"Hal, your behavior is childish." said the brash young public relations man to the prosperous middle-aged salesman. "I actually feel I can carry on a deeper conversation with my two-year-old daughter than I can with you." Hal may have felt like lashing out at his young critic, but instead he accepted the slur as if he had merely been done a candid favor. He had to, because both men were taking part in a Sensitivity Training Workshop, one of the fastest-spreading of U.S. management's many devices for putting a keen edge on executives.
For the past nine weeks, Hal and the...