I've been thinking about the role of the honest outsider in holding the mirror up to organisations.
Two elements got me there -- The League of Denial, the PBS documentary on football that came out earlier this fall, and Reza Aslan's book on Jesus, Zealot: The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.
To start, let's talk about Dr Bennet Omalu, who first identified the traumatic brain condition that is commonplace among American football players, CTE. The forensic pathologist conducted the autopsy of Pittsburgh Steelers centre Mike Webster in 2002 after Webster died of a heart attack at 50.
Dr Omalu is a Nigerian by birth who knew little about American football as a game -- he didn't watch it even though he lived in a football-crazy city, didn't know anything about the legendary Webster.
All he knew was that he was conducting the autopsy of a 50-year old man whose brain showed the wear and tear of a 75-year-old.
The game had battered his body, but even more, his brain. In his role as a neuropathologist, he discovered the kind of a trauma he'd never have expected -- a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
The condition causes depression, memory loss, and sometimes dementia.
Dr Omalu's lack of reverence for the player meant that he was respectful, caring, persistent, thoughtful and ultimately absolutely the right person to work on Webster.
He served Webster and his family in ways no fan ever did -- he discovered the truth behind Webster's tragic last years of pain and suffering and showed that it was the disease, not the man, that was flawed.
The documentary talks about the shameful way the NFL went after Dr Omalu, destroying his reputation and cutting him off at each turn. The truth will out, though... and in this case, Dr Omalu's persistence and integrity mean that the young children going into the sport today will be protected to some extent from the myopia of the NFL, which is finally trying to change the rules of the game to make head trauma less of a possibility.
My own concern is that the game will never be safe, and watch closely the games my children have chosen, like soccer, which have their own inherent risks.
I'm also currently reading Reza Aslan's Zealot: The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. While there is a huge amount of controversy around the book, as is wont to be in any analysis around religion, I was struck by the level of emotion in the attacks on Aslan.
As I read the book, as an outsider myself, what's clear is the respect Reza has for his subject. He sees Jesus for the transformative leader he was, and his analysis is more historical and contextual than anything I've certainly read (granted, I am NOT a historian of religions, but quite a layperson in this area.)
I studied at a school in Chennai that was attached to a convent, and remember wandering in to the chapel early some mornings and communing with God.
The space was quite and prayerful -- and I respected the attitude of love, charity and giving that the nuns exuded.
Aslan talks about his own early experiments with religion, including his time as a Christian, when he converted as a child. He rediscovers Islam later, but clearly continues to be moved and inspired by the core constructs of Christianity.
Most useful is his thoughtful review of the evolution of Judaism, the role of Rome, the individual voices that dynamically told the stories that crystallised into traditions that many live by today.
While I'm not a Christian, I could see how I'd find it hugely freeing to know a little more about the great men and women who molded the great traditions of my faith, and the circumstances that fed the dogmas that emerged.
Recognising them and then engaging with them would be a constructive thing to do, one suspects.
What can a leader learn from such outsiders?
What about the outsider -- what can they do to be effective and constructive?
In Dr Omalu's case, his cause was moved forward significantly by the doctor the NFL granted access to, Dr Ann McKee, a self-confessed Steelers fan.
Roopa Unnikrishnan, Commonwealth Games gold medalist, Arjuna Award winner, Rhodes Scholar, is a management consultant based in New York. You can find out more about what she does here: http://www.center10.us/index.php
Birth of a leader: The inspiring story of Wipro's Senior VP
Meet the voice of global change
The CFO whose career kicked off with two pounds sterling
MUST READ: Failure lessons from Kiran Mazumdar's life