Book Review: The Leadership Dojo and In Search of the Warrior Spirit, Richard Strozzi-Heckler

Shortly after receiving the second book and seeing it was more than twice as long as the first—194 and 422 pages respectively—I began to have doubts. The first book, Leadership Dojo started out well enough, but about a third of the way in, the dojo began to feel more like "oh no". I was stuck and sinking fast. For me the book's flow came to a grinding halt. I contacted Frances Gander, the publisher of the Journal of Martial Arts & Healing and asked about doing just one of the proposed two reviews. Frances gently encouraged me to continue on, so I settled into my struggle.

Let me now say, the effort was worth it. The book recaptured its earlier flow and I breezed through to the end, picking up lots of interesting insights along the way. Additionally, it made the longer second book, In Search of... a bit less daunting, but more on that in a moment.

Just after beginning this review, I went online and, out of a genuine desire to know what others thought, searched for a bookseller with website reviews of Leadership Dojo. I found one site—enough for my purpose—showing eleven reviews, all of which carried five stars, the site's highest recommendation. So perhaps it was me or perhaps my expectations, but it was clear that at least eleven people disagreed with my assessment—an even dozen if you count Richard, I'm sure. I would give it four stars at best.

I spent a lot of years in sales and corporate work, eventually leaving and firmly embedding myself in the healing arts. So it could be that my experience and expectations are a little different than those of the typical CEO or group manager type who might be drawn to this particular reading. That said, for all you management types, I do recommend Leadership Dojo—strongly. While its usefulness transcends the office setting, the way in which it's written most readily lends itself to the corporate world.

Strozzi-Heckler does a good job bridging the worlds of corporate mindset, spirit, somatics, and semantics. Strozzi-Heckler writes that while bookstores are filled with writings detailing examples of great leadership, very little has been shared on how leadership is actually learned. This book fills that void. He takes readers through an array of very real exercises that help develop not just the skills required of a true leader, but the deep bodily awareness that so many "leaders" lack. As I said, he does this with real exercises, and he also does it with real people, detailing their failures as well as their success and the reasons behind both.

The idea that the Japanese word dojo originally meant not just a training hall, but a place of awakening, speaks volumes, and not just of an awakening to the body, but to the natural world and all its glory and need. This means that doing right for shareholders does not require a disregard of the planet and its resources. Nor does it necessitate a disrespect of others—nations, races, religions, individuals, bird, beast, nor fish. Now, if only we can get copies and required reading amendments for both the House and Senate.

Unlike The Leadership Dojo, In Search of the Warrior Spirit rarely, if ever, breaks down. Written in diary form, it is a joy to read. This is a good thing because it's twice as long. Here Richard Strozzi-Heckler takes us through a day-by-day chronicle of his team's work with a group of Green Berets. This work—intended to create greater awareness—included, among other things, a primarily vegetarian diet, biofeedback, physical training, aikido, and meditation, all with the ultimate goal of developing a better warrior.

I use the term warrior instead of soldier because it plays a large roll in Strozzi-Heckler's writing and in the program his team developed. While the word soldier can be attached to virtually any fighter, even ruthless mercenaries, becoming a warrior implies something more, something much deeper. Being a warrior speaks to the soul and spirit as an inner state or attitude, how this is developed through practical means, and how it is expressed to the world through one's actions. This goes well beyond the general lip-service to which we are too often accustomed.

In Search of... takes us through the daily rigors of Strozzi-Heckler, his team, and the men they are attempting to train, but it also takes us into his daily trials and tribulations—having to leave behind his family for months at a time, his struggle to control his own shortcomings, having to endure from many friends and acquaintances disapproval of his sharing martial secrets with the military, and then finally the strong resistance of more than a few of the Green Berets he is attempting to train. The result is an insightful, fascinating account of Strozzi-Heckler's experience.

Since this is The Journal of Martial Arts & Healing, it's also useful to point out that there are many segments deeply delving into things most of us question and struggle with—things such as our inner nature, paradox and contradiction, beauty and force, pain, self-healing, and vulnerability, change and discomfort, martial arts and everyday life, and much on training in the martial arts and its subsequent effects on alcohol and drug abuse, domestic and street violence, morale, and overall performance, both individual and team. There's even a bit on that river in Egypt—denial!

And finally, at least in the newer fourth edition, there is a lengthy epilogue with post-program intervals of five, ten, fifteen, and even twenty years later, insights and hindsight from Strozzi-Heckler and a backward glance through the eyes and experience of many of the soldier-warriors involved. If you have interest in the future of the planet and the role of our many battles and the warriors who wage them, this book is well worth the time 400 plus pages it demands.