Family Systems

Stemming the Tide of Scapegoating

January 25, 2012

In the Systems & Power Leadership Community I facilitate yearly, one of the dynamics we explore relates to anxiety in groups and emotional systems and one of the things that we explore is scapegoating.   Last weekend, we had an epic NFL championship Sunday in which two games came down to the wire and ended amidst [...]

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Advent and the Most Pernicious Program of All

December 20, 2011

Here’s the third post in my Advent and Star Trek series where we actually get to the advent part! This was originally posted on December, 3, 2011 ————————— So have you ever thought of Star Trek’s “Borg” and Advent in the same thought and discussion?  Probably not.  But here it goes.  Of course context helps [...]

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Collective Fusion – Resistance is not Futile

December 15, 2011

I’m re-posting an advent series as we approach Christmas. These posts sparked a lot of discussion last year for me so I’m excited to re-release them. This post was first posted on November 30th, 2010. ————————- All right…Here’s one for you trekkies! Actually three since this is part one of three posts on the theme [...]

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Anxiety in Systems

November 22, 2011

I’ve been out of commission for a while which I’ll let you in on soon, but figured it would be good to re-post an early blog from back in the day when no one was reading   So here’s a post from 4 years ago (Sept 2007) on anxiety in systems, which I’ve been thinking [...]

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Quick Thots From Moneyball

October 8, 2011

My wife and I pulled off a miracle and actually went to a movie together this weekend. We hit Moneyball which came on the recommendation of several folks. I really enjoyed the movie.  I’m a baseball fan and I lived in the Bay Area during the time frame in which this movie covers so I [...]

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How Transferability Undermines Transformation

August 26, 2011

This is the fourth in a series of posts from Peter Steinke’s A Door Set Open.  The previous post relates to “Movement.” Steinke references the work of William Bridges, a consultant, in The Way of Transition: Embracing Life’s Most Difficult Moments and has a series of thoughts that could have been ripped right from my [...]

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Movements, Mission, and Motion

August 21, 2011

Here’s my third post related to Peter Steinke’s A Door Set Open.  My last post is here entitled “Growth Doesn’t Define Mission.” This post relates to Movement.  Steinke references Sydney Carter who authored a hymn a few decades ago called “Lord of the Dance” (apparently not connected to Michael Flatley and the Riverdance) and who [...]

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I’m Not A Part of This System! I’m an Adult!

August 14, 2011

If you thought I beyond analyzing philosophical statements left on dirty cars you were wrong! This was just too tempting for me. My family pulled up next to this car today as my wife and I were doing skin cancer checks at the dermatologist.  The window graffiti offers the following declaration of empowerment, “I’m not [...]

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Review-A Door Set Open: Grounding Change in Mission & Hope

August 11, 2011

I just finished Peter Steinke’s A Door Set Open: Grounding Change in Mission and Hope.  If you’ve read this blog from time to time, his name might sound familiar as I’ve done posts or reviews from his three other books, my favorite of which has been Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times.  When I heard about [...]

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