Pi·az·za pē-ˈa-zə, -ˈä -n. pl. pi·az·zas: A public square in an Italian town.
Welcome to the Piazza. This is a page for resources – links, articles, discussion and sharing of ideas, best practice, and advice. Still in its infancy, hopefully it will develop into a useful community forum.
There are a ton of books, blogs and articles on power and leadership and developing democratic skills. The ones that will eventually be listed here will be relevant to the slant of this blog – using power and the development of democratic skills.
Heroes, Thank Yous and Shout Outs
One of my heroes on this topic is Mary Parker Follett. Often overlooked, her studies of group dynamics, participatory democracy, management and organizational systems, written in the first two decades of the twentieth century, foreshadowed much contemporary thought. Another inspiration is John Dewey, educational reformer, pragmatist, and one of the chief philosophers of democracy. Dewey believed in democracy as an unfinished, ever-evolving process of becoming; it was our best vehicle for personal growth. “The political and governmental phase of democracy,” he wrote, “is … the best means so far found, for realizing ends that lie in the wide domain of human relationships and the development of human personality.”
My training in facilitation was in Process-oriented psychology, the work on individual and collective change pioneered by Arnold Mindell. His ideas of Deep Democracy and Worldwork profoundly influence my thinking . He’s written extensively on leadership, groups, power and democracy, from conflict and social action, Sitting in the Fire, to Leader as Martial Artist which explores the attitudes and awareness needed for leading, to facilitating public forums, The Deep Democracy of Open Forums. His website is a treasure trove of ideas, research, thinking puzzles and other fun things.
A great resource for discussing the trials and challenges of leadership is http://www.govleaders.org/index.html. It is practical and humanistic, shying away from the demigod approach to leadership, and tackling down to earth issues of failure, character and learning. An author of many of the articles on that site is Ray Blunt, Associate Director and Fellow at the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture. Blunt has written extensively on growing and developing leaders. Another book that approaches leadership and power is Leadership on the Line, a thoughtful and psychological approach to leadership failure and success. I admire the work of its authors Marty Linsky and Ron Heifetz. Another inspiring writer on leading is Jim Collins, who is just a great writer and thinker. I love that he calls himself an ‘entrepreneurial professor,’ like the Johnny Appleseed of learning.
