Reading the Room

David Kantor, Ph.D., is a systems psychologist, organizational consultant, and clinical researcher. Kantor was formerly the head of Monitor Kantor Enterprises (MKE), a business unit of Monitor Group. Kantor has been a professor at Harvard University, Harvard University Medical School, and Tufts University Medical School. He also founded and served as director of the Kantor Family Institute, a postgraduate training center in Boston, and The Kantor Institute, a training center for consultants, coaches, and leaders.

In this innovative book, renowned psychologist David Kantor applies his research and theory of structural dynamics to the workplace to show how individual leaders and coaches can develop their own skills in understanding group dynamics and apply this understanding to improve organizational communication and performance. Reading the Room provides guidelines for understanding the differences between communication in low stakes and high stakes situations, a framework for improving leadership behavior in crisis, and action strategies to enhance leadership development through organizational approaches and accelerated team performance.

Preface ix
 
ONE Reading the Room: Introduction and Framework 1
 
PART ONE A Complete Language for Understanding Leader Behavior 21
 
TWO Level I: Action Stances: The Four-Player Model 23
 
THREE Level II: Domains of Communication: Affect, Power, and Meaning 49
 
FOUR Level III: Systems in Control of Speech 79
 
FIVE The Behavioral Profile: A Synthesis of Levels I, II, and III 109
 
PART TWO Identity and Leader Behavior in High Stakes 125
 
SIX Level IV: Stories, Identity, and Structured Behavior 127
 
SEVEN Narrative Purpose 151
 
EIGHT Leader Behavior in High-Stakes Situations 167
 
NINE The Heroic Leader in Crisis 193
 
TEN Sources and Signs of Moral Corruption in Leaders 231
 
PART THREE Models and the Ultimate Leader 263
 
ELEVEN From Personal Model to Leadership Model 265
 
TWELVE Building a Leadership Model 281
 
THIRTEEN A Model for Living 315
 
FOURTEEN Beyond the Behavioral Profile 339
 
FIFTEEN A Structural Dynamics Analysis of Barack Obama 361
 
AFTERWORD Where Structural Dynamics Goes from Here 385
 
Notes 387
 
Acknowledgments 399
 
About the Author 401