Confronting Our Freedom Leading a Culture of Chosen Accountability and Belonging

Explore the nature of modern leadership

In Confronting Our Freedom, a team of dedicated leadership coaches delivers an exciting and engaging new take on management and leadership. Drawing on recent events in the market and in the world, including the Great Resignation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and widespread digital transformation, the authors invite you to reimagine ideas of freedom and accountability in the context of work. You’ll explore how freedom of action—for managers and employees—is what gives rise to true accountability, both in the community and in the workplace.

In the book, you’ll also find:

• Discussions of the power and structure of freedom, including its implications for our own choices and lives
• Ways to shift the focus of your leadership and management to accountability and freedom
• Strategies for shifting the illusion of clear roles and expectations to one compatible with fully human organizations

A groundbreaking and incisive approach to managing and leading others in virtual, hybrid, and in-person settings, Confronting Our Freedom will be an eye opener for managers, executives, and other business leaders seeking to improve their ability to inspire others to their fullest potential.

PETER BLOCK is a writer and consultant working in the areas of chosen accountability, the reconciliation of community, and restoring the common good. He is the author of nine books, including the bestselling Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, and Community: The Structure of Belonging.

PETER KOESTENBAUM is a renowned existential philosopher and the founder and chairman of Philosophy in Business and the Koestenbaum Institute. After a career in academia, he worked as a business consultant and leadership coach for major companies around the world, including Ford, IBM, Novartis, Citibank, Volvo, Amoco, and more. His most recent book-length work includes The Heart of Business: Ethics, Power, and Philosophy and Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness.

Preface

Prologue: Then Was the Moment

The past is not past

What lies ahead

Introduction: The Philosophic Insight

Conversations on freedom and accountability

The view from where we are

Parenting is the origin story of management and leadership

Shifting the historical context

Philosophic insight in the world of organized effort

The existential understanding

I The Power and Structure of Freedom

Rewards

Freedom, reality, choice, and will

Accepting our freedom

The fundamental insight

Implications: The Forms of Freedom

Choice, reality, and will

II The Potential of Anxiety

The fruits of your patience

Solving anxiety

The promise of anxiety

The language of freedom: It is an inside job

Shifting the context to freedom and accountability

Implications: Anxiety as an ally of accountability both central to performance in a time of permanent uncertainty

The permanent condition

Being conscious

III Speaking of Death and Evil

Death is an option

A storm in the shelter

Facing reality. Taking charge of our life.

A summary of usefulness of the reality of death

Final facts

The presence of evil

Denying the reality of evil

Do no harm

Implications: failure, fear, death, and evil

IV Fully Human Organizations

Guilty as chosen and guilty as charged

The Sound of freedom

Reversing the illusion of clear roles and expectations

Not enough 

Our expectations

What are we to do?

Real and chosen accountability? Fully human organizations

Epilogue

References and Background Reading

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

Index

About Designed Learning

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.