I love and highly recommend Richard Rohr and his work at the Center for Action and Contemplation (https://cac.org/). He lives and talks polarities and is a frequent visitor to my gratitude journal. In a recent post, he talked about the polarity of Action AND Contemplation -- and about “and”!: "The most important word in our [...]
On Saturday night while hosting the third and final OSD weekend cohort at Kayser Ridge, John D. Carter, PhD and Veronica Hopper Carter, PhD presented me with the Gestalt Center’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Also present from the Gestalt OSD Faculty was Rachel Ciporen and Faculty Monika Moss-Gransberry, MFA. I’m including a few pictures below (Rachel [...]
Leadership expert Liz Wiseman explores these two leadership styles analyzing data from more than 150 leaders, Wiseman has identified five disciplines that distinguish Multipliers from Diminishers. These five disciplines are not based on innate talent; indeed, they are skills and practices that everyone can learn to use—even lifelong and recalcitrant Diminishers. (NOTE: Wizeman’s focus on [...]
If the title of this Cliff’sNOTE intrigued you, you’ll love Samar Ahmed’s article entitled, “A Pole Dance for an Educational Reformer.” Samar is a friend, colleague and Professor of Medical Doctorate, MHPE, FF and Director of Ain Shams MENA FAIMER Regional institute. It’s a delightful read as well as a “how-to” engage key stakeholders to [...]
Umm. OK. Check this out… A new book, titled “Empirical Paradox, Complexity Thinking and Generating New Kinds of Knowledge” by Dr. Bruce West, a senior scientist at the Army Research Office, uses mathematical modeling to address why thinking in terms of either/or outcomes means the inevitability of another world war. (JULY 23, 2019 by U.S. Army [...]
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, [...]
In 1967, C. West Churchman highlighted some key factors of unsolvable challenges. He referred to them as “Wicked Problems,” which are: 1) Unsolvable by rational analysis, 2) Systems issues, and 3) Require collective engagement for learning the way to solutions. Another important voice in the solvability discernment arena is Ron Heifetz, who made the clear [...]
If you’re not familiar with the Tao Te Ching (see description at the end of this note), here’s a sample -- Chapter 39 -- from Cliff’sNOTES on the Tao Te Ching (unpublished). It’s a description of what happens when we’re out of sync with the “Way” or “It” as I refer to the Way: When [...]
Ancient wisdom and so salient for today. Halakha (or Halachah) represents the strength to shape one's life according to a fixed pattern; it is a form-giving force. Aggadah is the expression of human kind’s ceaseless striving, which often defies all limitations. Robert Cover, a twentieth century Yale Law School professor wrote in Nomos and Narrative, [...]
They are interdependent pairs that need each other over time and energy systems in which we live in and which live in us. Polarities have been important in history and in our lives. Polarities go by different names: Paradox, Dilemma, Tensions, etc. Leaders, teams, and organizations that leverage polarities well outperform those who don’t. Each [...]