Media Rules!: Mastering Today's Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience

Chapter 4. Be Organic

To persistently take full advantage of the rapidly changing media environment, you must be organic—biologically inspired. A commitment to growth, adaptation, steady change, feedback loops, and having diverse attributes should be inherent in your work.

By being organic, your different audiences will know that you are open, trusting, and values-driven.

This chapter is about organizations operating organically. There are many words that could have been used in this context but, as discussed earlier, terminology often creates a problem. For example, the term sustainable is generally defined as a production method that provides a long-term profit for the producer, protects natural resources, and has positive social impact. On his company's Web site, Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation cites a definition offered by Jonathan Porritt, former head of Friends of the Earth and author of Capitalism As If The World Matters (Earthscan, 2005), saying sustainability "is a dynamic process which enables all people to realize their potential and to improve their quality of life in ways which simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth's life-support systems. This both affirms sustainable development as a dynamic process and emphasizes the importance of social justice and equity in that it has to be made to work for all people."^[4]

Authentic is another interesting term. One definition of authenticity is that it is real, not copied. Another is that something authentic is supported ...