In a world where the sand is continuously shifting underfoot, courage is a lifeboat. Yes, we need lifeboats even on land in these times of rapid transition, uncertainty, and abuse of power. Sharna Fabiano, Life Coach, Followership trainer and Tango teacher extraordinaire has written on How To Be Brave in […]
My colleague, Barbara Kellerman, of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, has been a champion of Followership for years. She has used my book in her courses and has written her own book titled “Followership”, as well as more recent work on Leadership that always includes Followership as an […]
A year after the exposure of the massive fraud VW perpetrated on American consumers, knowingly deceiving emission control tests while exceeding emission limits by as much as 40 times, the evidence is at hand of the real culprit in the crime – a culture that rewards “just following orders”. The […]
The recent hugely insensitive advertisement by Unilever for their Dove soap is a textbook example of organizational blind spots. This is a painful example of why the voices of minorities and staff at all levels of the organization must be invited, included, raised up and empowered to influence decision making. […]
Intelligent Disobedience does not imply that the authority figure is acting immorally, though that case certainly occurs. The individual with formal authority may simply be wrong for a variety of reasons. There are many other well- intentioned reasons that a person with authority may ask us to do something that […]
What exactly is Intelligent Disobedience? I had the same question when I first heard the term. These are two words that don’t usually fit together. We know what obedience is: following orders or rules or established ways of doing things. Obeying usually keeps life running smoothly. Disobedience is a contrary […]
The Wells Fargo Scandal of opening millions of unauthorized accounts for its customers has resulted in $185 million dollar fine for the bank. What is more startling is that 5300 employees were fired over the incident according to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office. What more cautionary tale can there […]
Excerpt from the book Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You´re Told to Do Is Wrong by Ira Chaleff, Chapter Eleven, p.159-161 On the morning of September 11, 2001, Cyril Richard “Rick” Rescorla was on the job as a vice president for security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, which had […]
The CEO of the Volkswagen holding company — now the former CEO having been appropriately forced to resign — did not install the “defeat devices” that hid the fact of emissions five- to 40-times higher than allowed by U.S. law. — by Ira Chaleff — September 26, 2015. The “company,” […]
Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You’re Told To Do Is Wrong:…Chaleff (The Courageous Follower) proposes that individuals find a healthy balance for living in a system with rules and authorities while taking responsibility for their actions. By Deborah Bigelow, September 15, 2015 LIBRARY JOURNAL The author uses examples from […]
