The Responsibility Virus: How Control Freaks, Shrinking Violets—and the Rest of Us—Can Harness the Power of True Partnership
Roger Martin





Format: Hardcover, 320pp.
ISBN: 9780465044108
Publisher: Basic Books
Pub. Date: October 2002 - Out-of-Print

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Description and Reviews
From The Publisher:

A groundbreaking diagnosis of the fear of failure that traps all who work in organizations-complete with tested tools for making better choices and decisions, and working together more productively.

Why do some people take credit for everything-dooming themselves to lonely crash-and-burn-while others go to extreme measures to hide from the spotlight? Why do "team efforts" often end in acrimony? Renowned consultant and business-school dean Roger Martin explains it's the fear of failure that infects companies and people with the bug he calls the Responsibility Virus.

Drawing upon his years of experience advising the world's top companies on strategic planning, Martin shows how most poor decision-making begins at the level of individual behavior. Because most of us will do anything to win, maintain control, and avoid embarrassment, we constantly adapt our behavior to those around us. Trapped in this dynamic, we vacillate between taking charge and backing off, causing those around us to vacillate too, making it impossible to work with one another effectively. With lively case studies based on real business practice, Martin lays out tested tools that all of us can use as we negotiate choices and decisions. Eschewing management theory that focuses on issues such as centralized versus team structure in corporations, Martin lays out a wholly original way of understanding group dynamics. His sophisticated and impassioned belief in the "power of one" will be required reading for any of us who think about how we function in organizations, from the boardroom to the mailroom.

Roger Martin's tools for conquering the Responsibility Virus:

— The Frame Experiment
Helps those already stuck in over- or under-responsibility to arrest their downward spiral, one relationship at a time

— The Choice-Structuring Process
Helps members of a group create robust and compelling choices together, rather than leaping to roles of heroic leadership or passive followership

— The Responsibility Ladder
Helps managers and subordinates work together and shows each of us when and how to take on responsibility from a boss

— Redefining Leadership and Followership
Helps leaders move from unilateral decision-making to shared responsibility.

Roger Martin was named one of "Sixteen Change Agents Who Are Creating Your Future" by Fast Company magazine, which said, "Martin is not interested in business as usual--or in business school as usual."


About the Author

Dean of the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto, Roger Martin was for fifteen years a consultant with the Monitor Company, where in addition to his client work on behalf of some of the world's top corporations he served as co-head for two years and was the founding chairman of Monitor University, the firm's educational arm. In addition to publishing in the Harvard Business Review, Time, and other periodicals, Martin has worked with Harvard Business School colleagues such as Michael Porter, Chris Argyris, and Michael Jensen. He has also been profiled in periodicals such as the Financial Times, the Globe and Mail, and Fast Company. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.


Table of Contents

	Foreword
	Preface
	Introduction: Do We Need Another Hero?	1
1	Understanding the Responsibility Virus	15
2	Role of the Fear of Failure	31
3	Static and Dynamic Conservation of Responsibility	45
4	The Death of Collaboration	61
5	The Development of Mistrust and Misunderstanding	75
6	Atrophy of Choice-Making Skills	89
7	The Choice Structuring Process	105
8	The Frame Experiment	129
9	The Responsibility Ladder	145
10	The Redefinition of Leadership and Followership	161
11	Mired in Under-Responsibility	181
12	Trapped in Over-Responsibility	195
13	The Challenge Facing Professionals	209
14	The Challenge for Boards of Directors	223
15	Fighting the Virus in Everyday Life	241
	Conclusion: Recognizing and Fighting the Responsibility Virus	259
	Notes	271
	Index	277

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