Exception to the Rule by Peter Rea, James K. Stoller, and Alan Kolp

This one was sort of assigned reading. The association I work for is working to define the culture of its Board of Directors, and the Board chair recommended that everyone read this book. I think he both likes its conclusions and wanted to invite one of its authors to come speak to us.

To be honest, I had a difficult time with it.

Its thesis, if I understand it right, is that the best culture is one based on virtue, and specifically, the seven classical virtues first described 2,500 years ago by Plato: Trust, Compassion, Courage, Justice, Wisdom, Temperance, and Hope. Regardless of the competitive circumstances, the team that unfailingly acts in a virtuous manner will beat any other team that is sown with uncertainties and suspicions about the intentions of its own people.

And I can go along with that. The problems come when we start unpacking each one of the seven virtues, describing what it is and what it means to practice it as a part of an organization’s culture. That’s where the attractive simplicity of the book’s thesis begins to lose its coherence.

Trust gets linked to concepts like engagement and empowerment. Compassion gets linked to concepts like safety and accountability. Courage gets linked to growth. Justice to selflessness. Wisdom to leveraging strengths and managing weaknesses. Pretty soon it doesn’t feel like we’re talking about the seven classical virtues any more. It feels like we’re talking about the things that dozens of other management books talk about. In other words, it’s not really about the seven virtues; it’s about fifteen or so best practices, which we have loosely organized under the seven virtues. After all, you can position anything as wisdom by simply saying “Wise leaders want a highly engaged workforce.”

At one point, the authors even wander into the philosophical minefield of brain science.

We can learn to be better teammates by gaining insights into how our brain works under pressure, when our interpersonal skills and teamwork are tested. The architecture of our brain is built on emotions. We feel first and think second, making it unrealistic to control our emotions under all circumstances. Executive functions, which include working memory, self-regulation, and flexibility, are the neurological building blocks that underpin resilience and perseverance. It is very difficult to achieve resilience, curiosity, and tenacity without first developing a neurological foundation of executive functions and the capacity for self-awareness forged by practicing virtue.

Did you catch the uncited linkage to virtue at the end? Practicing virtue may or may not leverage neuroscience, but what follows is a few paragraphs of seemingly practical advice about how to take advantage of the fact that our brains often feel before they think. In wrapping the section up, the authors say:

In the end, we can only control one brain -- our own.

Now, perhaps it’s best not to ask philosophical questions when reading a book about management -- but that sentence literally stopped me in my tracks. Shouldn’t it be, “In the end, our brain can only control one person -- us”? And what does such an inversion -- that we are controlled by our brains, not the other way around -- mean for management science in general?

I, for one, would love to read a book about that.

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This post first appeared on Eric Lanke's blog, an association executive and author. You can follow him on Twitter @ericlanke or contact him at eric.lanke@gmail.com.