{"product_id":"forged-under-load-sherman-jr-gillums-9798318833113","title":"Forged Under Load: Institutional Power and Leadership Formation in High-Pressure Systems","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe most dangerous high-pressure systems are the ones that train compromise to feel like compliance.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLeadership failures are usually explained the same way. A CEO lacked integrity. A commander lost perspective. A manager ignored warning signs. Somewhere along the way, we decided institutional disasters begin with flawed people making flawed decisions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut what if that explanation is backwards?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat if many leadership failures are not failures of character at all, but failures of formation?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn high-pressure organizations, people are shaped long before they are tested. Institutions reward certain behaviors, punish others, and quietly teach leaders what survival requires. Protect the mission. Preserve the hierarchy. Do not slow the system down. Over time, compromise stops feeling like compromise. It starts feeling normal.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen the scandal breaks.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Boeing 737 MAX crashes. NASA overlooks another warning sign. The VA Phoenix crisis erupts into public view. And the same institutions that spent years rewarding the behavior suddenly describe the outcome as an unforeseeable ethical failure.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eForged Under Load\u003c\/em\u003e, Dr. Sherman Gillums Jr. draws on decades of leadership experience in the U.S. Marine Corps, the Department of Homeland Security, and other high-stakes institutions to challenge one of the most influential assumptions in modern leadership study: that ethical collapse begins with bad people.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInstead, he introduces a groundbreaking framework for understanding organizational behavior, ethical leadership, institutional culture, and decision-making under pressure: the Leadership Formation-Cost Diagnostic (LFCD).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe LFCD shifts the focus away from personality and toward formation. Why do good people inside respected organizations repeatedly produce damaging outcomes? Why do leadership development programs fail to prevent organizational dysfunction? Why do intelligent professionals normalize decisions they once believed they would resist?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrough gripping case studies involving the Boeing 737 MAX disaster, NASA's catastrophic failures, the VA Phoenix access crisis, military leadership systems, and institutional decision-making under pressure, Gillums reveals how organizations condition ethical behavior long before visible collapse occurs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside, you will discover: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Why traditional leadership development models often fail in high-pressure environments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- How organizational culture quietly shapes ethical decision-making\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Why \"bad apples\" explanations conceal deeper structural problems\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- How institutions normalize ethical drift before leaders recognize it themselves\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Practical ways to identify hidden formation pressures inside your own organization\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- A new framework for ethical leadership, organizational psychology, and systems thinking leadership\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePart leadership book, part organizational psychology, and part institutional failure analysis, \u003cem\u003eForged Under Load\u003c\/em\u003e offers a provocative new approach to leadership, ethics, organizational behavior, and crisis decision-making.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBecause the most dangerous systems are rarely the ones openly demanding corruption. They are the ones that quietly train decent people to accept it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Sherman Jr. Gillums\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798318833113\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Palmetto Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/16\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 162\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.35d","brand":"Sherman Jr. Gillums","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48743230734591,"sku":"9798318833113","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/forged-under-load-sherman-jr-gillums-9798318833113","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}