By: Mary Kamau on January 30, 2022
Leadership is probably the discipline that has attracted the highest number of authors and it amazes me the rate at which new ideas and techniques for increased productivity, are identified and touted as the latest or ‘the must have’ for success in leadership. It’s also true that every leader is on the look out for…
By: Henry Gwani on January 28, 2022
Perhaps few books on leadership compare with Edwin Friedman’s Failure of Nerve, a critical examination of contemporary American leadership against the background 15th and 16th century European leadership. Using Europe’s transition from a millennium of uneventful ordinariness to a glorious era of innovation, art, exploration, discovery and expansion[1], Friedman argues that, today like in the…
By: Elmarie Parker on January 28, 2022
In the fall, I focused on Edwin H. Friedman’s arguments regarding empathy and the ways in which empathy disempowers personal responsibility, thus contributing to toxic, reactive, chronic anxiety. As I summarized then, in A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, Friedman develops his argument for why it is a leader’s…
By: Nicole Richardson on January 27, 2022
Meaning-making or map-making is my over arching understanding of this doctorate journey. What does my map of leadership look like and how do I make meaning of it? I sometimes wish I could physically open that popup relief map and walk into it to get a street level perspective. This is one of those times.…
By: Troy Rappold on January 27, 2022
In re-reading Friedman’s book, A Failure of Nerve, my attention became directed on chapter two. The title is, A Society in Regression and it discusses at length how our American culture is unraveling. “A society cannot evolve, no matter how much freedom is guaranteed, when the citizenry is more focused on one another than on…
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…
