The Reality Test: Still Relying on Strategy?

Robert Rowland Smith began his career as a Prize Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He lectured internationally on philosophy, literature and psychoanalysis. He published the award-winning Derrida and Autobiography in 1995 and laid the ground for two later academic works. These are Death-Drive: Freudian Hauntings in Literature and Art and On Modern Poetry: From Theory to Total Criticism, which received a Choice award for 'outstanding academic book' of 2013.

In 1998 Robert left Oxford to go into management consultancy, first in Los Angeles and then in London, where he was a partner in a firm specialising in leadership and organisation development. It was during this period that Robert trained in Constellations.

With the 2009 publication of the bestselling Breakfast with Socrates, Robert began working on a portfolio basis that today involves: (1) writing books: Driving with Plato came out in 2011, and 2013 year saw the publication of Robert's book for business leaders, The Reality Test. He's now researching a project with the working title of The Architecture of Being. (2) advising businesses: alongside his work with leaders, Robert has set up Ennovation.Co to help organisations innovate by drawing on unconscious energy. (3) running New Constellations: Robert runs regular workshops for people facing challenges in their personal or professional life, or with creative projects.
(4) giving talks: Robert has spoken to audiences from Tokyo to El Salvador on subjects including love, enlightenment, the self and innovation.
(5)doing journalism: Robert has had a column in both the Evening Standard and the Sunday Times, and continues to write articles for newspapers and magazines.

Robert sits on the board of the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships, and the editorial board of Angelaki, the journal he helped to found. He is a founding faculty member of both The School of Life and the London Graduate School. He holds a top First in English and a D. Phil., both from Oxford University.Robert Rowland Smith was for seven years a Prize Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He now advises blue-chip companies, teaches at London's School of Life, and writes, among other things, a column on 'life lessons' in the Evening Standard and a regular column in the Sunday Times. He contributes to the Philosophy Bites podcast series and speaks regularly on BBC radio. His books Breakfast with Socrates [9781846682377] and Driving with Plato [978184668360] are also published by Profile and have been widely translated.

How is it that the most carefully-laid business strategies can go horribly wrong when put into practice? Robert Rowland Smith's answer, based on years of experience in high-level consultancy, is that 'reality eats strategy for breakfast': strategy, based on projections and assuming business is a rational pursuit, can't deal with the messy reality of life.

More helpful are these practical questions that can help you plan what to do when your business comes into contact with reality. From learning the lessons of the past (rather than fixating on the future) to finding out what your business is really about, he explains the real-life factors that lead to success or failure. Including many new examples from the front line, from all around the world, The Reality Test will help you establish yourself as more effective and distinctive than your competitors, who follow the same rigid theoretical avenues.

Whether you ask 'Are you making enough of your weaknesses?' or 'Are you 100% productive 100% of the time?', it's time to stop living in strategy La-La Land and face reality.

The questions you've never asked that will put you ahead of your competitors. Now available in paperback.

The questions you've never asked that will put you ahead of your competitors. Now available in paperback.