I was recently working with a client who raised a concern over competition between them and a peer in their workplace. As the job market becomes increasingly uncertain, with the number of layoffs increasing every week, this is becoming…

Last week, we examined Althusser’s concept of Ideology; in this week’s newsletter, we discuss how Slavoj Žižek builds on Althusser’s concepts of ideology in some important ways. Žižek takes Althusser’s view on Ideology: “Ideology represents individuals’ imaginary relation to…

One of the foremost thinkers of ideology is the French Philosopher Louis Althusser. He expounded on his ideas of ideology in his essay “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes Towards an Investigation)” which condenses his book On the Reproduction…

We will return to exploring more aspects of ideology in future newsletters, but this week, I want to focus on the idea of disavowal. Whether the devastating floods caused by Hurricane Hellene and now Milton or the news of…

In the last newsletter, we discussed culture and how often, when leaders talk about creating culture, they are really advancing an ideology. Here, we pivot slightly and detour through the thinker Pierre Bourdieu. While his work never uses the…

Culture is a constant topic of discussion on LinkedIn and in organizations in general. We will critically examine a recent book on Culture (The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle) and use it to see how our current views of…

Optimism is everywhere, from thought/cult leaders on LinkedIn (one even used optimism in the name of his company) to organizational values. But what if optimism wasn’t the benefit it was set out to be? What if there was an…

Last week, I wrote about how even the meaning we find in our work is part of how we are exploited as workers. This week promises a path forward and how we can lean into the alienation that results…