Reading Time: < 1 minute In his work on leadership for both government and corporations, Ira Chaleff has become something of an expert on followers. What he’s found—and what he argues in his book Intelligent Disobedience and in his conversation with WhoWhatWhy’s Jeff Schechtman—is that we have to learn not to be so quick to follow orders and accept authority.
Chaleff explores how a remarkable range of wrongdoing of all magnitudes—from financial fraud to war crimes, and even, surprisingly, sexual misconduct—can to some degree trace back to the compromised moral compass of those too quick to comply with orders. While we may not all have it in us to become whistleblowers, says Chaleff, we can all stand to be a bit more disobedient—when it is warranted.