Some days it’s hard to be hopeful. The scope and scale of polarization and doom-loop thinking about the U.S. and the future can feel like an hourly, daily, monthly assault on the senses. Then a book like Strong Floor, No Ceiling comes out. My intuition sirens flare and my energy returns. A few differently firing synapses, [...]
(Part I, "HOPE! Strong Floor, No Ceiling" preceded this Part II.) There is an oft-repeated phrase in the global community of Polarity Thinkers: “Simple, not easy.” Strong Floor AND No Ceiling is a simple idea. It is clear. It is compelling. It resonates across differences in a way that most policy ideas do not. It offers [...]
(Portions of the text below is taken from an article by William Benet, PhD, Suzanne Rackl, MM, CFRE, CFRM and Cliff Kayser, MSHR, MSOD, PCC) In 2017, the Institute for Polarities of Democracy was established as a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization to promote and advance the Polarity Thinking theory of Dr. Barry Johnson and the Polarities of Democracy [...]
Many writers now say we’re in code blue, and we need a blueprint to revive American Democracy. In his Washington Post August 4th review of two books Carlos Lazoda highlights how in the weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the muse of the death-of-democracy bookshelf began expanding – and not focused exclusively on Trump. He says, [...]
After reading Bob Anderson's book, "Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most" I've been thinking a lot about...well, that. I took one of my favorite quotes by Confucius (see original below) and my favorite quote from Lao Tzu (the people said, "we did it ourselves"). Hence, mashup. Lot's of good [...]