Dancing at the Edge (Paperback)

Graham Leicester

ISBN 10: 1911193678 / ISBN 13: 9781911193678

Editore: Triarchy Press, Bridport, 2019

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Paperback. In his 1980 essay, The World of Tomorrow and the Person of Tomorrow, the psychologist Carl Rogers contemplated the future. He described those who would usher in this new era as people with the capacity to understand, bring about and absorb a paradigm shift.He added: "I have an uneasy feeling about this chapter. It is a beginning, an outline, a suggestion. I believe that what I am saying here will some day be fleshed out much more fully, either by me or someone else."Maureen O'Hara and Graham Leicester are uniquely qualified to flesh out Carl Rogers's vision (Maureen worked closely with Rogers for many years). Here they explore the competencies - the ways of being, doing, knowing and organising - that can help us navigate in complex and powerful times. They argue that these competencies are innate and within reach of all of us - given the right setting, plenty of practice and some gentle guidance. But they are seldom seen because they are routinely undervalued in today's culture. That must change, the authors insist, and this book is intended to begin that change.The book is based on the authors' extensive research and their practical experience observing the qualities demonstrated by some of today's most successful cultural, political and business leaders. They write of `persons of tomorrow' that they have witnessed:"We find that people who are thriving in the contemporary world, who give us the sense of having it all together and being able to act effectively and with good spirit in challenging circumstances, have some identifiable characteristics in common. They are the people already among us who inhabit the complex and messy problems of the 21st century in a more expansive way than their colleagues. They do not reduce such problems to the scale of the tools available to them, or hide behind those tools when they know they are partial and inadequate. They are less concerned with `doing the right thing' according to standard procedure than they are with really doing the right thing in the moment, in specific cases, with the individuals involved at the time. In a disciplined yet engaging way they are always pushing boundaries, including their own. They dance at the edge."Theodore Hesburgh, President Emeritus of Notre Dame University, once said that leadership demands certainty: "You cannot blow an uncertain trumpet." On the contrary, argue Leicester and O'Hara, we must all learn to play the uncertain trumpet like virtuosos.It is an image that conveys the subtle discipline required of the `person of tomorrow' - an artistry that, they argue, is essential to restore hope in the future. Based on extensive research and practical experience observing the qualities demonstrated by today's most successful cultural, political and business leaders, this book explores the competencies that can help us navigate in complex and powerful times. Revised, updated and with an index. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Codice articolo 9781911193678

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Dancing at the Edge (Paperback)
• Editore: Triarchy Press, Bridport
• Data di pubblicazione: 2019
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1911193678
• ISBN 13: 9781911193678
• Rilegatura: Paperback
• Edizione: seconda edizione
• Condizione: new

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

In his 1969 essay, The World of Tomorrow and the Person of Tomorrow, thepsychologist Carl Rogers looked ahead to the volatile, uncertain, complexand ambiguous (VUCA) world we inhabit today. He suggested that living insuch a world would require a whole new set of competencies – demonstratedalready by the ‘persons of tomorrow’ he saw around him even then.In Dancing at the Edge, Maureen O’Hara and Graham Leicester pick upthe thread fifty years on. Drawing on extensive research and their own wideexperience, they map the ‘powerful times’ in which we live, the 21st-centurycompetencies required to thrive in this complexity and how to discover anddevelop them in practice. They identify:• Three emergencies: real, conceptual and existential• Three potential responses: denial, collapse and transformation• Three literacies: psychological, cultural and epistemicThese literacies – or ways of reading the landscape – open the door toour 21st-century competencies, which are innate, relational, and will developthrough practice in a supportive organizational or social setting.The picture that emerges is complex but remarkably clear andsurprisingly hopeful – even exhilarating. Organizations of every sort frombusinesses to schools and healthcare, from government bodies to NGOs,can create the conditions, offer the support and provide the context withinwhich engaged, aware, passionate and compassionate people can rise abovedenial and take on the challenges of today’s powerful times.This is a handbook for anyone aspiring to develop their 21st-centurycompetencies and for any organization hoping to cultivate the persons oftomorrow in its midst.

Informazioni sull'autore

Graham Leicester is Director of International Futures Forum. IFF's mission is to support a transformative response to the challenges of the times. Graham previously ran Scotland's leading think tank, the Scottish Council Foundation, founded in 1997. From 1984-1995 he served as a diplomat in HM Diplomatic Service, specializing in China (he speaks Mandarin Chinese) and the EU. Between 1995 and 1997 he was senior research fellow with the Constitution Unit at University College London. He has also worked as a freelance professional cellist, including with the BBC Concert Orchestra. He has a strong interest in governance, innovation and education, is a senior adviser to the British Council on those issues, and has previously worked with OECD, the World Bank Institute and other agencies on the themes of governance in a knowledge society and the governance of the long term. Maureen O'Hara PhD is Professor of Psychology, National University, USA; President Emerita, Saybrook University, San Francisco; and Director, International Futures Forum-US. She is a licensed psychotherapist in practice for over three decades and worked closely with Carl R. Rogers in La Jolla, California - facilitating encounter groups, large group events and training psychotherapists in many countries. Her recent work explores the present and potential future impacts of global cultural shifts on psychological development and emotional wellbeing. Books include Em busca da vida, with C.R. Rogers, J.K. Wood and A. Fonseca (Summus,1983); Ten Things To Do In A Conceptual Emergency, with G. Leicester (Triarchy, 2009); and the Handbook of Person-Centered Psychotherapy and Counselling with M. Cooper, P. Schmid and G. Wyatt (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). She is married to Robert Lucas with whom she resides in Carlsbad, California.