The Forgetful Organization

In 2011 Robert Goffee and Gareth Jones wrote in the Harvard Business Review's 10 Must Reads on Leadership, "Executives have a good reason to be scared. You can't do anything in business without followers. So, executives had better know what it takes to lead effectively - they must find ways to engage people and rouse their commitment to company goals. But most don't know how, and who can blame them? There's simply too much advice out there. Last year alone, more than 2000 books on leadership were published."



Two thousand books on leadership in one year! With so much information out there, how can we say we are not missing something fundamental in our approach to organizational culture? It is only with a considerable amount of awareness that we come to see that this instruction has a fundamental flaw within it. What is this flaw and how can a children's book called Sleeping Beauty along with the ethics of Aristotle help in finding it?



I am not a writer of fairy tales, although this is a book about Sleeping Beauty, and I am certainly not a philosopher, although I quote Aristotle extensively; what I am is a man who has worked all his life in different organizations and in that work I have observed many of the challenges that come with working with others. In those challenges I have looked for guides and guideposts that would help me in my journey and have found them in some very strange places.




Some of what it takes to find this flaw is embodied in this book but most of what it takes is embodied in you. Join me on this journey.