By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on October 24, 2017
When there is a decline of an organization, the participants or customers wrestle with how to respond: do they exit by walking away from the organization, talk by voicing their opposition and concerns to the leadership, or remain loyal to the organization in hopes of improvements? Although Hirschman gives a thorough, intellectual explanation of each…
By: Stu Cocanougher on October 24, 2017
The handwriting is on the wall. Actually, it’s not handwriting that adorns the walls of many churches, but a wooden plaque with removable numbers that indicate the church’s attendance and offering receipts. For many churches, that information has migrated from the plaque on the wall to a spot in the church bulletin. Either…
By: Mike on October 21, 2017
Sarah Pink’s, Doing Visual Ethnography is a breakthrough in the use of visual media to inspire, create, and express new dimensions of knowledge. Ethnography is an approach for researchers to connect and relate to social cultures with new disciplines, agendas, and theoretical principles.[1] Pink’s work confirms the successful transition of visual anthropology into the 21st…
By: Chip Stapleton on October 20, 2017
What does leadership really look like? That is, in essence, the question that just about every book on leadership asks and then, in turn, seeks to answer. Milton Friedman’s opus, Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, in that sense, is not such an unusual entry into the voluminous category of ‘leadership’…
By: Kristin Hamilton on October 19, 2017
Edwin Friedman’s theories about family systems changed my life. In my MDiv program we read Generation to Generation in one class, followed by Failure of Nerve a year later. These two books opened my eyes and gave me the courage to make some very important changes in my life, including where I lived, how I…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on October 19, 2017
As I began to read his book, my curiosity grew as to who was Edwin H. Friedman. I asked myself “why was his input on the subject matter of leadership and family seen as important?” In searching the web for information, I stumbled upon his obituary in the Washington Post dated November 7th, 1996 entitled…
By: Jean Ollis on October 19, 2017
It’s been a surreal week as the Elite 8 cohort has struggled to read and respond to Derek Rowntree’s Learn How to Study: Developing the study skills and approaches to learning that will help you succeed in university. While I couldn’t locate but one insignificant review on this book, I jumped in to the reading…
By: Jay Forseth on October 19, 2017
I am a little sorry, but the first thing I noticed about Bayard’s book was the common usage of the letter S instead of the letter Z in words like “memorising” and “analysing”. I understand this is not a very deep first impression of an academic publication, and it should NOT have surprised me, especially…
By: Mark Petersen on October 19, 2017
In Learn How to Study: Developing the Study Skills and Approaches to Learning that Will Help You Succeed in University, Derek Rowntree offers basic and practical concepts to aid learners in assimilating and retaining the vast amounts of material we will encounter in our DMin program. I’ve decided the best way to approach the learning…
By: Stu Cocanougher on October 19, 2017
“Leadership is essentially an emotional process rather than a cognitive phenomenon.” (Friedman p. 14) Edwin H. Friedman was a rabbi, a family counselor, and leadership consultant, who was best known for his 1985 book Generation to Generation which applied the concept of “family systems theory” to churches and synagogues. In his follow-up book, A…
By: Trisha Welstad on October 19, 2017
Derek Rowntree’s Learn How to Study: Developing the Study Skills and Approaches to Learning that Will Help you Succeed in University, is a comprehensive and systematic approach to studying and is helpful for anyone who wants to grow as a learner. If you have never read Rowntree’s text I suggest you begin with Chapter Five:…
By: Mary Walker on October 19, 2017
Edwin H. Friedman lamented the fact that leaders were not more decisive. He said that “leadership in America is stuck in the rut of trying harder and harder without obtaining significantly new results.”[1] Why? Leaders experience ‘paralysis’ because of their inadequate concept of the ‘social science construction of reality’. Their construction does not explain the…
By: Dave Watermulder on October 19, 2017
Reading “Learn How to Study” by Derek Rowntree brings the movie Groundhog Day back to mind. It seems as if we were just having these same discussions about the topics that this book takes on and tries to cover. The genre might be called “study skills”, and it seems as if we are continuing to…
By: Jason Turbeville on October 19, 2017
“For many students essay-writing is the bane of their lives. They question the usefulness of essays, make heavy weather of writing them, and generally try to put off the task for as long as they can get away with it” [1] This is how I felt about Derek Rowntree’s book, Learn How to Study: A Programmed…
By: Chris Pritchett on October 19, 2017
In the first chapter of his book, “Learn How to Study,” Derek Rowntree begins in the first chapter with a compelling reason for this book: “We usually don’t improve at it unless we give some thought both to our own purposes and to what those other people expect of us.”[1] In a manner designed around…
By: Jennifer Williamson on October 19, 2017
Confession time: When I began reading Learn How to Study, it was with a dramatic roll of the eyes and a haughty “been there, done that” attitude. Honestly, I’d wager that people who go on to do post-graduate studies have pretty much figured out how to study. And worse, much of what I read seemed…
By: Katy Drage Lines on October 19, 2017
I remember my mom often saying to my siblings and me, especially when we were teenagers, “the only thing you can control is your attitude.” By this, she meant that sometimes circumstances or events occur that we have no control over; we only have the power to shape how we respond to them—our attitude. As…
By: Greg on October 19, 2017
With 1.6 billion people in China, everyone needs a job. Every apartment complex has guards that sit in booths so they can wave and comment on your life as you walk by. They are friendly, but we often call them “Captain Obvious”. When leaving they say, “Oh your leaving.” When you have groceries they say,…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on October 19, 2017
To develop a strong sense of self while still being a part of a community, and fostering a sense of togetherness is the challenging goal of a self-differentiated leader. Friedman maintains that if one wants to be a bold effective leader, self-differentiation is required, and without this, they are at risk of being ineffective leaders…
By: Kyle Chalko on October 18, 2017
The reading and writing of this blog post was a unique experience for me this week. I started with my traditional “sigh” and “OK, let’s get through this” as I started on the preface and chapter 1. A few pages into chapter 1 and I ran across this quote explaining the purpose of studying and…
