According to the authors, people who are in self-deception live and work as trapped in a box. Blind to the reality around them, they undermine performance—both their own and others'. The problem is, being in the box they can't see that they undermine performance. Consequently, they don't change, and neither do their results.

The good news is that there is a solution to self-deception and the costly problems that arise from it. Leadership and Self-Deception shows what self- deception is, how people get trapped in it, how it kills organizational performance, and--most importantly—the surprising way to solve it.

Current organizational theory finds itself in the same situation that medicine faced a century and a half ago. In those days, doctors didn't understand how a single disease could lie below the surface of a range of different symptoms, and they had no conception of how germs cause disease. As a result, they could only treat symptoms. Leadership and Self-Deception shows how business, like people, can be afflicted by "disease" — in this case self-deception, the major culprit in corporate failure. The book explains how leaders can escape self-deception and put to use the skills, systems, and techniques that will bring success to themselves and their organizations.


Reviews

I've known the work of the Arbinger Institute for years. Arbinger's ideas are profound, with deep and sweeping implications for organizations. Leadership and Self-Deception provides the perfect introduction to this material. It is engaging and fresh, easy to read, and packed with insight. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

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Very informative for a new Manager May 21, 2008
Reviewer: Ray from Arizona United States