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Rethinking Complexity

Organizational Communication and Cultures of Collaboration

02/06/2013

Continuing the conversation about collaborative advantage, in our interdependent world, organizations are intelligent networks that thrive on connectivity. Companies are not lifeless “brick-and-mortar” buildings, financial balance sheets filled with numbers, or warehouses stacked with products, but dialogical human enterprises that flourish and serve customers through the application of human ingenuity and engagement. Spirited workplace communities that are not confined by traditional organizational structures and processes allow for open, spontaneous interaction to take place...

Posted at 12:06 PM

New Existentialists

Our Secret Superpower

02/06/2013

As I gaze at the multicolored carpet in my office, I think about my last client and a pattern clearly forms. My emotions are strewn about the floor like the torn down Jenga pieces, and my heart is full of appreciation for these moments. Maybe this is a revelation that all budding therapists come to? I am coming to realize that the majority of my clients are sensitive and creative. And that they are ashamed of it and feel they are being punished for it in some way. I thought about the little girl that just left my office—replete with emotion, attuned to detail, and desperately trying...

Posted at 11:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

Intentionality, Collaboration, and Presence: Accelerating Systemic Transformation

02/05/2013

I had a powerful experience this past week. It was the launch of the Global Leadership Lab, an organization I co-founded even though it was never my plan to do so. The experience has shown me the power of pure intention and deep collaboration in the quest to accelerate systemic transformation. For the past six months, I have been part of a magical (I can’t think of a better word to describe it) process where I have seen my own desire and ideas become part of meaningful change in the world as they blend with the ideas and intentions of others. Together, we have witnessed something beyond...

Posted at 11:13 AM

New Existentialists

Waiting and Faith: Believing in the Promise of Our Lives

02/05/2013

I think that an undeniable truth about our human condition is that it is essentially characterized by a profound difficulty with waiting. While to some extent, this may certainly be more of an American cultural phenomenon, it does seem to legitimately apply to human nature in general. I’m sure that most of us are quite aware of this existential character flaw (whether we are willing to acknowledge it), and one’s powers of observation need not be overly astute to notice it. At the grocery store, at the gas station, at restaurants, at entertainment and sporting events, in traffic,...

Posted at 11:00 AM

New Existentialists

Two or Three Things I Know About Eugene Taylor Part 1: Candice's Story

02/04/2013

Last Wednesday, I received a text from a dear friend, Sarah Kass, informing me of the passing of Dr. Eugene Taylor. I'd called her after my last session and she was in the bar toasting Eugene with a Dos Equis. The meaning immediately hit me. "Ah yes! Eugene really was the most interesting man alive." We both chuckled in an odd, heartfelt way. If anybody had ever talked to Eugene Taylor, they certainly would agree that he may very easily have been the most interesting man in psychology—at least as of late and definitely in person. For those of you who didn't know him, I...

Posted at 11:00 AM

New Existentialists

The Man Who Doesn't Float

02/01/2013

As a child and a young man, I spent much of my spare time in swimming pools. At the age of nine, a neighbor helped me overcome my fear of the deep end by putting floaty bands on my arms and tossing me into the deep end of the high-school swimming pool. After that, I was fearless in the water, taking the high dive, exploring the floor of every pool, and spending much of my life stinking of chlorine. Somewhere along the line, my fear of water, especially deep water, started to creep back in. At a tryout for special services in basic training, the swimming portion went so badly for me that the...

Posted at 11:00 AM

New Existentialists

The Future of Existential Psychology: An Introduction

01/31/2013

Editors' Note: This series is dedicated to memory of Dr. Eugene Taylor, a founding member of the New Existentialists, whose inspiration and superior scholarship will serve as a beacon for current and future existential psychologists. Existential psychology is experiencing a resurgence in recent years, as marked by numerous new publications (Cooper, 2003; Mendelowitz, 2008; Schneider, 2008, 2009; Schneider & Krug, 2009, Spinelli, 2007) and an important endorsement by Bruce Wampold (2008), a leading psychotherapy outcome researcher. It is being applied in new ways and new contexts, such...

Posted at 11:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

Abraham Lincoln’s Advice to Business Leaders

01/31/2013

Running a small business is a challenging endeavor. You have to roll with everything that arises from the economy or your personal life, face every challenge, and keep going. Harvard Business School historian Nancy Koehn extrapolated Abraham Lincoln’s leadership and related it to running a business in the business section of this Sunday’s New York Times. I valued the article quite a bit, and wanted to share some of the insights that I gained from reading it. Weathering Personal and Political Storms CEOs from many highly successful businesses find relevance in the lessons to be...

Posted at 07:54 AM

New Existentialists

Eugene Taylor, leading thinker in Existential psychology, has passed away

01/31/2013

Saybrook University, with deep sadness, is announcing today the death of Dr. Eugene Taylor, a noted scholar and 20-year member of our executive faculty. "We are sorry to see Eugene go," said Mark Schulman, President of Saybrook University, "He was a scholar and a teacher respected by all with whom he came in contact. He is, truly, irreplacable." Taylor died on January 30 at 10:30 a.m. EST with his family in attendance. He was 66. Taylor was a prominent historian of psychology. The author of books including Shadow Culture: Psychology...

Posted at 04:35 AM

Rethinking Complexity

Leadership at “The Wall”

01/30/2013

I’m afraid that our efforts to understand and define leadership, its styles and types and characteristics, have not resulted in effective responses to the complex challenges we’ve created for ourselves. The field of leadership development not delivering on a central aspect of leadership—results—is a bit ironic, really. So I don’t want to suggest another definition of leadership. Instead I want to advocate that we use what we already know and choose to step into leadership “moments,” those instances that require you take a stand that inspires action,...

Posted at 12:25 PM