Authentic communications refer to communication that consistently reflects how an organization actually thinks, acts, and makes decisions, not merely what it claims to believe.
Organizations communicate authentically when their messages align with their organizational character, namely the principles that guide behavior under pressure, shape everyday decisions, and determine how people are treated when doing the right thing is inconvenient. Without this internal alignment, even the most polished narratives and carefully crafted messages fail to build trust and instead feel hollow to their audiences.
In an age drowning in AI-generated content, corporate jargon, and carefully crafted brand personas, audiences have developed an almost preternatural ability to detect inauthenticity. The public’s trust in institutions continues to erode, political and social polarization intensifies, and the digital landscape overflows with what we’ve come to call “slop”, content that looks polished but feels hollow.
For organizations trying to cut through this noise, authenticity has become the holy grail of communications. Every company claims to want it. Few actually achieve it.
The Authenticity Communications Paradox
Authenticity in communications cannot be created through corporate messaging tools alone, even when those tools are well designed and emotionally compelling.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: authenticity cannot be manufactured through the usual tools in the corporate communications toolkit.
It won’t emerge from:
- Mission statements workshopped in leadership retreats
- Purpose declarations designed to inspire employees
- Values posters hanging in office hallways
- Clever marketing campaigns, no matter how emotionally resonant
- Town halls and corporate events, however well-produced
These tools aren’t worthless, they have their place. But they’re downstream effects, not root causes. They’re the what and the how, but they can’t answer the fundamental question of who you are as an organization.
When audiences encounter communications that spring from these surface-level exercises, they can tell. The words might be right. The sentiment might be admirable. But something feels off, like a person reciting lines they don’t quite believe.
The Need for a North Star in Authentic Communications
Authentic communications require a clear internal reference point that guides not only what an organization says, but how it acts, how it presents itself, and how its communications are experienced. Without this reference point, communications become reactive and inconsistent, relying on surface level messaging rather than lived organizational reality.
What organizations truly need is something deeper: a North Star that guides not just what they say, but how they act, how they look, and even how their communications should feel.
This is where the concept of organizational character becomes transformative.
Drawing from the pioneering work of the Page Society, organizational character goes beyond brand identity or corporate values.
It’s the organization’s fundamental nature. Its personality, its worldview, its intrinsic way of showing up in the world. Just as individuals have character that shapes their behavior across different contexts, organizations have character that should inform every decision, from strategic choices to daily interactions.
Your organizational character answers questions like:
- What do we stand for when no one is watching?
- How do we treat people when it’s inconvenient to treat them well?
- What will we refuse to do, even if it costs us?
- What unique contribution do we make to the world that no one else can?
When you understand your organizational character, authenticity stops being something you strive for. It becomes something you simply express.
Why There Are No Shortcuts
Authentic communications cannot be achieved through shortcuts because organizational character cannot be outsourced, delegated, or fast tracked through external frameworks.
Here’s where many organizations stumble: they want to outsource the hard work.
They bring in consultants to “define their brand.” They hire agencies to “craft their story.” They look for frameworks and formulas that promise to deliver organizational clarity in a three-month engagement.
But defining organizational character isn’t a project that can be delegated. It’s not something that happens in conference rooms with sticky notes and dot voting. It can’t be extracted through stakeholder surveys or focus groups alone.
It requires organizational leaders to dig deep into their company’s soul.
This means grappling with difficult questions:
- What were the founding principles that brought this organization into existence?
- What has remained constant through our evolution, even as everything else changed?
- When we’ve faced ethical dilemmas, what has guided our decisions?
- What do our people naturally gravitate toward when given freedom to choose?
- What would we lose if we disappeared tomorrow?
Consultants and agencies can facilitate this exploration. They can ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, and help articulate what emerges. But they cannot and should not provide the answers.
Those must come from within, from the people who live and breathe the organization daily, who understand its history, who feel its tensions, who know its unspoken truths.
The Uncomfortable Work of Self-Discovery
This internal excavation is uncomfortable work. It requires vulnerability from leadership. It demands confronting contradictions between who you say you are and who you actually are. It means acknowledging that some of your polished external messaging might not align with your internal reality.
But this discomfort is precisely what makes the process valuable. When leaders engage in genuine self-examination, when they’re willing to have hard conversations about identity, purpose, and values something shifts. The organization develops a clarity that cannot be faked.
And from that clarity, authentic communications become almost inevitable.
From Character to Communications
Once organizational character is defined, everything else becomes clearer: Strategy aligns with who you actually are, not who you wish you were. Messaging reflects genuine beliefs rather than aspirational platitudes.
Visual identity expresses your true nature rather than chasing design trends.
Tone and voice emerge naturally from your character rather than being imposed by brand guidelines.
Crisis response becomes principled rather than reactive, because you know what you stand for.
Employee communications resonate because they reflect the lived experience of the culture.
Dig deeper: Careful Where You Step: Responding Aggressively During a Crisis Might Cost Your Company Money
In a world saturated with content that all sounds the same, communications rooted in true organizational character stand out not because they’re trying to be different, but because they genuinely are different.
The Investment That Matters
In Indonesia’s dynamic business environment, where organizations face rapid change, increasing scrutiny, and fierce competition for talent and customer loyalty, the temptation to chase quick fixes is understandable.
But the organizations that will thrive in this era of skepticism and information overload aren’t those with the slickest campaigns or the most inspirational slogans.
They’re the ones brave enough to do the uncomfortable work of truly understanding themselves and disciplined enough to let that understanding guide everything they do.
Your organizational character is already there, waiting to be discovered and articulated. The question is whether you’re willing to dig deep enough to find it.
At Maverick Indonesia, we believe that powerful communications start with organizational truth. If you’re ready to move beyond slogans and discover the character that makes your organization unique, let’s talk about what that journey looks like.
