(This article was written in collaboration with my good friends and colleagues, Bert Parlee, PhD and Ann Deaton, PhD) The significant events that impacted your perspective become the stories from which you learn and teach as an authentic leader. (Tichy, 2002) Our organizations, our teams, and our lives are made up of experiences, perspectives, relationships, and [...]
(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 [...]
On November 18, 2018 Judith Glaser died from pancreatic cancer. She was a lifetime student of human behavior, organizational anthropologist, corporate consultant, executive coach, and best-selling business author. I thought of her and her great work recently when, while intending to hold a family member accountable for a social media post I believed was offensive, [...]
A February 20, 2020 Harvard Business Review article by Jennifer Jordan, Michael Wade, and Elizabeth Teracino contrast traditional leadership model with a new-emerging one. One of the key points is: “…to be successful in the current environment, executives need to be good at both styles. If a leader relies solely on positional authority he/she will run [...]
Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams Wiley, 2019 Key Themes “Conscious” -- Introduction pg. xx (Discussion of scale) “…the only way for this to happen is for conscious leaders to scale conscious leadership.” Pg. 3 -- “At a certain point, [...]
Summary of “Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for A Complex World” by retired Army General Stanley McChrystal For additional focus on Team of Teams, see: https://www.xperienceit.com/growing-a-culture-of-purpose-and-trust/ “If there is a single key point that stands head and shoulders above the rest in my mind, it is this: The never-ending quest for efficiency must [...]
Among the award-winning papers for 2015-2016 that were recently featured on the Joint Chiefs of Staff website is, “PARADOX & POLARITY: TOOLS FOR MANAGING COMPLEXITY” by Tod A. Roy of the Defense Intelligence Agency. JPME (Joint Professional Military Education) institutions are potentially valuable sources for lessons learned and of military academic research results. Mr. Roy’s [...]
From time to time I'm asked when or how my “path to polarity” began and because I’m a consultant and executive coach my answer is, “it depends" (in this case, on when you start counting). In one sense my path is the same as everyone's -- we’re all on our polarity path -- trying to [...]
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 [...]