Rachel Pryor is leading the way in management training in the UK today with the Arbinger organisation. ARBINGER'S change work grows out of the scholarly work of philosopher Terry Warner, who with an international team of scholars, in 1978 broke new ground in solving the age-old problem of self-deception, or what was originally called "resistance."
ARBINGER was founded in 1978 to translate this important work on self-deception - and its solution - into practical effect for individuals, families and organisations worldwide. ARBINGER'S focus on organizations began when a well-known management consultant asked for ARBINGER'S help with one of his clients. As a result of ARBINGER'S work, that company, which had been languishing in its performance, became the industry's profit leader, eventually doubling and tripling the ROI of its nearest competitors. Out of the reputation that began to spread after that experience, ARBINGER began to focus on the organisational implications and applications of the self-deception problem and solution.
Freud defines self-deception as “the problem of not knowing that I have a problem”. The implications of self-deception are immense, for how is improvement possible for an organisation or and individual, when those most in need of improvement don’t feel the need to improve?
Self-deception thus undercuts all organisational ‘improvement’ interventions’ – that is, training and development initiatives, process re-engineering, performance incentives and the like. As self-deception generates more self-deception, it devours organisational resources. To the extent that an organisation or individual solves the problem of self-deception, other improvement initiatives will succeed, and resources can again be devoted to business results, rather than self-justification. All the ‘people problems’, such as poor communication, low morale, silo-building, turf-wars, that we find at work and in our families turn out to be problems of self-deception. Solving the problem of self-deception eliminates ‘people problems’.
Today, ARBINGER is a management training and consulting firm and scholarly consortium that includes people trained in business, law, economics, philosophy, the family, education, and psychology. Together, the members of ARBINGER work to apply the sweeping implications of self-deception and its solution to all aspects of organisational, community, and family life.
ARBINGER is led by managing directors Duane Boyce, Jim Ferrell, and Paul Smith. Rachel Pryor is the managing director of ARBINGER UK.
