By: Jess Bashioum on March 5, 2025
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman[1] is a whale of a book. It is so filled to the brim with concepts, examples and studies, that to try and consume it in a week is impossible. System one and system two thinking remind me of a similar idea in recovery, the upstairs brain and the…
By: Robert Radcliff on March 5, 2025
I read Daniel Kahneman’s classic work Thinking, Fast and Slow this week. This book has been on my shelf but has gone unread until now. It’s grounded in psychological studies of decision-making and perception. The book is about biases of intuition. I’ve been familiar with the book for several years as it’s part of our…
By: Joff Williams on March 4, 2025
“I’ve got your picture hangin’ on the wallBut it can’t see or come to me when I call your name.I realize it’s just a picture in a frame.Ooh, I read your letters when you’re not nearBut they don’t move me and they don’t groove meLike when I hear your sweet voice whispering in my ear.…
By: Ivan Ostrovsky on February 28, 2025
“A Failure of Nerve” by Edwin H. Friedman is definitely my favorite book of the semester so far! It’s been a challenging week for me, and it truly feels as though this book was written just for someone like me. As a new leader here in Hawaii, I’m navigating the beautiful journey of leading in…
By: Jess Bashioum on February 27, 2025
Reading a failure of nerve by Edwin Freeman[1] was encouraging to me. One of the main reasons I am pursuing this Doctorate is my excitement for adventure. I work in a field that can very much get stuck in its own orientation[2]. In efforts to make change we end up seeing a lot of tired…
By: Michael Hansen on February 27, 2025
It had already been a twelve-hour day when the text came across my Blackberry: the infamous Sev-1 (Severity One) alert. For our fulfillment center, it signified that part of our automation and/or sortation systems were offline, putting customer experience at risk, as orders might not reach their intended destination in time. I headed to the…
By: David Weston on February 27, 2025
So far, this book by Edwin H. Friedman entitled A Failure of Nerve has been my favorite reading. Having been in many different forms of leadership for well over half a century, I deeply resonate with his thinking patterns and the lessons he is proposing. This book reminds me of an incident in my own…
By: Jeremiah Gómez on February 27, 2025
My favorite definition of “leadership” these days is one from Ronald Heifetz: “disappointing people at a rate they can absorb.”[1] This definition came to mind throughout my reading of A Failure of Nerve, especially as Friedman interacted with the concepts of sabotage, systemic toxicity, and how people and organizations can strongly (negatively!) react simply because…
By: Christian Swails on February 27, 2025
I really do not want to take on the task of critiquing Edwin Friedman’s masterpiece, A Failure of Nerve. And honestly, I’ll spend most of this article relating to the brilliance of his work rather than combatting it. I agree with William H. Dorherty’s endorsement, “Reading this book is like discovering an unpublished Beethoven sonata…
By: Darren Banek on February 27, 2025
I have had the privilege of attending our current church for about twenty-three years. In that time, I have seen the congregation of around one thousand people regularly functioning as the hands and feet of Jesus in desperate times. Some have lost all their worldly possessions in a matter of hours due to house fires,…
By: Robert Radcliff on February 27, 2025
This week, I read Friedman’s classic work, Failure of Nerve. He presents differentiation as the solution to the problem: “America is stuck in the rut of trying harder and harder without obtaining significantly new results.” [1] The book’s theme is that differentiated leadership provides stability in anxious times, refuses to blame others, and sets new…
By: Alex Mwaura on February 27, 2025
I’ve always thought the topic on leadership was a one we generally agreed on until I read Friedmans’: A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. Every now and then, I pick up a book or article and find some aspects polarizing and others that I agree with. This book had…
By: Betsy on February 27, 2025
Our church was growing, and new people were joining all the time. In December 2011, I met a relatively new woman in our church who wanted to meet me in a coffee shop near our children’s schools. She produced some printed paper with Google definitions of different diagnoses, including narcissistic personality disorder, psychopathic and sociopathic…
By: Joff Williams on February 26, 2025
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” Jesus, Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36, Luke 9:25 In a 2023-2024 survey of the severity of societal risks, the World Economic Forum found the following top ten risks…
By: Rich on February 25, 2025
I worked for a mom-and-pop company. Pop was a pioneer in the industry who turned his experience and notoriety into a fledging business. Mom ran the business. It was a Friday afternoon. Pop was diabetic and was two days into a severe blood sugar imbalance. About 4:00, the cussing began. By 4:02, I was down…
By: Judith McCartney on February 23, 2025
Shaping the Future of Leadership. I read an article from Harvard long ago called “Women less inclined to self-promote than men, even for a job. My curiosity peaked when they discussed how even when a woman knows she answered 15 out of 20 questions correctly on a task and a man knows he answered 15…
By: Linda Mendez on February 20, 2025
I hired someone to manage our Unhoused Mobile Shower clinic in August of last year. However, in January, they resigned. Two weeks into the job, she requested a meeting to share concerns about my leadership. I will admit it was tough to hear. I had never had an employee challenge or question me like she…
By: Jess Bashioum on February 20, 2025
I have had leadership on my life since I was young. My mom told me that when I was 4, I would line up my dolls and stuffed animals and give them inspirational speeches about things they should do with their lives. Unfortunately, I grew up with a dad and a church community that didn’t…
By: Christian Swails on February 20, 2025
Pursuing and accepting leadership is a crash course in exposing my triggers. (so is being married and having a child). When I arrive late for an appointment, or make a scheduling mistake on a complicated work-week, or if I am questioned about….anything – my chest tightens, my breath shortens, and my body puts on…
By: Jeremiah Gómez on February 20, 2025
Scrawled across my office whiteboard is a haunting and helpful question, especially as I face painful challenges in my current leadership season: What would a GREAT leader do? How would a fantastic leader dig into my organization’s challenges and opportunities? What would they do to navigate the turbulent and dangerous waters of transition and financial…
