By: Roy Gruber on January 27, 2022
One of my favorite parts of a trying story from the Old Testament comes from Job and his friends. Job’s companions get so much wrong in the story. They offer shallow answers to bottomless pain. They espouse theological misunderstandings that only add to Job’s misery. They offer platitudes when there are no answers. What the…
By: Denise Johnson on January 26, 2022
The sunny weather this week has created many opportunities to be outdoors and take walks in nature. On one such adventure I came across the above quote. It was not until my second glance at the sign that I realized the choice of preposition, with. It was at this point that I thought that Muir…
By: Michael Simmons on January 26, 2022
Individuality vs. Togetherness This blog post focuses on what Friedman calls fallacies of self by charting leadership philosophies on a spectrum between autocracy and individuality. Friedman begins with a fictitious dialog between the earliest known organisms known to creation: the eukaryotes and the prokaryotes. The eukaryotes are are multicellular, adaptive and likely dopaminergic; they value individuality and…
By: Eric Basye on January 26, 2022
The late Edwin Friedman delivers powerful leadership principles in his book, A Failure of Nerve. Through his work as a rabbi, family therapist, and leadership consultant, Friedman identifies “that the climate of contemporary America has become so chronically anxious that our society has gone into an emotional regression that is toxic to well-defined leadership.”[1] Incorporating…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on January 26, 2022
Through a second and deeper pass at Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve, I found myself focused on how self-differentiation manifests in the context of realistic issues that leaders face today. As a quick recap, Friedman’s work is classified within the social science field of psychology and is aimed at empowering leaders of today to embrace…
By: Andy Hale on January 26, 2022
The most significant works in literature transcend space, time, and context. Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve does just that as it nears its completion of four decades in circulation. Continuing to shape organizational psychology today, Friedman gives foundation thought around leadership, differentiation, emotional triangles, and being a non-anxious presence. His main idea is on the self-differentiated…
By: Mary Kamau on January 23, 2022
Where and when is our next school and church plant? This is a question that has become common place for our leadership team, and they would be worried if the founder directors do not ask this question for an extended length of time. Our organization, Missions of Hope International[1] has grown very fast since 2007…
By: Nicole Richardson on January 14, 2022
Moana is the story of an intense, fiercely feminine, non-weaponized teenager who sees possibilities that lay outside of her reach. She is ambitious and has a sense there is more to life on the island that would require venturing out into the unknown sea. She is not satisfied with the “here and now” or doing…
By: Denise Johnson on January 13, 2022
The fascinating collaboration of Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD and Michael E. Long in “The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity-and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race,”[1] bring to light the of impact and role of dopamine in human behavior, discussing such area as love,…
By: Elmarie Parker on January 13, 2022
I experienced my control dopamine working overtime as I read the various insights contained in Daniel Z. Lieberman, MD and Michael E. Long’s book, The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race.[1] Classified by the Library of Congress as…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on January 13, 2022
In Leiberman and Long’s The Molecule of More, a closer look at how dopamine interacts with various areas of life attempts to answer the question of why humans do what they do. Housed under science and psychology, this text strives to explain to the reader how the molecular and behavioral chemicals in the brain relate…
By: Michael Simmons on January 13, 2022
Why do we long for sex, potato chips and Disney World? Why do I get so excited about seeing my kids at the end of a long work day, or feel like the world is my oyster as I take my sip of coffee? Daniel Lieberman’s book The Molecule of More, is rooted in the…
By: Jonathan Lee on January 13, 2022
Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long, the authors of the book The Molecule of More, explain and explore dopamine’s role in human behavior. This book can be categorized under social science to analyze the essential functions of dopamine (the molecule of more) in current human behavior and society. The study of dopamine and serotonin has been…
By: Troy Rappold on January 13, 2022
In Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long’s book entitled, “The Molecule of More,” the authors take an in-depth view of the chemical dopamine and how it effects human behavior. It is a thin book, but the authors succinctly and successfully cover the wide-ranging effects this single molecule has on individuals and society. Indeed, this book left…
By: Roy Gruber on January 13, 2022
Why do some people continually strive for more and fail to enjoy what they have? Why do others find fulfillment in what they have but fail to pursue possibilities of a better future? An internal tension exists in every person. That tension presents a challenge to manage between what is and what could be. “The…
By: Eric Basye on January 13, 2022
The existence, and perhaps extinction, of our world hinges on dopamine, according to authors Lieberman and Long in The Molecule of More. Dopamine, a chemical in the brain, “makes you desire what you don’t yet have, and drives you to seek new things. It rewards you when you obey it, and makes you suffer when…
By: Andy Hale on January 12, 2022
Need a simplified understanding of neuroscience? “The Molecule of More” explores the dynamics of various chemicals in your brain and how they affect your feelings, perspectives, level of drive, and capacity for creativity. For a basic understanding of what’s going on in our cognition, the authors create two chemical categories, “down” and “up.” Think of…
By: Henry Gwani on January 12, 2022
Categorized under social science literature and based on the 1957 research of Kathleen Montagu[1], The Molecule of More is an enlightening book on mental health written by Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long. The authors are long-standing behavioral health experts who have written extensively on various mental health issues including the effect of Dopamine on mental…
By: Mary Kamau on December 5, 2021
The chameleon is known to change its skin color to adapt to its immediate environment and camouflage as a survival tactic. Adaptation to survive is a universal inborn or acquired characteristic of all living things and man is no exception. One key adaptive characteristic of human beings is to cover up their weaknesses and to…
By: Denise Johnson on December 4, 2021
People are the very building blocks of any organization, yet organizations, and even churches behave as though individuals are merely resources that are to be consumed by the organization in the process of accomplishing the goals. An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization, by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey shifts the…