My name is Juri Hoedemakers, I won the first prize at RSM, Erasmus University with my thesis on the importance of the court jester for leaders and their modern organizations. I then wrote a Top-3 management book about it and I am now doing my PhD research on the comeback of the court jester. Almost every week, I give lectures about this subject at Dutch companies and I have also been appointed as a real court jester at several companies in the Netherlands.
Counterforcing for power of leaders: the court jester revisited
Leaders have power and influence. Without any form of counterforce, leaders may become unaware of their imperfections. Mistakes made by the leader can have serious consequences for the entire organisation, or any other context. To avoid such consequences, it is important that there is someone who helps the leaders reflect on their behaviour. Nowadays there is a diversity of checks and balances trying to keep the leader on the right path, trying to prevent negative consequences. However, from a historical perspective, there used to be a profession that is lacking in the current corporate system and culture: the court jester. The court jester used to be the only one who could tell the leader, or in more medieval times, the plain truth. In fact, the court jester served 16 functions that might still be needed in current organizations. This research investigates how theses 16 roles of the court jester are embedded in the current system and culture of corporate governance In addition, the question that is raised is on whether all those roles could again be performed by one person and if so, how you can get this organizationally embedded.
