People can maintain an unshakable faith in any proposition, however absurd, when they are sustained by a community of like-minded believers. Daniel Kahneman - Thinking Fast and Slow When I was teenager, my mother used a clever analogy to promote her prejudice against less flashy individuals: “An introvert,” she said, “is like food without salt. It’s still nutritious, it’s still food, but it’s flat and tasteless.” From this example emerged a bias in our family against

The pioneering psychiatrist Murray Bowen devoted a lifetime of thinking and clinical practice to understanding emotional maturity. His work gave humanity a good start in defining the markers of lower and higher functioning. Dr. Bowen generated a host of important ideas, but he didn’t leave behind a neat package. Instead of an unchanging recipe for “wising up,” we’re left with a web of variables, some defined, others yet to be widely accepted. Why is maturity so hard to

It’s likely that five hundred years from today, more advanced beings will look back on our leadership consulting practices with disbelief. Eavesdropping into that future, we listen to a spirited conversation between Anya and Klaus, two of the world’s few remaining leadership consultants. The setting is a Finnish sauna, in the year 2515: Klaus: “I’m glad our culture’s sauna has survived for many centuries – It’s no exaggeration that most of my worthwhile thinking has been