Organizational failures rarely announce themselves. They accumulate. A decision that should have been questioned gets waved through. A concern that should have been escalated gets filed away. A standard that once seemed non-negotiable quietly erodes. By the time the consequences arrive, the pattern has been in place for months or years. The people inside the organization often cannot see it as "the rock in the road." They have been living with it.
John L. Barry has spent more than five decades leading in high-stakes environments. A retired Major General in the United States Air Force, he commanded fighter organizations in combat and served as a White House Fellow and military assistant to Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. His career includes leadership roles as a Board Member and Executive Director at NASA for the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (2003), a school superintendent for seven years, a museum president and CEO for over eight years, and an executive across various nonprofit and civic organizations. Today, he writes and speaks on leadership, history, innovation, and the strength of democratic institutions in his recent book Power & Peril.
