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culture, and exhibit a high level of “buy-in” to “the mission.” The division between private life and work life is eroded, and accordingly the whole person is at issue in job performance evaluations. This exposure may be on all sides; some managers are now subject to the “360 review,” in which they answer not to a superior alone (the hierarchy has been smashed), but to all of their coworkers, and indeed to the assessments of customers and suppliers. Such reviews resemble the “encounter group” therapy sessions of the 1970s, in which one person was placed in the “hot seat” and then berated from every side. The point was to break down the ego, cleansing it of those false self-conceptions we call our “identity.” Thus purified, the ego can be built up once again by the group through praise. In Teambuilding That Gets Results, we find this:

Team Activity: Building Egos for Team Strength. Each team member’s name is written on a piece of paper, which is then folded and put in a basket. Each member pulls a name from the basket and takes one minute to write down as many positive attributes for that person as possible. When this is done, each person in the group identifies the person they picked and articulates his or her praise verbally. Before moving on to the next team member, the person receiving the feedback is asked, “Is that how you view yourself? Please explain.” 26

The purpose of the activity is to “accentuate the positive” and build self-esteem. But this is self-esteem of a particular sort, refracted through the assessments of the Team. It is perhaps not so much “building egos” as reconstituting the ego, so that the Team becomes the controlling unit of personality. There are further devices that can be used for breaking down the individual. Elsewhere in Teambuilding That Gets Results,27 we get an example of such an exercise. Six to ten people are assembled and given a light wooden dowel. Their objective is to lower it to the ground, together, after it has been placed horizontally on their outstretched fingers. What happens is that, contrary to each individual’s will, the dowel goes up rather than down. “Surprise and great laughter ensue.” The facilitator offers them reminders of the difference between up and down. “That’s the floor. That’s the ceiling. Slipping off the dowel makes the group start again from the beginning—which builds more frustration.” This frustration is a key part of the pedagogy. As the would-be team continues to fail at their appointed task, she gently berates them. “I tell them that this is a very light wooden dowel—you just need to lower it together to the floor.” Each time she starts them over she puts downward pressure on the dowel. That is, she gives them the impression the dowel is heavier than it is, so they begin by putting more upward pressure on the dowel than they would if they sensed its true weight, which dooms them to their theater of failure. This failure would seem to be based on a presumption of good faith on the part of the facilitator. Eventually “the group begins to anticipate this, and they start to prepare each other for it.” What then? Having shed their false consciousness and achieved some level of worker solidarity, do they grab the dowel and beat her roundly about the head and shoulders? If so, she doesn’t mention it.

The author says her “favorite” moment is when “the group becomes paralyzed. No one person wants to be the person to come off contact—so they don’t take risks.” Having induced this group paralysis, she then sets out to re-create the spirit of innovation and charismatic rule breaking, now as a function of the Team.

The most innovative groups question the “standing” starting point of the exercise. They notice that it’s hard to make the switch from standing to the kneeling position that is required to make the last move to the floor and keep in contact with the dowel. So they ask if they can start from a kneeling position. I generally approve this as I feel that the group is learning and questioning some unspoken rules.28

So here is a group of people on