Peter Block. Peter Koestenbaum. Confronting Our Freedom: leading a culture of chosen accountability and belonging. O'Reilly. 2023.

• Preface
• Prologue: Then was the moment
  • The past is not the past
  • What lies ahead
• Introduction: the philosophic insight
  • Conversations on freedom and accountability
  • The view from where we are
    • The culture
    • The individual
    • Organizations and the evolving workplace
  • Parenting is the origin story of management and leadership
  • Shifting the historical context
    1. Freedom is a fact of our existing in the world
    2. Accountability cannot be imposed or demanded; it occurs as an inevitable outgrowth of that freedom, for we account for what we choose and what we claim as our own agency in making things work. People do not resist change; they resist coercion.
    3. As inevitably as the existing of our freedom, we are forced to experience and confront:
       • Anxiety over the choices we have made as a result of our freedom and the uncertainty of tomorrow
       • Guilt from having said no to either ourselves (existential guilt) or others (neurotic guilt)
       • Death of others, first, and the anticipation of our own, next. Not just our personal condition, but the fact that institutions have a life expectancy
       • Evil, which exists because all persons are free, and it will not go away; it is not solvable
    4. And most important--and this is the unique insight of philosophy--these experiences are what give meaning, character, and texture to our lives; they are not negatives or failures that a healty person should move beyond
    5. Finally, when we can accept the above, we realize we constitute the world in which we live, which is to fulfill for many the promise of being created in God's image. And this can be embodied in our day-to-day work, not on weekends and retreats
  • Philosophic insight in the world of organized effort
    • Real world, really?
    • Uncertain reality
    • At work
  • The existential understanding

1. The Power and Structure of Freedom

   • Rewards
   • Freedom, reality, choice, and will
   • Accepting our freedom
   • The fundamental insight
   • Implications: the forms of freedom
   • Choice, reality, and will

2. The Potential of Anxiety

   • The fruits of your patience
   • Solving anxiety
   • The promise of anxiety
   • The language of freedom: it was an inside job
   • Shifting the context to freedom and accountability
   • Implications: anxiety as an ally of accountability both central to performance in a time of permanent uncertainty
   • The permanent condition
   • Being conscious

3. Speaking of Death and Evil

   • Death is an option
   • A storm in the shelter
   • Facing reality: taking charge of our life
   • A summary of usefulness of the reality of death
   • The presence of evil
   • Do no harm
   • Implications: failure, fear, death, and evil
4. Fully Human Organizations