ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The birth of Reading the Room was preceded by decades of loving collaborations with colleagues who helped or stood by ready to assist as the foundation, walls, and roof of the theory of structural dynamics were being built. I mention them briefly here: Will Lehr, Carter Umbarger, Barry Dym, Uli Detling, Chris Argyris, Don Schön, Ed Schein, Peter Senge, Charlie Kiefer, Thomas Rice, Bill Isaacs, Mark Fuller, B. C. Huselton, Robert Hanig, and Lisa Stefanac.
I thank Kathe Sweeney, who fulfills every writer’s dream of how a publisher should manage an author. Kathe’s quiet patience and enthusiastic support, never more than a click away, coaxed, steered, and ushered this book to shore with impeccable finesse.
Editors: The contributions of Shani Harmon, Nancy Lonstein, and Alan Venable cannot be overestimated. This book bears the distinct imprint of their skills.
Artists: Working with the design studio at Monitor Group was a “trip,” a creative high, and a six-year journey with a crew of graphic artists who never failed in brilliantly transforming ideas into pictorial representations. When I entered their space I was a kid in a candy shop.
Special mention to Kelly Alder, an illustrator whose skill in bringing concepts and stories to life is hardly comparable to any I have seen anywhere else. The many illustrations he did in my Monitor midyears make a book by themselves. His last two pieces, the Obama drawings, bring the president’s storied history into the present with verve and meaning.
Administrative assistants: Allison Mikita, Laura Delano, Michael Dubois, and Caitria O’Neill made those blasted machines work, acting as skilled organizers, typists, and wizards. Thank you for your editing, substantive research, and no hesitation in saying “Why don’t you try to say it this way … ?”
Friends: Dinners with Sally Jackson and Paul Nace, Sib and Judy Wright, and Dick and Polly La Brie, taking place with embarrassing frequency in their homes, never failed to circle back to progress on the book. This wonderful group, with careers and backgrounds different from my own, never failed to lead me in new and interesting directions, for which I thank them.
Family: To my seven children, five biological—Matthew, Marcia, Richard, Jessica, and Pamela—and two step, Melissa and Sam, I offer my infinite gratitude for helping me keep “growing up.” Raised to develop their own spirits, who they’ve each become never ceases to amaze me.