INTRODUCTION 5couple goes to a fair where there ’ s a large fortune - telling machine. The
husband puts in a coin and receives a card telling him his age and what
kind of person he is. He reads it out to his wife, smiling smugly: ‘ Yo u ’ re
brilliant and charming. Women fall all over you. ’ His wife grabs the
card from him and turns it over. ‘ Oh dear, ’ she says, ‘ They got your age
wrong, too. ’
Leaders in all organizations need someone like this who is willing
to speak out and tell the leader how it is. That ’ s precisely the role of the
fool. To be effective, organizations need people with a healthy disrespect
for the boss, people who feel free to express emotions and opinions
openly, who can engage in give and take. If a leader wants honest feed-
back, he should ask himself whether he ’ s created an organization that
has room for a fool. Very often, it is a wife or husband who plays this
role. Some companies have tried to institutionalize the role, with limited
success. Nevertheless, I sometimes see a wise fool operating within an
organization.
Typically, it is an older executive, someone who is out of the suc-
cession race and no competition for anyone, asking questions that take
people by surprise. For example, I was recently in an investment bank
and met one particular man who was clearly protected by the chairman,
yet for whom I could see no real role. What was so important about
him? I realized later that he was the organizational fool. He asked
unusual, sometimes disturbing questions, and the chairman tolerated
this and encouraged him because it was useful. This man could get away
with asking awkward questions because he was no threat to anybody.
Nevertheless, he had a very useful function. Once in every seven
meetings perhaps he would make an observation that really struck
home.
The organizational fool is very much the role I play with my clients.
I can say silly or provocative things, try to get people to look at things
from different angles, because it ’ s easier for someone from the outside
to do it. Happiness is looking in a mirror and feeling comfortable and
at ease in what you see. I am the man with the mirror.