By: Graham English on February 28, 2024
I’m a newbie to robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Like Neo in The Matrix, this feels like I’m going down a rabbit hole that I never wanted to explore. My son-in-law designs robotic farm equipment. He has designed computers that, when integrated into a combine, can harvest crops without a human in the cab. When…
By: Adam Cheney on February 27, 2024
A is for Anchor (Not so veiled attempt at anchoring my grade)[1] This week’s reading of Daniel Kahneman comes at a great time as I reflect on a meeting last week. In my meeting I had a quick System 1 reaction, followed by slowly processing it with System 2 thinking.[2] Though Kahneman’s book covers multiple…
By: Glyn Barrett on February 27, 2024
The Bat and Ball illustration[1] took me longer to get right than it should have, but that is probably the point. My impulsive System 1 took control, and intuition led me to the wrong answer. How could the answer not be 10 cents? So much for “Don’t think Blink![2]” When System 1 encounters a…
By: Joel Zantingh on February 26, 2024
I have plenty going on in my personal life to react to. I have trauma-impacted family situations that require my full non-anxious presence [1] and dynamics beginning to launch a network for peacemaking and reconciling work among Evangelicals which feels like offering a new map in an opposite direction from some more traditional routes churches…
By: Jeff Styer on February 26, 2024
After reading Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow I feel like the peddler in Esphyr Slobodkina’s children’s book Caps for Sale. In this book, a peddler who sells caps is having a day of no sales, he is tired and goes out into the countryside and falls asleep underneath a tree wearing all his…
By: Noel Liemam on February 25, 2024
This book, ‘A FAILURE OF NERVE’ by Edwin H. Friedman is a bit difficult and cumbersome for me to grasp for my week’s reading. So, I went back and forth between what others said about it, while doing my reading. This process helps me a lot. But I would still need more time to fully…
By: Daren Jaime on February 23, 2024
In this week’s writing, Edwin Friedman speaks to the anxiety of America and the emotional regression that ensues from a failure of leadership. Fast forward to 2024. It is hard to move the needle on the climate of America as there is still plenty of room for anxiety. A quick glance at today’s headlines and…
By: Akwese on February 23, 2024
Anxiety and overwhelm weren’t big issues for me until recently, after a build-up of chronic stress that had me in the hospital almost every week for a year and a half. While everything in me wanted to focus on helping myself, there was always work to be done, so I did what any “hard worker”…
By: Christy on February 22, 2024
This week’s reading, A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman [1] came with high reviews, both from my lead mentor, Dr. Jason Clark and pastors who have utilized Freidman’s teachings in their ministry contexts. The word “utilizing” might be a bit of an understatement. “Those who have been transformed” might be more appropriate. The Very…
By: Julie O'Hara on February 22, 2024
She was 16 and caught on camera in an act of vandalism. Details will not be shared to protect the guilty. My daughter admitted to some other behaviors she had been up to in the weeks leading up to that incident. She was devastated about all of it. Looking back, there was not one thing…
By: Kari on February 22, 2024
“They are stuck in their own manure pile, and they want everyone else to join them. They’re not even trying to get out; they just want to fling their poop around and pull people in!” I was figuratively talking about people who were playing the victim role (again). This was not the most articulate or…
By: Elysse Burns on February 22, 2024
Reading A Failure of Nerve felt like crossing a threshold. It feels for some time I have been trying to find the best paths to navigate the anxieties that go hand in hand with life. A Failure of Nerve provided me that “Aha!” I couldn’t help but nod when reading the brief interaction between Steinke…
By: Debbie Owen on February 22, 2024
What does a “with-God life” look like? What makes it different and attractive? Do we need to have a perfect with-God life to invite others to join us on the journey? These are questions I had been praying about so I could discern how to talk about discipleship and disciple-making for my doctoral project. I…
By: Diane Tuttle on February 21, 2024
I had a hard time getting started on this blog. It is not that I didn’t read or like Failure of Nerve by Edwin Freidman. On the contrary, it was one of the most thought provoking and compelling books that I have read in a long time. My problem was winnowing everything into what were…
By: Jennifer Eckert on February 21, 2024
Introduction Courageous leadership requires grit, humility, and perseverance. It isn’t for the faint of heart and is one of my favorite leadership qualities to study, perhaps because my own courage ebbs and flows sometimes. In his book, Failure of Nerve, author Edwin Friedman utilizes the tried-and-true Bowen Family Systems Model and applies it to organizations.…
By: Erica Briggs on February 21, 2024
It’s been over ten years now since I served at Metanoia Community Development Corporation. I started as Director of Elementary Leadership program just after coming back to the United States from South Korea. I’d spent a year teaching at a Christian school in Incheon, and wanted to continue working in a faith based environment. The…
By: Chris Blackman on February 21, 2024
Thirty years ago, I was promoted to be the CEO of a seafood distribution company based out of Reno, Nevada. It was a big promotion and one I was ready to take on. There was a corporate umbrella over it, which owned 3 other branches over two states. There was one man who owned the…
By: Ryan Thorson on February 21, 2024
Hi. My name is Ryan and I’m a people pleaser. Its been less than one day since I tried to please someone else without evaluating my own values, needs or limits. I’ve been in recovery for some time now, constantly attempting to regulate my desire to help others (introducing me, a “2” on the enneagram)…
By: Chad Warren on February 21, 2024
The interim pastor told me they behaved similarly to emotionally abused victims he had counseled many times before. Most of the staff and many in the congregation acted like families he had seen where dad had a bad anger problem; when he lost his temper, he became emotionally and verbally abusive. Abused by whom? Their…
By: Graham English on February 21, 2024
When I read A Failure of Nerve, by Edwin Friedman, I thought I was only going to write on pastoral leadership. However, the book struck a more personal nerve for me. Two and a half years ago Wendy and I made a decision that would alter our lives significantly. We moved my mom and…
