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What it argues
Leadership and Self-Deception is The Arbinger Institute's business fable about a leadership problem that most leaders don't recognize in themselves: the tendency to see other people as objects rather than as people. Written in narrative form, it follows a new executive named Tom Callum through a series of conversations that reveal how his attempts to solve problems at work are actually making them worse — because the way he's seeing his colleagues is itself the problem.
The book's central concept is "being in the box." When you're in the box, you've betrayed your own sense of what another person needs — perhaps you ignored a colleague's obvious stress, or failed to help when you knew you should — and you've then rationalized that betrayal by making the other person the problem. From inside the box, everything confirms your justification: their flaws become evidence for why they don't deserve your help; their virtues become threats to your self-image.
What it gets right
- 1.
Being 'in the box' means seeing other people as objects — as obstacles, vehicles, or irrelevancies — rather than as people with their own needs and perspectives.
- 2.
You get in the box by betraying your own sense of what another person needs, and then justifying that betrayal by making the other person the problem.
- 3.
When you're in the box, everything you do to fix problems makes them worse. You can't solve a problem you're contributing to while you're blind to your contribution.
What it covers
Who wrote it
The Arbinger Institute is a leadership training and consulting organization founded in 1979, based on the philosophical and psychological work of Terry Warner at Brigham Young University. Leadership and Self-Deception, first published in 2000, is their most widely read book and has sold more than two million copies. The Institute's work focuses on mindset change as the foundation for lasting behavioral change in individuals and organizations. They have produced several follow-up books extending the framework, including The Anatomy of Peace and The Outward Mindset.
