By: Jason Turbeville on November 8, 2018
As I started reading A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin Friedman I said to myself, even if you do not like this book you have to find something about it you can connect with, after all Dr. Clark really likes this book. That being said I had no…
By: Tammy Dunahoo on November 8, 2018
Reading Elliott’s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction and events of this week have left me in a melancholic state. I had a sense of sadness hearing the creatures who do not seem to know their Creator draw from every concept imaginable to define life on this planet. As I write this blog I have just…
By: Mike on November 8, 2018
Rabbi Edwin Friedman’s Failure of Nerve is a leader’s guide on how to do leadership by focusing on the principles of maturity, stamina, and responsibility. I connected with the author’s implied question, do you have nerve enough to lead others in today’s fast paced, data overloaded, and chaotically challenged workplace environments that are looking for…
By: Mark Petersen on November 8, 2018
Let’s begin with some background music to set the stage for this blog post. Start the music, and continue reading… You’re now listening to a familiar tune called ‘Take Five’.[1] Catchy, isn’t it? If you’re not a musician, you might have a hard time putting your finger on what makes this song so alluring. Music…
By: Colleen Batchelder on November 8, 2018
A Failure of Nerve: Leadership is the Age of the Quick Fix delves into the varied familial constructs and expectations that influence leadership strategy and execution. Rabbi Edwin H. Friedman, organizational consultant, family therapist and community relations specialist [1], dares us to look beneath the surface and question our own biases – He dares us…
By: Harry Edwards on November 8, 2018
Constructivism, deconstructionism, structuralism, poststructuralism, modernity, modernism, postmodernism, postmodernity, etc. are useful methodologies that help our understanding of human nature and the way they situate themselves in the world. Habermas, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, Rorty are some of the familiar names who dominate these fields of knowledge. While studying some of these experts in the book Profiles…
By: Rhonda Davis on November 8, 2018
The University I work for is only 25 years old, but the last six years have been especially interesting. With an aging founder and new partnerships in Dallas-Fort Worth, the main campus relocated from California to Texas, which led to high staff turnover. Enrollment has increased and decreased…retention has decreased and increased. New programs have…
By: Dave Watermulder on November 8, 2018
As I was sitting at my desk reading through Edwin Friedman’s book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, I got a phone call from a young mom in our church. She was calling in distress, wondering what to do. The small group that she is a part of is…
By: Andrea Lathrop on November 8, 2018
Anthony Elliot’s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction[1]is fascinating and overwhelming all at the same time for me. To consider the amount of effort exerted to define the word ‘society’, let alone all the theories underneath it, is mind-boggling. Humans have been attempting to make sense of our world for a long time. I was…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on November 8, 2018
Elliott provides an overview of the recent sociological theories. The core of these theories is the nature of society. The author aims to introduce his readers to the challenging perspectives, and the resultant innovations of contemporary social processes.[1] Elliott organizes his work around several themes. The first theme concerns the relation of the individual and…
By: Sean Dean on November 8, 2018
As my wife and I were preparing for our home study to be licensed to adopt, one of the tasks we needed to complete was a cultural plan. Essentially this is a document detailing how, if we were to be placed with a child of a different culture than ours, we would keep that child…
By: Jennifer Williamson on November 8, 2018
I first read Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve during my Master’s program, and it was a book that revolutionized my life. In fact, I would not be exaggerating to say that applying the wisdom that Friedman shares may have saved my relationship with my son. As he launched into his university years, I learned about…
By: Dan Kreiss on November 7, 2018
How does one explain the seemingly inexorable decline of the Christian church in the United States? Is it simply a result of shifting morals and values? Is the message of the church suddenly irrelevant and aging out of favor? What are the factors that the church in decline should use as motivation for change? In…
By: Kyle Chalko on November 7, 2018
In A Failure of Nerve by Edwin H. Friedman, a new paradigm is given when considering leadership. The conversation escapes the “irrefutable laws” and all of those other “irreplaceable principles” and enters into the category of character or, one could say, the ethos of a leader. Part of what has caused Freidman’s book to be…
By: Karen Rouggly on November 6, 2018
This morning, I woke up. I had set out some gym clothes the day before that didn’t get used (#Monday). They stayed in a crumpled pile on my floor for 24 hours, because the more I walk around them, the more annoyed I am, and the more annoyed I am, the more I go to…
By: John Muhanji on November 3, 2018
When we were growing up, life in the church was inspiring and always looked forward to Sunday school teachings. In order for us to understand the teachings of the bible and follow with interest, the teachers used photographs of the bible stories. When they talked about the Ark of Noah, they had to show us…
By: Tammy Dunahoo on November 2, 2018
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” this common idiom began running through my mind as I read Sarah Pink’s, Visual Ethnography. “It refers to the notion that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single picture, this picture conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a description does.”[1] …
By: Mary Mims on November 1, 2018
Traveling can be exciting and a pain at the same time. I love the excitement of going new places, discovering new things. However, traveling back home to see love ones, can often be a source of stress and pain. I recently went home to see my ailing mother. I knew there could be conflict with…
By: Nancy VanderRoest on November 1, 2018
I’ve always found photography to be fascinating. Now, believe me, it’s not because I am a photographer by any sense of the term. I am the person who always catches my ‘photo models’ in awkward poses and with frightening looks on their faces. As a matter of fact, I’ve decapitated family and friends more than…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on November 1, 2018
Sarah Pink’s Doing Visual Ethnography has evoked in me two divergent paths of response: (1) a great sense of caution in utilizing visual ethnography as a sound, perhaps more contemporary (since it is the product of advancing technology) research tool as orthodox as any other and (2) a great sense of connection and being drawn…
