A Failure of Nerve -- Chapter 10
The Presence of The Past
The Power of the Past
"Persistence of form" has extraordinary importance for leaders. What they are up against goes beyond the way things are organized. The nature of connections in the present can have more to do with what has been transmitted successively for many generations than with the logic of their contemporary relationship.
Unless structural changes are accompanied by changes in an institution's multigenerational emotional processes, they will almost always eventually regress.
The presence of the past is equally evident in families, in organizations, in sports teams, and in entire nations. It is a process that transcends gender, class, or culture.
Leadership is what mobilizes a system's multi-generational process.
Friedman, E. H. A failure of nerve: Leadership in the age of the quick fix.