He said it is so rare for him to engage in dialogue, where somebody in the academy has a good tempure. Simon is a white, blues brother.

“What I bring to this dialogue is my baggage.” This is like a blues man in the life of the mind. Blues is catasrophe in the mind. Horrendous.

Wow, Cornel is engaging. The vocal changes. Preacher-esque. Very many references to literature. Kafka.

Little of philosophy of death in philosophy.

COurage to htink for oneself. We would rather evade this, and keep and domesticate the catastrophic. This is how we motivate ourselves in the light of our desires.  

I am having trouble typing, as he is melodioiusly carrying me through his message. But, his message is strong.

He comes from a history of African people who restle with social death, and the psychic death that comes from white fear and hatred, and the real jim Crow death, and spiritual death of nihilism. Blues and Jazz men and women use their craft

Think of the corpses of John Donne, as they wait for us.

He said that Simon is a metathinker, interested in metaphilosophy. What is philosophy. What is the role of philosophy. What is politics?

Failed transcendence. Obsessed with the german idealistic school. Wrestling with a pessimism. There is something positive about the quest, but there will never be closure.

“My brother, Simon.” Interesting refrain he keeps making.

Little about the enslavement of workers. Capitalism is so powerful that workers did not begin to organize until 100 years after Argentina, which is hardly known as being a steller example of social justice.

Cornel is like CHekhov, he does not have a Romantic trace, in him at all.

When dealing with the catastrophic in the everyday life, it is like a tragic comic, a steady ache of the tragic in our lives. Simon begins with a Romantic, and ends with disappointment. Cornel did not start as a ROmantic. From the very beginning, he does not have disappintment, as he never expected anything.

So, does philosophy begin with disappointment? It does if it begins with Romanticism. Think about the disappointment of Beckett, try again and fail again and try better.

Cornel is full of righteous indignation. He is here to help to promote Simon’s new book (which is why this is sponsored or at least has the presence of Verso books).

Get out of one’s narcissistic ego, and then move on. Self love is empowering and liberating. Marvin said Jesus is love. James Baldwin. Morrison and Beloved. None of them is an Americanized love, which is Holleywood, Romantic love. Thus, African American relate to the love of the Hebrews in the Old Testament. This love helps keep America alive, where American terrorism has 400 years of history for American blacks. 9/11 has a long history with Americans of African descent.

The role of what philosophy can contribute. He would join the army to fight the Nazis, but not sure about if he would join the early Americans at the time of the Revolution, as that would be hypocritical for African Americans. He hates imperialism.

He is a deep Democrat, which means he can pull from a number of traditions in order to understand it.

Really engaging, pulling references almost out of a hat, or rather a deep well of experience and education and reading and feeling. Not Romantic, of course. Can’t leave the two parties, as these are the only places to bring change. Find some nooks and crannies to find a home in them.

It is impossible to tell the story of white supremacy without getting crushed.

Keep fighting for deep Democarcy.

He finished. What a past 70 minutes between the two of them.

Time to turn off and stand up.

The event started with the announcement of a student protest against Lockheed Martin and Monsanto tomorrow since they support the war and oppress developing nations.

So, here I am again, liveblogging another academic event. This event begins at 8:00, and I arrived at 7:35 to find not a single seat. Thus, I am sitting on the floor in the back of the Theresa Lang Community & Student Center at the New School in New York City. The fire sign above my head states that the room has a capacity of 200 people. Given the fact that there are people sitting in every seat and on the floor in all the aisles and in front of the emergency exits, let’s hope there will not be an emergency situation.

Clapping, so it must be them. Too bad I am in the back on the floor and cannot see them at all.

Cornel West (Princeton) and Simon Critchley (New School) will speak on Thursday night on the topic of  “The Meaning of Ethical Commitment and the Possibility of Political Resistance” at the New School for Social Research. According to their website:

The program will be held on Thursday, Sept 20, at 8:00 p.m. in the Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor. Admission is free, and no reservations required. Seating is first-come first-served. For more information call 212.807.9680

This promises to be an engaging evening, and I am really looking forward to it! I have heard Cornel West speak (though never in person), and I know Simon Critchley has a reputation as being an engaging speaker and professor as well.  I often do not make time to attend cultural events such as this one; always working or studying instead. However, this is one of the reasons I live in New York–the culture, educational opportunities, and energy that comes from so many things happening all the time that work to expand horizons. 

Technorati Tags: Cornel West, Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research

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The newest book in Bill Irwin’s The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, Family Guy and Philosophy just came out (the link is to my Amazon Store that helps in a very minor way to pay for this blog’s expenses). Too bad Amazon does not have the image for this book yet. It is partly thanks to this book that a wider audience gets exposed to philosophy at all. Philosophy as a discipline has gotten (perhaps even promoted?) the reputation that it writes for and speaks to only itself. While this is far from its roots in the Greeks, much of the philosophy in the English-speaking world has become more and more focused upon issues that do not have an immediate relevancy for ordinary people. Am I the only one who notices this and thinks that perhaps many in academia may be missing something here?

Technorati Tags: Family Guy, Bill Irwin

I am teaching a new class beginning this Wednesday, Organizational Communication. Officially entitled Organizational Communication and its Social Context, the course is an undergraduate business course at Stern School of Business at New York University. From the Stern website:

In the sophomore year, you will take Organizational Communication & Its Social Context which reiterates themes introduced in Business and its Publics, as you study social processes of influence and persuasion and learn how to most effectively communicate your own verbal and written messages to different audiences.

In a little more detail from my syllabus:

Effective communicators take the lead in the workplace, and much of your future success in business depends on your ability to manage communication effectively As part of the Social Impact of Business Core, this course provides the theoretical fundamentals in communication, applies communication strategy to oral and written business assignments, and focuses on how organizations communicate to their varied internal and external stakeholders.

Furthermore, in the introduction to the Undergraduate College, it states:

At the NYU Stern Undergraduate College, our vision is to build, educate and inspire a community of socially engaged, intellectually vibrant, global leaders and thinkers.  We achieve this through constant innovation, top-notch academics and a rich co-curricular experience that leverages our NYC location as well as NYU campuses worldwide.  

While the course is full, so I am not actively trying to sell it (!), I wish I had a course like this when I was in school. I think the business curriculum, in general, has come a long way from the days of Enron and Bonfire of the Vanities. Let’s hope the students really internalize this . . .

I integrated Action Reflection Learning into my Developing Leaders class, as I blogged about recently here and here. It went as I expected, with some people being more comfortable with the collaborative and interactive methodology than others. I recall the first time I experienced action learning, and wondered why so many people were involved with team building and other strategies to begin working through organizational problems together. I just wanted to get the answer; it seemed so simple from my vantage.

From a theoretical perspective however, major organizational problems are never easily solved within silos, for if they were, then they would not be organizational problems in the first place. Rather, large problems that organizations want and need to address can only be done on an organizational level, involving people from throughout the organization. They are always more complex than they seem, and thus require strategies that give voice to name these complexities and view them from as many angles as possible. Only then can a learning coach or facilitator help the team through the problem they are facing and have agreed to try to solve.

I wanted to bring this experience to a class, which is a challenge for learners who are used to being told what content is right and what works best. If only this were the case, but by the constantly growing list of books and articles on leadership continually growing, there seems to be no end in sight for getting the "right" answer or way of leading. No two organizations or people are the same, so how could a solution here easily be transferred to over there?

It is so much easier to give a list of leadership theories, best practices, or case studies. However, they are always contextually and organizationally and historically bounded; thus they are unable to be implemented as-is. Period. Yes, we can learn form the experience of others, and we can use best practices to guide us through our own issues–that is exactly the premise that action reflection learning is based upon–we already have most of what we need to solve our own problems. We have read books and worked in organizations and have lived enough of life to know that a cross-sectional team will bring the variety of experiences and perspectives to create a richer product than a simple sum of the parts. We only need help reflectively putting things together.

Technorati Tags: Action Reflection Learning, ARL, action learning, leadership development, leadership, organizational analysis, LIM, OD, developing leaders

Today I used Action Reflection Learning in a developing leaders class. This methodology is similar to action learning (the knowledge is already within the participants within a real-life situation), with the addition of a learning coach (me as the instructor) who, among other things, poses reflective questions, sets a tone for team learning, encourages appreciative inquiry, and promotes aspects of a learning journal to help with the individual processing and debriefing of the learning experience.

This makes a lot of sense to me, being a formally trained adult educator, yet it is very challenging for some people who approach learning in a more prescriptive and performance-based manner. I know; I used to be like that once, too.

Technorati Tags: Action Reflection Learning, appreciative inquiry, ARL, developing leaders, learning journal, learning coach

I am getting ready to teach a course, Developing Leaders, and thought it may be useful to share the References I have on my syllabus. The course description is:

Designed for managers, trainers, and OD professionals, this course shows you how to develop leaders at all levels of your organization. You learn how to design a variety of processes and programs–all intended to hone people’s leadership abilities. The highly participatory and interactive course format enables you to walk away with a blueprint for implementation in your organization.

While the course is only 2 days, these works are not all read or even assigned, though they will be referred to insofar as the discussion goes in that direction. The References include:

• Badaracco, Jr., J. (2006). Leadership in literature. Harvard Business Review. 84(3), 47-55.
• Collins, J. (2005). Level 5 leadership: The triumph of humility and fierce resolve. Harvard Business Review. 83(7/8), 136-146.
• Conger, J. A. & Riggio, R. E. (2006). The practice of leadership: Developing the next generation of leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• George, B., Sims, P., McLean, A., & Mayer, D. (2007). Discovering your authentic leadership. Harvard Business Review. 85(2), 129-138.
• Goffee, R. & Jones, G. (2005). Managing authenticity. Harvard Business Review. 83(12), 86-94.
• Goleman, D. (2004). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review. 82(1), 82-91.
• Kotter, J. P. (2001). What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review. 79(11), 85-96.
• Marquardt, M. (2005). Leading with questions: How leaders find the right solutions by knowing what to ask. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Marquardt, M. (2004). Optimizing the power of Action Learning: Solving problems and building leaders in real time. Mountain View: Davies-Black.
• McCauley, C. D. & Van Velsor, E. (Eds.). (2003). The Center for Creative Leadership handbook of leadership development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Ready, D. A. (2004). How to grow great leaders. Harvard Business Review. 82(12), 92-100.
• Rimanoczy, I. & Turner, E. (2008), Action Reflection Learning: Solving real business problems by connecting learning with earning. Mountain View: Davies-Black.

The main framework for this class, Action Reflection Learning (ARL), that I will use is based on the last book on this list, Action Reflection Learning, By Isabel Rimanoczy and Ernie Turner. I have known Isabel for a number of years now, and have worked with her and with Ernie along with their organization, LIM. While their book will not be released until 2008, I was able to read it in a pre-production
form, and think it expounds upon the theoretical framework LIM has developed and expounded upon over the years.

I hope my students in the class find the experience as interesting as the experience I have had building the class.

Technorati Tags: Action Reflection Learning, ARL, Ernie Turner, Isabel Rimanoczy, LIM, OD, developing leaders