A number of times before we’ve talked about organizations behaving in ways that seem pathological, and what agilists might do in those circumstances.

This interesting article suggests that a number of headline CEOs (and likely a bunch of high-level executives and corporate climbers) are diagnosable psychopaths:

www.fastcompany.com/magazine/96/open_boss.html

In particular, quoting from the article, they score highly on eight characteristics:

• glibness and superficial charm
• grandiose sense of self-worth
• pathological lying
• conning and manipulativeness
• lack of remorse or guilt
• shallow affect (i.e., a coldness covered up by dramatic emotional displays that are actually playacting)
• callousness and lack of empathy; and
• the failure to accept responsibility for one’s own actions.

For me, this article was an eye-opener. There have been a couple of agile adoption efforts that I have participated in where, in retrospect, I concluded the only thing I could have done was walk away as soon as possible. From my armchair diagnosis, both involved psychopaths in positions of power.

Now it makes sense. These people weren’t just sincere but misguided. They really had no interest in transparency, in long-term sustainability, in producing good work, in steady progress. Indeed, given that they thrive in chaos and confusion, that they enjoy or are indifferent to suffering, their values are fundamentally opposed to the values we here hold.

Nancy Van Schooenderwoert added: Yes, a very fascinating article! I have a book on a related topic. It’s "the Corporation" by Joel Bakan (2004 Free Press). A cover blurb says:

  "The corporation's legally defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly
  and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the
  harmful consequences it might cause to others."

I got the book recently and haven’t read it yet - but this article seemed to point at the same problems on a personal level.