Why this series of e-books?
Because YBP, together with a group of friends, managers and professors, has created a Leadership path touching on the key issues that managers and entrepreneurs face today.
We devoted a year to encounters, conversations and deep reflections. What we now present, in the form of 7 e-books, is the fruit of this exciting undertaking and we are happy to be able to share it with the widest possible number of readers.
The leitmotiv running through the reflections contained in this series is this: how to construct one’s own integrity.
What does it mean to act with Integrity, as leaders and entrepreneurs? And why is it so vital today?
Because it is only through understanding complexity in an “integral” (that is, total) way that we can successfully manage enterprises in a rapidly changing business context.
Because it is only through constructing our own integrity, constantly striving to find truth in ourselves and in our business activities, that over the years we can consistently lead ever-evolving enterprises.
Why call these reflections arising from our conversations on management themes “Kant, Wittgenstein and the Blue sofa”?
Because YBP has been fortunate enough to form a close, deep acquaintance with the thought of Kant and Wittgenstein. And truly innovative, “integral” thought, such as theirs, has the power to be ever modern, ever innovative.
Kant wrote a very important critique: the Critique of Judgement.
In this work the philosopher of Königsberg shows his reader how that faculty which constitutes the one-ness of a person is the ability to judge. What does judge mean? To subsume what is particular to what is universal. An exercise we do every time when, as we interpret the details of a single rose, a single flower, we relate them to the whole, to the complexity of the whole. It is this ability, constantly exercised, which allows a person’s identity and solidity to grow.
And then Wittgenstein.
Why?
Wittgenstein sees the world of language and the world of reality as one. But besides interpretation of the world, there is action: acting and acting ethically. Work, by definition, is ethical action. It is a part of the world which is not given. It is a part of the world which is constructed through man’s ethical actions and it requires its own language. This is not a descriptive language. It is a language which starts from silence. It cannot be described; it has to be experienced and lived. This is the experience of work.
Living, acting, experiencing and then understanding and judging.
We need both Kant and Wittgenstein. We need both to find a theoretical basis for our work together!
And the Blue Sofa?
It is our sofa, where we sit and talk to one other. It is where, metaphorically speaking, we meet those taking part in our LEADERSHIP COMMUNITY.
It is a comfortable place for encounters and exchanges, a place where each of us can feel at ease telling our story, asking, understanding.
It is a place where, virtually speaking, you too are sitting as you read this.
This series starts with the thoughts of the philosopher Costantino Esposito, as he observes, reflects and explores the meaning of those words which form the foundations upon which man and man’s work are based.
From this theoretical starting point, the other 6 volumes in the series go on to explore and discuss the different ways in which the concept of integrity impacts on the dynamics of leadership.
The next issues are:
.2 RENATO ABRAMOVICH. Integrity: vision, values and processes.
.3 KEVIN KAISER. Blue Line Management.
.4 HORACIO FALCAO. Negotiation and Partnership
.5 ERIK VAN DE LOO. Integrity and Perversity
.6 JAAP WINTER. Rules and Incentives: a Threat to Integrity?
In the meantime, sitting here on the blue sofa, we are discussing Innovation. But that is another story, for later!
