Leadership & Self-Deception
I just finished reading Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box
“For too long, the issue of self-deception has been the realm of deep-thinking philosophers, academics, and scholars working on the central questions of the human sciences. The public remains generally unaware of the issue. That would be fine except that self-deception is so pervasive it touches every aspect of life. “Touches” is perhaps too gentle a word to describe its influence. Self-deception actually determines one’s experience in every aspect of life. The extent to which it does that, and in particular the extent to which it is the central issue in leadership, is the subject of this book.
To give you an idea of what’s at stake, consider the following analogy. An infant is learning to crawl. She begins by pushing herself backward around the house. Backing herself around, she gets lodged beneath the furniture. There she thrashes about-crying and banging her little head against the sides and undersides of the pieces. She is stuck and hates it. So she does the only thing she can think of to get herself out-she pushes even harder, which only worsens her problem. She’s more stuck than ever.
If this infant could talk, she would blame the furniture for her troubles. She, after all, is doing everything she can think of. The problem couldn’t be hers. But of course, the problem is hers, even though she can’t see it. While it’s true she’s doing everything she can think of, the problem is precisely that she can’t see how she’s the problem. Having the problem she has, nothing she can think of will be a solution.
Self-deception is like this. It blinds us to the true cause of problems, and once blind, all the “solutions” we can think of will actually make matters worse. That’s why self-deception is so central to leadership-because leadership is about making matters better. To the extent we are self-deceived, our leadership is undermined at every turn-and not because of the furniture.
We have written this book to educate people about this most central of problems-a problem that has been the exclusive terrain of scholars for far too long. But this book is about more than the problem.”
[From the preface to the book]
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May 2nd, 2006 at 4:32 pm
Very easy read. Very useful. Worth reading more than once. Highly recommended.
May 12th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
I have the feeling this is no more than a reformulation of a well-known phenomenon about human nature that leads us to make Fundamental Attribution Errors. I have short piece on this at
http://fazeer.wordpress.com/2006/05/08/doom-and-gloom/
May 12th, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Fazeer, the quote I included in the post is an exerpt from their introduction, but it doesn’t explain well the full meaning behind the book. It is linked to Fundamental Attribution Errors, but it deals more with the intent behind our interactions with other individuals (at work, at home, etc.) Part of the theory of self-deception is externalizing our faults, and almost wanting the other person to act in a a certain way to justify our (usually negative) feelings for the person. In that way it relates to Fundamental Attribution Errors, but it goes beyond that. It’s a quick read (maybe 3-4 hours); I’d recommend you read it.
May 24th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Read this book! If you are self-deceived you often do not realize it. That’s the sticky part.
The good news is once you realize you are “in the box” it seems easy to get out. Realizing you are deceiving yourself is hazardous to the self-deception itself.
May 24th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
Knowing is half the battle.
June 3rd, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Good evening
Late night trawling, I noticed you’d visited our site in the UK, and I wondered if you are aware of our next book, The Anatomy of Peace? Due out in July this year, it is actually the prequel to Leadership and Self Deception. If you email me your address I’ll have a galley copy sent to you.
I’m thrilled you enjoy studying this as much as I do!
Rachel
June 9th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
[...] I had the priviledge of receiving, at the invitation of Rachel Pryor, a galley copy of the Arbinger Institute’s new book, The Anatomy of Peace. I stayed up until 3:00 in the A.M. the day that I received the book and finished it that same day. It’s the prequel to Leadership & Self Deception, and it continues to develop many of the same principles. In this book, however, they step away from the business atmosphere, and focus on changing yourself to effect change in relationships in the home, and between nations. I am confident that if everyone in the world read and understood the principles in this set of books, it would literally solve most all of the world’s problems; problems at homes and with families, problems in the workplace, and problems between societies and governments. At the very least this book will change your perspective and change your life. It’s due out in August, and I recommend it to everyone. [...]
September 29th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
[...] I had the priviledge of receiving, at the invitation of Rachel Pryor, a galley copy of the Arbinger Institute’s new book, The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict. I stayed up until 3:00 in the A.M. the day that I received the book and finished it that same day. It’s the prequel to Leadership & Self Deception, and it continues to develop many of the same principles. In this book, however, they step away from the business atmosphere, and focus on changing yourself to effect change in relationships in the home, and between nations. I am confident that if everyone in the world read and understood the principles in this set of books, it would literally solve most all of the world’s problems; problems at homes and with families, problems in the workplace, and problems between societies and governments. At the very least this book will change your perspective and change your life. It’s due out in August, and I recommend it to everyone. [...]