I’ll be co-presenting a session at the California Society of Association Executives’ annual conference in April with Jamie Notter on Truth and Authenticity in the Digital Age.
Here’s the description:
“Authenticity” is the latest buzzword in social media circles – but what does it really mean, and how do we bring more truth into our associations? This session will explore the complexities of truth, authenticity, and transparency at the individual level (How do we manage both personal and professional identities when navigating social media?) and at an organizational level (How do we bring more truth and transparency into our operations? How do we maintain an authentic brand identity for the association, when its “voice” is dispersed among the community?). Through a mix of presentation and facilitated discussion, this session will push past the simplistic responses and challenge participants to identify new strategies for embracing truth and authenticity in the digital age.
Objectives:
1) develop strategies for balancing personal and professional sides of an individual’s digital identity.
2) understand how authenticity can require internal changes to organizational structures to bring out more truth
3) explore the system-wide implications of truth and authenticity for your overall brand identity and culture
Here’s what I need from you.
If you were attending this session, are there any particular concerns or ideas you would want us to discuss?
What questions would you come armed with?
Do you have any examples of a relevant situational issue or problem at your association which had to do with a conflict between individual personal vs. professional roles or transparency vs. confidentiality?
Please share in the comments or email me at maddie[at]socialfish.org. We will of course post the slides and handouts after the fact for everyone’s benefit.
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5 responses to "Truth and Authenticity in the Digital Age"
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With such a dynamic duo at the helm, I’m sure this promises to be a great session.
It’s a somewhat old school issue (C-Span broached it long ago), but what are the implications of people capturing so many happenings on video, in Tweets, and on blogs at conferences without necessarily having the permission of those present?
When you know that everything you say or any action you take might instantly be posted online, how does that influence your level of engagement, your willingness to speak frankly? Can we expect authenticity in an environment where nothing might be deemed confidential or off-the record?
I think of authenticity as living from the inside our (your own values) rather than the outside in (others’ expectations), but so much of the digital age is about what others on the outside are sharing of your identity.
What’s the difference?
As I am fond of saying, when a person invites her spouse to a company party, the party shifts from being professional to personal. The company holds two hats, as does every employee there, when fraternizing with people who are not employees. Yet, this plays out every year around the world.
So, why split your hats and what’s the difference?
Interesting topic: I’m a bit too far to attend the meeting in California, so I did come up with a few questions. When most of us association professionals think of authenticity within an organization, we can remember the wonderfully enlightened beings we’ve met at some point, who present at conferences and wow us with their expertise and candor. They are down to earth, converse with the audience, share interesting results, discuss their organizations honestly, and, on top of it all, actually seem to be really nice people.
These organizations have devoted teams of people who extend this authenticity through their social networks; They work hard to maintain consistency in their messaging, stay focused on the members’ needs, respond to feedback, and post all comments from their constituents, good and bad.
But the thing is, these organizations probably had authenticity as a value long before this whole social media explosion took place.
My question: What happens when an organization is not authentic?
I would be very interested to hear some horror stories, but perhaps this revolution is still getting started and there haven’t quite been enough casualties yet?
Are there any good morality tales out there? I would be interested to hear some case-studies of associations that went under, dissolved, spent all their money without earning it back because they weren’t ‘authentic’.
We can probably understand the light better when we have something to contrast it with. Good luck at the presentation!