By: Kayli Hillebrand on October 19, 2022
Michael Polanyi, a scientist and philosopher of Hungarian-British descent, facilitates an interesting discussion in The Tacit Dimension. At the core of this philosophical work is the “the fact that we can know more than we can tell.”[1] While the example in use is the ability to know a person’s face from a crowd without the…
By: Greg McMullen on October 19, 2022
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman introduces many new concepts to help us understand the decision process and make more effective decisions as leaders. Kahneman, with a long history as a psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, explains the two main ways or systems in how we think and make decision.[1]…
By: Andy Hale on October 19, 2022
Sometimes minuscule resources have the most significant impact. The Enchiridion of Epictetus is only 34 pages long but continues to shape our understanding of Stoic philosophy. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is only a 47-page pamphlet but shaped the concept of American liberty. Luther’s world-altering 95 Thesis can be read in less than 30 minutes. Add to this list Michael Polanyi’s…
By: Eric Basye on October 19, 2022
One author described The Tacit Dimension as a book that is “a must-read one in the field of knowledge management.”[1] He describes tacit knowledge as the process of identifying a person by their features in a large group of people and references a second example of a pianist playing the piano. With uncanny ability, a…
By: Kristy Newport on October 18, 2022
Joseph Campbell rolls open the blueprints for constructing an epic tale in The Hero With 1,000 Faces. The Hero’s journey consists of three main stages: departure, initiation, and return. A myriad of characters are introduced in the Hero’s Journey during these various stages. One facet in the early part of the hero’s journey caught my…
By: Greg McMullen on October 18, 2022
I enjoyed Campbell’s book on a Hero with a Thousand Voices. Campbell challenges his audience to move from a fixed mindset and cross the threshold of adventure in how we communicate to others. An invitation to leaders to leave what is comfortable and come into transformation. Campbell, took a different approach in his studies of…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on October 17, 2022
“Failure of Nerve” a key leadership book that identifies leadership through a different lens. Friedman in his book notes that Leadership is not really about skill, technique, or knowledge that it is actually about decrement regarding the emotional and relational context. In order for a leader to understand these and to actively participate in discernment…
By: Becca Hald on October 16, 2022
It was “Back to School Night” in 2011 and my first opportunity to address the parents as the President of the Parent Faculty Association (PFA). I shared about my hopes for the school year and read the Parable of the Stonemasons an analogy about teaching Sunday School that I felt translated well to serving the…
By: Laura Fleetwood on October 15, 2022
A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman is a thought-provoking leadership book that is just as relevant today as when it was first published privately more than 20 years ago. Friedman asserts that leaders (whether in families, organizations or society-at-large) must differentiate themselves and not fall prey to the anxious characteristics of our times. Specifically,…
By: Daron George on October 15, 2022
Leadership over the past few years has been in the spotlight from leaders in the home, public office, churches and schools (to name a few) because of our unique challenges in an ever-changing landscape. One thing is for sure there will always be challenges in leadership. In fact, Kouzes and Posner in their book “The…
By: Audrey Robinson on October 14, 2022
When I started reading Failure of Nerve, I was very excited about the basic premise of leadership plaguing our organizations and families. The author, Friedman, argues that leadership is in a rut. Whenever the organization or family is in a state of anxiety, there will always be a nerve failure.[1] According to Friedman, the primary…
By: Jonathan Lee on October 14, 2022
Tod Bolsinger, the author of Tempered Resilience, has been researching and teaching leadership over the years as he served as a senior pastor of San Clemente Presbyterian Church and as a professor at Fuller Seminary. Tod introduces his book with a question that he has been asking over the years: ‘Can I survive it?’ In…
By: Chad McSwain on October 14, 2022
I cannot think of a more timely and poignant book that speaks to my leadership context than Failure of Nerve.1 It is the connection between family systems and the organizational life that leads me to consider my own leadership choices and how to grow as a “well-differentiated leader.”2 In particular, I will reflect on Friedman’s observations…
By: Nicole Richardson on October 14, 2022
Whether it is Alexander Solzhenitsyn, N.S. Lyons, or Tod Bolsinger, the clarion call to the always burgeoning change leaders face is to PIVOT! PIVOT! It is not that the presence of change is a new dynamic in this world. In Tempered Resilience: How Leaders are Formed in the Crucible of Change, professor of leadership formation…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on October 14, 2022
Edwin H. Friedman’s A Failure of Nerve “Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix” shares insights that elicit lots of questions about leadership. Friedman focuses on the Leader’s presence and differentiation instead of relying on technique or knowledge. Even though he clarifies that he is not in support of autocracy, I wonder what he…
By: Denise Johnson on October 13, 2022
People who are transformational leaders willingly embrace a process of personal change which equips them to extract hope from a mountain of despair.[1] Tod Bolsinger’s Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change [2] is a realistic look at the character-building process of becoming a leader who is transformational. His use of…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on October 13, 2022
I am slowly digesting the thoughts of Edwin Friedman as presented in his book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. Friedman’s main idea is that successful leaders operating in the current, highly anxious climate of the United States, must show up with a strong sense of self, an ability…
By: Alana Hayes on October 13, 2022
Friedman observed leadership of all levels within family, church, politics, and church. He is known for integrating therapy, organizational leadership and ministry. He also identified that problems begin in leadership when individuals do not stand firm in their beliefs. Not necessarily what you would initially identify of having lack of knowledge, skill, or technique. The…
By: Tonette Kellett on October 13, 2022
A Failure of Nerve challenged me in my thinking this week. I had to reconsider the way in which I thought about leadership roles. In considering the early explorers to the Americas, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, and Giovanni Verrazano, Friedman reminds us that they did not have any of the advantages our astronaut explorers have…
By: Caleb Lu on October 13, 2022
In his book A Failure of Nerve, Edwin Friedman moves from traditional thought by addressing poor leadership as an internal problem rather than an external one.[1] He posits that this internal problem is one that blocks imaginative growth because it has created a society that is “more oriented toward safety than adventure.”[2] Friedman continues by…
