William R. Torbert

Bill Torbert is Leadership Professor Emeritus at Boston College and serves on the Boards of the Amara Collaboration and of Global Leadership Associates (home of the Global Leadership Profile). With B.A. and PhD. Degrees from Yale, he later directed the Theatre of Inquiry, taught at SMU and Harvard, and held numerous consulting and board positions, while developing a new paradigm of social science and social action named Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry (CDAI). Praise for Numbskull: This bubbling memoir is a guide to assumption-busting practices at work, at play, and in science that lead to mutually-transforming inquiry, power, and love. Chuck Palus, Center for Creative Leadership We live in a moment of profound disruption, a crisis of our economies and of our underlying models of economic and social science thought. Bill Torbert’s pioneering work on Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry addresses this root issue head on. His concept of integrating first-, second-, and third-person action inquiry are foundational for transforming social science to better illuminate our collective agency in bringing forth a new world. Highly recommended! Otto Scharmer, Author of Theory U; Founder, Presencing Institute In his usual fashion, Bill Torbert has written a provocative, engaging, and timely book that illustrates how his groundbreaking ideas of Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry emerged over his career. This book neatly weaves the personal with the scholarly (be sure to read the endnotes!) to provide a kind of roadmap we can compare to our own lives and organizational experiences. For fans of Torbert’s work and new readers, it will be hard to put this one down! Sandra Waddock, Galligan Chair of Strategy, Boston College A wild ride through a life showing why we need many more inquisitive and activist ‘numbskulls’ to save ourselves from disaster. Charles Derber, Author of Sociopathic Society and Welcome to the Revolution Torbert — a senior member of the fields of adult and organizational development — introduces a transforming paradigm of transdisciplinary social science, where timely action is the fruition of successful inquiry. This book is a memoir of Bill's own development and, importantly, includes three stories by a Millennial woman of color. Through their humor, humility, candor, and discipline, these and all Bill's stories invite us readers to reflect on our own lifetime development. Hilary Bradbury, Editor Action Research Journal and the Handbook of Action Research ‘Numbskull’ is as delightful and charming as I experienced Bill Torbert when we met. Both vulnerable and witty, both memoir and scholarship, this book not only shares Bill’s profound contributions, but his remarkable journey that brought them to life. Frederic Laloux, Author of Reinventing Organizations In the five decades since 1967-68, when I was a young teacher at Bill’s first venture in leading a community of inquiry — the Yale Upward Bound Program — I have had the privilege to witness and share in his work of thinking/friendship. Numbskull is his own critical uncovering of this life-journey, in which he has explored and demonstrated, intellectually and interpersonally, the deep connection between illuminating social theory and liberating social action. It tells a remarkable story, of a remarkable life. W. Thomas Schmid, Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina, Wilmington