Accountability

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

253

“Dad, why don’t you write a book?”

—Heather Spitzer, Randy’s daughter

In January 2001, at a conference at the Haas Business School at Berkeley, California, I met Steven Piersanti, president of Berrett-Koehler Publishers, and briefly discussed a new book Randy Spitzer and I were working on. The working title was Accountability. Randy had begun the project more than one year earlier, and about five months prior to my conversation with Steven, I’d joined in collaboration. Steven’s curiosity was peaked by the subject and our focus, and he asked me to send what we had. Frankly, I was reluctant to send Steven anything because the concepts were still half-baked, and I was afraid of the rejection. But I did as I promised and sent ...