Jay-Jacob Neufeld

Good storyteller but problematic meta-narrative

Reviewed: 07-24-24

Eastwood is a good storyteller. He tells lots of interesting accounts of his work with top teams around the world. I enjoyed hearing his origin story and cultural perspective. I also found many helpful ideas for building a good team culture. That said I found his overall arguments unpersuasive. He seeks to tell a meta-story for all mankind rooted in evolutionary psychology. I find it all extremely speculative, but wrapped in the language of science for credibility. How many times does he say ‘science says’? That reminds me of how my uncle used to always say, ‘the Bible says’ and then he’d just say his own thoughts. He speaks of science as if it’s a monolithic institution speaking with one voice, but the discipline is not that clear cut. He also touts an ancient, intuitive way of being. I happen to value that as well. But he makes many, many statements like ‘our ancestors intuitively knew this.’ How does he know this? I think it’s b.s. What access does he have into their intuition or mental processes? Perhaps they were engaging in a thoroughly sense-oriented and highly rational approach? We don’t know. I find his amalgamation of ancient ways together with ‘science’ very problematic. But then I find the whole discipline of evolutionary psychology very problematic. He doesn’t speak for my ancestors. From what I know of my ‘ancestors’ they would reject Eastwood’s views. Overall, there are a couple of chapters that I’ll revisit and take away notes, but I reject his overall presentation.

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