Block, Peter & Koestenbaum. Confronting Our Freedom: Leading a Culture of Chosen Accountability and Belonging. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2023.
This book is an extension of the ideas that Peter Block explored in his book Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest. Black interposes his own thinking about freedom, anxiety, and accountability with quotations from two books by Peter Koestenbaum, a philosopher. Drawing on their years of experience as consultants and speakers, Block and Koestenbaum argue that the language of philosophy is not that of “the engineer and economist, or the influencer. It places meaning and experience first, and utility and practical action as a follow-on.” It is the emphasis on meaning and personal accountability for the creation of meaning in our lives that offers new ways of being within organizations. This book challenges conventional ways of thinking about organizational purpose, structure, and relationships.