Forks in the Road

I don’t very often write extended book reviews for my blog, but I am making an exception for Choice Points: When You have to Decide Which Way to Go, by Phil Hollander, Robert Reaume, and Harvey Silver. (See Amazon.com for more.) It is an excellent book in more ways than one. I will say more about those ways, but first, a bit of background:

In the interests of full disclosure, I need to say that I know one of the authors, Phil Hollander. We first met in 1994 at an NLP training with Richard Bandler in Toronto. We have . . . → Read More: Forks in the Road

The Importance of Inoculation

In the book, Persuasion Engineering, and in workshops of the same name, Richard Bandler and John La Valle discuss the concept of “inoculation.” In medicine, the shot you receive to inoculate you against a particular disease anticipates your exposure to a pathogen and teaches your immune system how to respond appropriately so that you can avoid the disease. It’s a good metaphor to creating resistance to harmful ideas in a wide variety of change work, including sales, behavioral change, and therapeutic interventions.

If you buy a new car, say an ABC from the DEF dealership, not long after you . . . → Read More: The Importance of Inoculation

American Exceptionalism

The term “American Exceptionalism” has been much in the news lately, primarily because President Obama has frequently been accused of not believing in it. It is a strange expression, as is referring to the United States of America as “America,” as though the “of” wasn’t part of the deal. North America, Central America, and South America are also part of “America.” In saying so, I am probably guilty of having denigrated the concept of “American Exceptionalism.”

But that’s not really the case. I agree that the United States of America is exceptional in one sense of that word. In . . . → Read More: American Exceptionalism