organization.
