Rating: 
Summary: Powerful, simple and useful for life
Review: "Leadership and Self-Deception" is a must read for professional offices with only a few select team members as well as the largest of corporations. This book could positively influence the future development of economic and leadership theories as a whole because of what it accounts for. Profound.My business has utilized the Arbinger Institute and this book is just the tip of the iceberg. If you possess any people sense at all, I expect you will thoroughly enjoy this book. It has become my organizational performance handbook. About the negative reviews written, either these readers are ill motivated or they simply failed to track its implications for their lives. No matter their opinion, I remain deeply impressed.
Rating:
Summary: Profound implications in an easy-to-read format
Review: I agree with all the other reviewers that this book goes beyond a business book. The principles in the book are so powerful that you cannot help referring to them constantly in your every day dealings with other people (from family or work). Written in the same fictional style as some other popular books, like WHO MOVED MY CHEESE, it can be easily read in a couple of hours. However, the truths in it have lasting effect, and definitively change the way you view life.
Rating: 
Summary: Yuck!
Review: I am not a big fan of business books using the fable/parable approach to begin with, but this was unreadable. The concept of self-deception is a powerful one, but for me, this book is not a tool that I find of value. However, if you really, really like business fables, you might enjoy this as much as some of the other reviewers.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to Read
Review: I had to force myself to stick with it until the end and the secret is revealed. Long, weak stories aren't really necessary. Why not use short, interesting anecdotes to make your point? It's such a wonderful point. I bought this book and Shar McBee's "To Lead is to Empower" and found her's delivered WAY more than promised. This book left me a little disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone on the planet is a person and has worth
Review: I work really hard to try and stay up-to-date on management thinking in the business world. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of printed words are overwhelming. Once in awhile a book crops up that provides an interesting story, makes me slow down and think as I read, and causes me to reread the entire book numerous times. "Leadership and Self-Deception" is the best book that I have read since "First Break all the Rules." First of all I appreciate an interesting story. I used to do financial seminars all over the country and found that the one thing that caused people to listen and think about your topic, was a great story. I used to tell the story of how the Coca-Cola company came into existence. By providing the proper amount of detail and the tremendous stock growth punchline, I was able to "hold" the room. Things got quiet and learning started to take place. The same thing happened when I first started read this book. Most of us have had the opportunity to try and fit into a new corporate culture and I found that I was interested in the main character's struggle to fit in and understand what was going on around him. By using a good story I found myself drawn into the book. Second, I have found that I enjoy a book that makes me slow down when I read and really think about the information that is being presented. Most of my reading is of the skimming variety and to read a book that presents a thought that causes me to slow down, reread, think and reread it again, is rare. I especially enjoy reading for a few minutes and then putting the book down to think of how I would explain this same point using my own words. After all, that is how we truly learn, by teaching others. This book caused me to stop and think several times. Since I read it I have had the opportunity to teach several of the concepts within it to others. During those chats with others, I found myself getting really excited with how the information was being received. The individuals I spoke paused as we were talking to really think through what was being said. Finally, I have had the book for two weeks and I am on my third reading. I am sure that most of of can remember special books in our lives and this one is definately one of mine. Pick up a copy and see if the message resonates with you as it did with me.
Rating:
Summary: It's More Than a Book...
Review: Leadership and Self-Deception is more than a book. It's a powerful key to change--personal and professional. Don't expect to read it without being transformed, at least if you read it honestly. It speaks to the heart of human relations isues like not other business book I have encountered. I was stunned, and I'd have to say awakened, by its explanation of interpersonal problems--and I mean the whole range of problems. And I love how the ideas unfold in fiction where I met myself fact to face in the stories of the characters in the book. I truly could not put it down--nor can I resist picking it back up, pondering and applying it. It ranks way at the top of the most powerful life-changing pieces of literature I've read in my lifetime. A must-read for everyone in and outside of business.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable
Review: So much of this kind of writing is common sense once you're done the book... but this kind of common sense needs to be reinforced over and over again. Written in an easy to follow narrative you find yourself relating to the main character, coming up with the same questions he has, and feeling the same feelings as he finds the truth about what he is living, feeling & learning. A quick read and a remarkable look into how you can live & work everday.
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable
Review: So much of this kind of writing is common sense once you're done the book... but this kind of common sense needs to be reinforced over and over again. Written in an easy to follow narrative you find yourself relating to the main character, coming up with the same questions he has, and feeling the same feelings as he finds the truth about what he is living, feeling & learning. A quick read and a remarkable look into how you can live & work everday.
Rating: 
Summary: "Simple Truth Miscalled Simplicity" (Sonnet 66)
Review: The most surprising thing about this book is it's format. It follows the Platonic method of dialogue and discussion rather than a strict lecturing.
The books strength is it's focus on lies. All of philosophy focuses on the "is" principle (The Law Of Identity). Therefore, these lies we tell ourselves as the mainspring of all the corruption in the business and organizational realm. This book should be read in tandem with M. Scott Peck's "People Of The Lie." Peck's chapters on "Toward A Psychology Of Evil," and "The Encounter With Evil In Everyday Life" are complimentary to The Arbinger Institute's philosophy.
This book presents an easy and workable flowchart on how to analyze what we are doing . This introspection can be revealing-a bit too revealing at times. However, it is by giving ourselves the Third Degree that we can make progress. What did Socrates say? The unexamined life is not worth living. (Apology, 38a)
Three cautions and a comment.
First is that objectively there are people who are sluffs. TI is not all reducible to our attitude, which would be a type of Solipsistic Fideism. (i.e. whatever you believe becomes reality).
Second, and more importantly, is the problem of human free-will. Therefore no amount of positive thinking can change other people who are sluffs. You have your free-will to try and change them, and they have their free-will to resist you. Nothing we can do can change this-or change them. Couple this with Praeto's 80%-20% principle (20% of the people cause 80% of the problems), and you see how dismal the situation is. However, even in a crash-and0-burn situation, you can go out with a flash like Socrates.
Third-and this problem is common to all self-help books-if you are smart enough to buy this book, you probably don't need it. This is not a paradox, but an instance of "self-authorization." People who are smart and sensitive enough to ask question, or to sincerely want to change themselves are halfway towards the solution.
The comment: One of the reviewers mentioned this as Mormon propaganda. This is false on two accounts. First, The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints (www.mormon.org) does not produce these books, nor does it endorses such books. There is no process of "imprimi posti," "nihil obstat" and "imprimature" that the Roman Catholic Church has. Any member of the Church of Jesus Christ is free to do what he or she wishes to do, and in fact, they are encourage to do so to help perfect the world. It is a moral obligation. But these private endeavors are never considered official.
Second, this attempt to discredit this book by being "Mormon" commits the logical error of "Genetic Fallacy": they are damning the origins of the idea rather than taking the idea on its own merits. Dr. Karl Popper denounced this "psychologism," and said that how an idea comes about is of no importance to the truthfulness of the theory (The Logic Of Scientific Inquiry, 7-9)
So take the book on its own merits and live the principles taught: by its fruits shall ye know.
Rating:
Summary: "The 'Golden Rule' in a big nutshell"
Review: The principles in this book are outstanding and timeless. I spend a great deal of time in the box myself. In fact, my boss, as well as any boss would benefit from reading and living the great concepts portrayed in this little book. My gripe about this, and any other modern self-help fable: In finding a solution to the problem at hand, a story can actually twist and turn, masking any real solution, as this book did. I don't mind reading a lot of extra words, but let them coincide with and elaborate on the concepts. The teachings found in this book are profound. The fact that it's written as a story--boo! It's not that I mind reading a lot of extra words. Author, Stephen R. Covey uses excruciating detail in his writing, without writing allegories. So does Brian Tracy, another great author. Another wonderful book on this same basic subject is: The Platinum Rule, by Tony Alessandra. Back to the book at hand: Read it. The advise is great--portrayed in a way unlike any other book on the subject I've read. I highly recommend it.
| 
