On the surface, this could look like just one of those management books. And we all know what those management books contain. Lots of hot air, self-important "what I call ..." coining (literally turning banalities into coins).

What made me curious about this book was the negative phrasing of the book. My impression of management literature is that the people in charge for that genre - publishers and readers (managers) - dislike negativity. It's always turning things around to the positive other side, the constructive, the challenge not the problem etc etc. It's compulsive and hence not very believable. So a management book about the dysfunctions of an executive team? I'm all ears.

And I was not disappointed. In fact, I was wholly convinced, engaged in the reading and even touched from time to time. The characters in this book are not cartoonist, but believable and even likeable. Who wouldn't want to have a Kathryn Petersen in their life? It takes an author with tremendously high emotional intelligence to make people come so much alive, all the little dramas and suspense of a meeting between people that disagree, have fears about change, looking at themselves, admitting mistakes and deciding to do things differently etc.

You can read summaries of the theory laid out in the book many other places.