Beaton - A Global History of the Greeks

Did the Greeks really plant the seeds of democracy that some contemporary politicians idealize? What of the monumental Greek revival style buildings that grace many cultural and governmental centers throughout the world? What happened to the cultural foundations that archeologists have uncovered over the years?

These are questions addressed by Roderick Beaton in A Global History of the Greeks (2021). Beginning in 1500 BCE and ending in 2021, Beaton traces the roots and tendrils of Greek thought and culture through the ages and around the world. Mycenae, the Bronze age citadel, provides evidence of the first of these complex societies. Mycenaean warriors conquered Crete by 1450 and turned it into a blended culture between Minoan Crete and Greek-speaking mainland. This culture included an integrated economic structure that supported a population center greater than any that preceded it and fostered trade throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Some sort of systems collapse resulted in the decline of Mycenean dominance around 1200 BCE, signaled by its failure to conquer Troy, an important rival of the age. The population of mainland Greece fell by almost half and cultural and economic prosperity descended into a 'dark age' through 1000 BCE. The darkness lifted around 800 BCE as the Iron Age allowed the Greeks to again move further throughout the Mediterranean, establishing trade with Phoenicians and Etruscans.

Written records improved once the Greeks picked up Phoenician notation systems and combined them with Semitic signs that used "mnemonics for the respective sounds: alf, bet, and so on" (page 61) to form the alphabet. This alphabet improved communication to such a great degree that fields such as history, philosophy, and literature began to emerge. The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer (now understood as possibly multiple authors) are transcending evidence of the new importance of language and written records, acquiring a level of prominence almost equivalent to sacred scripture. As movie theaters await the introduction of the story of Odysseus in the summer of 2026, his long journey and its symbolization of a difficult quest will no doubt stir numerous conversations. It's important to recognize that these stories are of an imagined age of heroes rather than reflecting historical evidence.

The growing population centers on the coastlines of the Mediterranean came to be known as polis (poleis in plural) which can be translated as 'city-state.' With ceremonial and trade areas at their centers, the deliberation to organize citizens into a polis led to the idea of reasoned argument in politics (affairs of the people). The three forms of polis known to these settings were rule by one man (tyrannis) rule by the many (demokratia), or rule by the few (oligarchia). The "world's first functioning democracy is usually said to have been created in Athens during the years 508-507 BCE" (page 100). Adding to the richness of the poleis, authors/poets performed in private houses with food and drink (symposium) and philosophoi (lovers of wisdom) emerged for Greeks to look outward to the rest of the known world. A fascinating attempt to negotiate internal struggles and tensions in some of the new democratic institutions was a yearly vote by 'ostrakon" (painted sherd) whereby citizens could vote someone who they believed had been disruptive to be exiled (known to the the origin of 'ostracism').

The "classical age" of Greece from 494 to 404 BCE was an era of conflict as wars between and among Greek city-states and the distant Persians emerged. The Persian/Greek battle of Thermopylae ('hot gates'), struggles between Islam and Christianity, and other conflicts were in many ways a reprisal of the earlier struggles of Athens and Sparta. Resistance to Persian invasion can be seen as the beginning of what historically has been viewed as the conflict of a 'civilized west' and 'barbarous east'. During this age of conflict and perhaps stimulated by it, Socrates emerged as the great philosopher who engaged fellow citizens in dialogue on the purpose of life. For him, "the goal of all human beings was arete" (page 146) meaning 'goodness' and 'virtue'. To not explore this meaning meant resigning oneself to an unexamined life, one not livable for a human being. Almost immediately after Socrates' death, Xenophon and Plato picked up his intellectual legacy. Isocrates extended their historical and philosophical musings into what would be recognized as identity, "understood as a set of values that anyone can aspire to attain" (page 171). Although a hereditary monarch, Phillip II, King of Macedonia, fully embraced these ideas, personifying the Hellenic ideal, and was responsible for an era that attracted painters, sculptors, and philosophers from Athens and other southern Greek cities to the north. Among the most notable was Aristotle who had studied with Plato and would become tutor to Phillip's son, Alexander. No doubt that Aristotle's teaching "that the goal of human life is 'so far as possible to become immortal and to strive in every way to live according to the finest thing that is in us," (page 195) contributed to the heroic aspirations of young Alexander. Influencing, conquering or enveloping numerous cultures along the way, Alexander the Great extended the influence of Hellenism to the farthest reaches of the known world of the day. This success of notable thinkers and leaders is significant because it connects the importance of an examined life to an understanding of identity in a free society and the spread of Hellenic (e.g., Greek) culture through influence and battle.

Beaton traced the idea of Hellenism as it influenced Egypt, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Perhaps the most important influence was Rome as it expelled its last king in 109 BCE and defined its new state as res publica, a state belonging to the people. The rule of Augustus resulted in a 200-year pax romana that expanded continents and spread the ideal of Hellenism that Roman's had incorporated into their views of government and culture. The births of Jesus of Nazareth around 4 BCE and crucifixion in 30 BCE led to the emergence of Christianity. One of its central authors was Paul, whose letters are the oldest Christian texts and were written in Greek due to the continuing influence of Greece on language and culture. Perhaps because of these early Christian texts being in Greek, and their content challenging the abuses of the Roman empire, Christians at different times were persecuted or, under the rule of Constantine, embraced. Both the rejection and adherence to Christianity continued to be controversial and a threat to the Roman empire until its conclusion during the reign of Diocletian in 305 AD.

As I skip chapters that summarized centuries, and fast-forwarding to the present, Beaton declared that the present global movement across national boundaries may be larger and impacting more nation-states but, in some ways, it is not dissimilar from the inclination of Greeks from their earliest days 5,000 years ago. In the "Epilogue" Beaton advised that, with half of those who consider themselves Greek living outside the Hellenic Republic, the story of Greece and its influence is not over. Perhaps the poem by Iranian refugee in Greece, Hiva Panahi, captures the journey of so many over so many generations (p. 505):

We the wandering, We the barefoot, We without space or country, We the burnt and fiery winds. We say you, with those final breaths, that burned a piece of the sea.

 

Leadership learning at a crossoads...

I recently participated in the International Leadership Association's webinar "What has changed? The Global Context Leadership Educators must face." This webinar recording link includes several of my ILA colleagues and is substantially based on the article I published last year - "Leadership Learning at a Crossroads: Adapting the ILA General Principles for a Changing World."

Publishing the article and participating in the webinar reflects the culmination of 50 years of exploring, researching, and theorizing about leadership and how to cultivate it in others. This journey has been a labor of passion and love allowing me to arrive at this moment in peace - I did all I could, I kept the faith that the work was worthwhile, and I shared with numerous wonderful colleagues along the way.

One of the things I've advocated most consistently is sharing the work of leadership cultivation across programs, disciplines, sectors, cultures, and every type of possible different perspective. My Crystal Ball... reflections confirm the importance of joint and complementary work and add insights I've gained related to international leadership that I shared at the Leadership Educators Institute of 2024.

The AI era is upon us and will require additional layers of capacity than we previously had, or sought to nurture through education of all sorts. The blog post on my other blog, Future proofing graduates, addresses how the current graduates of higher education can best prepare for a promising future. The Gemini 3 AI generated response to the question of future-proofing asserted that graduates will need to develop increasing metacognition agility, ethical discernment, empathic leadership, and fuller systems thinking and application. Complementing these ideas and driving them more deeply into the self-awareness required to thrive in the future, Otto Scharmer proposed that we are at a "new axial" in human experience. This new axial is at least as monumental as when humans moved from hunter-gatherers to communities of shared purpose and destiny.

I believe that the most powerful driver of dysfunction and discord today derives from one central issue - fear. Fear of change, fear of others, fear of not getting our fair share, fear of missing out, fearing the loss of meaning. Boiling down all that I've said or written to the central challenges of leadership, I believe that the primary purposes of our work are 1) deeper understanding of self, 2) honoring the interdependence of humanity, 3) optimism that there is enough, and 4) facing the future with hope.

Fairfield - Introducing Dewey

I have long been curious about John Dewey but after years of reading references to him, or reading things I thought surely were related, I picked up Paul Fairfield's Introducing Dewey (2024) to take a deeper dive. Fairfield's book provided excerpts from select publications and referenced other authors who noted Dewey to place him in context historically and philosophically, and explored the application of Dewey's ideas to ethics, liberal politics, education, religion, and aesthetics.

John Dewey received his undergraduate education at the University of Vermont (1879), pursued post-graduate studies at Johns Hopkins (1884), first joined the University of Chicago faculty from 1894-1904, and spent the rest of his academic career at Columbia University until his retirement in 1930. Philosophically, Dewey was decidely anti-positivist, seeing science as a constant process of exploration. Knowledge as an absolute was anathema to the idea of discovery and experiential learning which were foundational in the way Dewey viewed all fields. Dewey embraced a naturalistic and biological conception of "the living organism as fundamentally bound up with its environment and engaged continually in a myriad of interactions" (p. 8). The idea of "pragmatism" was imbedded in this view and proposed that "an idea may be defined in terms of the practical effects that the idea's object may be said to have" (p. 8) - a practical, applied, and purposeful way of ideating. The idea also contributed to the notion that specializations (i.e. "scientism") were confining and that a scholar ought to be a roving inquirer in search of understanding.

Dewey believed that "the entire life of the mind can be explained within a three-stage model of sensation, idea, and response" (p. 42). These three elements are the foundation for "reflective thinking" which "starts from the presence of a problem (sensation), and.... its first business is to become clear as to what the problem is and why it is a problem (ideation)" (p. 60). Experimental inquiry can then proceed to hypothesizing and testing with these two steps contributing to loop learning that refines knowledge, identifies new problems, and pursues the process yet again (response). Dewey preferred to call this cycle "instrumentalism" rather than pragmatism that was often used to describe his philosophy (p. 68).

Human experiences, whether empirical, ethical, educational, aesthetic, religious or otherwise, are "profoundly rooted in a social and linguistic world" (p. 45) according to Dewey. The heart of useful knowledge then becomes understanding the relationship between means and consequences. This premise inspired Fairfield to explore each of these areas in depth. Given my interest in wholistic and leadership learning, I choose to focus on education in this post.

"A precondition of a viable democratic order is an educated citizenry" (p. 129). This was the core idea expressed in Democracy and Education  (1916/1938). Dewey believed that the disconnection from students' experience, excessive information retention, and passivity were the primary challenges that had to be faced in democratic education. The alternative was classroom learning enhanced through inquiry and complemented by out-of-class experiences that resulted in continuous and integrated learning. He was not an "Ivory Tower" advocate nor a "student centered" learning proponent, believing that every learning interaction required teachers who guided rather than relying on independent exploratory activity by students. These ideas contributed to a view that "Liberty of mind, thought, inquiry, and discussion is not adjunct of education but an indispensable ingredient of it" (p. 152). John Dewey's Philosophy of Education reiterates the above points about education in a brief video.

In the subsequent chapters, Fairfield explored how Dewey's view of instrumental learning can transfer to domains such as politics, religion and aesthetics. Dewey advocated a similar process of discovery - sensation, idea, and response - in each of these areas. As an example, exposure in music can be a fluid, adapting, and increasingly complex area of learning. However, when exposure to music is limited, there may be an initial rejection of unfamiliar types of music. By contrast, new experiences can lead to new openness and exposure to the numerous types of music that one can enjoy. The initial sensation and ideation about something new then leads to expanding music listening preferences including styles, formats, and creators of diverse music. Consider how this idea might be applied to politics or religion and imagine how different individual and community dynamics in these areas might be.

My only disappointment with Fairfield's excellent integration of Dewey's contributions to multiple sectors was that student affairs work (commonly referred to as student personnel work in the early 20th century) was not mentioned at all in the education sector nor any other. As a student of higher education history who has written of Dewey as foundational to the field, it is both telling and disappointing that there was no recognition of Dewey's impact to how student affairs was shaped by and likely contributed to the preservation of Dewey's ideas in higher education. While I have not found reference to student affairs work, a very interesting article relating Islam to Dewey demonstrates how "instrumentalism" holds value in learning in other cultures beyond the West.

Fairfield's concluding chapter focused on Dewey's legacy, logging the broad implications and applications of his ideas in today's world. Dewey may have been eclipsed by some philosophers and educators in mid-20th century but many of his ideas are as applicable today as ever. Fortunate for those of us interested in exploring Dewey's ideas in greater depth, Southern Illinois University holds and has published Dewey's complete works. Perhaps the current crises in higher education will result in a return to core ideas of how learning can best be understood and hopefully Dewey's ideas will reemerge in these conversations.

Reich - Coming Up Short

Robert Reich's Coming Up Short (2025) includes reflections on his life experiences coupled with the political evolution of the U.S., which in his estimation is "coming up short" for so many of its citizens. Reich owns his politics through the book which will not be a surprise to anyone who knows his career. While the assessment of where we are coming up short politically is dark, he does offer hope in describing students he has taught over the last years of his working life.

Reich's family benefitted from coming of age after the collapse of Gilded Age fortunes in the Great Depression, the result of which was wealth flowing to a new middle class, providing unbridled opportunity for many. The conservative perception (espoused by Ayn Rand, a prominent political commentator) of the popular Christmas story of this era, It's a Wonderful Life, was that it was evidence of Communist infiltration. The age of a rising middle class was built at a time of growing industry, population, and people of all sorts together in new and vibrant communities.

The upheaval of the Gilded Age and birth of a middle class was ripe for McCarthyism, which was a post WWII view striving to undermine the gains of FDR's New Deal. And who was ready to aid McCarthy's project - Roy Cohn. Cohn later became useful to the emerging NYC real estate mogul Donald Trump. As a fixer and mentor to Trump, one of Cohn's most significant introductions was to Rupert Murdoch. The significance of these three men's life-long working relationship cannot be overstated.

Reich recounted many of his childhood experiences, which are entertaining while revealing his character. Because of his small stature, Reich was often the object of bullies. During the summer of his 3rd grade year, he met Mickey, a teenager vacationing in an Adirondack cabin near where Reich's family was staying. During that summer, Mickey became Reich's supporter by just being a handsome big kid to hang with. Having lost track of Mickey, the stunning revelation that Mickey Schwerner was one of three murdered "Freedom Riders" in the summer of 1964 cemented Reich's commitment to be part of the generation of Americans "called on to continue the unending search for justice within our own borders" (p. 58). The Summer of 1964 and Reich's free speech and civil rights activism brought him to see "the central struggle of civilization as fighting bullies - standing up against brutality" (p. 66).

Reich dated Hillary Clinton, got chewed out by Bobby Kennedy as a campaign volunteer, and studied with Bill Clinton as a Rhodes Scholar. Exposure to these key figures was formative but experience in a T-Group in big Sur (similar to one I experienced in Cedar City, Utah, in 1971) caused him to see his youthful experiences of being bullied as related to the violence and upheaval that was gripping America. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., leaders who appealed to the idealism of young people and progressives, drove Americans from hope to despair.

About half-way through the book, Reich sharpened his critique that the U.S. government has shifted its focus. He said, "The real choice is who benefits by the decisions government makes about the rules of the game - people who are wealthy and privileged or those who are not, and who pays for it" (p. 258). Relaxed policies about campaign and candidate financial support have resulted in buying influence in the houses of congress and the White House. What is particularly problematic about this is that moneyed interests have shifted to maximizing their wealth rather than investing in innovation, services, improving productivity, and citizens' welfare.

Cruelty is found in individual actions as well as communities and governments. The prevailing form of cruelty in conservative politics is often based on a philosophy "that the only moral purpose of life is the pursuit of one's own happiness" (p. 81) which was foundational to the conservativism emerging in the 1970s, influenced by the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Reich retorted, "If we are losing our national identify, it is not because we are becoming blacker or browner or speak in more languages than we once did. It is because we are losing our sense of common good" (p. 87).

The battle between conservative and liberal ideas has now become a battle for big money that corrupts lawmakers as they change rules to make the rich even richer. Assuming that capitalism is the only way to prosperity and that economic benefit will eventually trickle down to others, lawmakers and moneyed interests trample over any commitment to the public good. This perspective eclipsed the idea that businesses are stewards of public trust to benefit employees and consumers and that sharing wealth through good wages for employees and reasonable prices for goods and services was an ideal to which America ascribed.

Reich peppered quotable gems throughout the book as he reflected on his personal life experience and involvement in politics. Some of my favorites include:

On parenting - Teenage boys can't be scheduled. They're like clamshells. They open just for a moment, to take in a little nourishment or expel some dirt... If you're around when they open, you have a chance to see something truly beautiful inside (p. 301).

On partisanship - Once unbottled, mass resentment can poison the very fabric of society, the moral integrity of society, replacing ambition with envy, replacing tolerance with hate (p. 305).

On journalism - If you have two guys on a stage and one guy says, "I have a solution to the Middle East problem" and the other guy falls in the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news? (p. 308)

On privilege - My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks (p. 328)

On change - Being an activist for social justice means working hard but not expecting the goals to be achieved anytime soon (p. 379). 

On leadership - The long game requires a new and different conception of leadership, one in which leaders see part of their responsibility as building public trust (p. 431).

On American capitalism - The harshest form of capitalism in all the world's advanced economies. It takes almost no account for social costs and benefits (p. 426).

On youth - Instead of being bitter or angry, they have all sorts of ideas for how to clean it up, fix it, make the world better (p. 405).

On aging - ...there are four ages to life: youth, middle age, old age, and YOU LOOK GREAT (p. 458).

In the closing pages of the book Reich reflects:

Most people who "retire" stop what they call "working" and begin what they call "playing." But what if your work is also your play? What if it's your calling? What if its' deeply meaningful to you? (p. 456)

and continues...

Meaningful work - work that's more play than work - can lead to a longer life (p. 457).

Reich's reflection is in many ways a luxury that most people do not have the opportunity to obtain. There's a lot of privilege in teaching and writing but for those who are so lucky, comes the heavier responsibility of cultivating a legacy - something that shows you gave your best effort in your life's work.

Berry - World-Ending Fire

I was introduced to Wendell Berry over coffee by a candidate positioning himself to run for Illinois state representative in my district. I was immediately struck by Patrick Hanley's thoughtfulness and apparent intelligence, so I decided to pick something up and I chose The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry (2017). I chose this book because it was a sequential collection of Berry's writing from 1968 to 2011. I found the entire book interesting but, because it was a collection over time, there are certain themes that are repeated through different stories and revelations. I found that the first several chapters and a couple of concluding chapters captured the "essentials" and I therefore focus on them in this review.

Hanley and Berry are both excellent examples of grounded leadership that is focused on improving communities and the general welfare of those who inhabit them. As studies of character, their conviction in leadership is exemplary.

Berry was a university professor with somewhat eccentric views of the environment and community resulting from his experience in restoring and expanding his family farm throughout his life. The introduction says, "Over the last century, by some estimates, over half the world's topsoil has been washed away by the war on nature that we call industrial farming" (page viii) and that is the central warning that frames the rest of the book. He attributes the fall of small family farms to urbanization that drew young people away from their own origins, origins that previously had connected them to other animals, plants, and the communities that nurtured them. Abundance seemed to prevail in the impersonal, disconnected spaces of cities and thus living abundantly (excessively) became the perceived mark of progress. All the while, the lands and animals that inhabited them were exploited and began a slide to unproductivity.

Berry offers an ominous prediction:

There appears to be a law that when creatures have reached the level of consciousness, as men have, they must become conscious of the creation; they must learn how they fit into it and what its needs are and what it requires of them, or else pay a terrible penalty; the spirit of the creation will go out of them, and they will become destructive; the very earth will depart from them and go where they cannot follow (p. 21).

The antidote is that we must embrace the universal reality that what is good for the world is good for us, which happens only when we try to know the world and our roles in it rather than exploiting and benefitting from it. Filling oneself with knowledge of the earth then brings the realization that the world is inexhaustible and will outlast any humans today or in the future. The question is an earth in what form and condition? A world that is dominated by consumerism and competition "destroys the natural environment" and it "abuses racial and economic minorities" in the same way (p. 49). To correct the abuse of the earth and other humans, "we are going to have to go far beyond public protest and political action. We are going to have to rebuild the substance and the integrity of private life in this country" (p. 53). In sum, "we will be wrong if we attempt to correct what we perceive as 'environmental' problems without correcting the economic oversimplification that caused them" (p. 66).

A theological perspective (not labeled as such) of creating and sustaining a beloved community is Berry's way forward - creating "common experience and common effort on a common ground to which one willingly belongs" (p. 94). The point of this strategy is that only by restoring local soil with joint effort can community cultures be restored - connected, appreciative, moderate, and abundant. A philosophical assumption of this kind of community is that the "standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care. The exploiter's goals are money, profit; the nurturer's goal is health - his land's health" (p. 122).

Berry's chapter on "Two Minds" describes the "Rational Mind - motivated by the fear of being misled, of being wrong," and the "Sympathetic Mind - motivated by the fear of error of carelessness, of being unloving" (p. 180). The 'Sympathetic Mind' is "informed by experience, by traditionborne stories of the experiences of others, by familiarity, by compassion, by commitment, by faith" (p. 184). In Berry's view, conservation is not enough and must stretch to "conserve the possibilities of peace and good work" (p. 199).

"Compromise Hell" asserts that "The general purpose of the present economy is to exploit, not to foster or conserve" (p. 313). The sustainable alternative economy advocates:

1. Humans don't have to live by destroying the sources of their life.
2. Respect ourselves and our dwelling places and quit thinking of rural America as a colony.
3. Reaffirm the economic value of good stewardship and good work.
4. Reconsider solving economic problems by 'bringing in industry'.
5. Confront honestly the issue of scale - bigness promotes greed, indifference, and damage.
6. Prioritize caring for our land.

Generous Leadership

As part of the Student Affairs NOW series, Keith Edwards interviewed Kathleen Fitzpatrick about her two recently published books - Generous Thinking (2019) and Leading Generously (2024). These two books address the complexities of higher education and the vulnerability that has always been there, but not as graphically exposed as we see now - the competitive individualism that has for generations characterized academic thinking and processes. Her point is that the pervasive influence of individualism and competition in structures and approaches to research, theorizing, and publication have prevented cooperation that should be fostering greater innovation.

I have believed for a very long time that the divisiveness of the academy has undermined much of what most of those working in it, as well as consumers of it, dreamed it was accomplishing. I have attempted to counter systemic competitive isolation in multiple ways but have failed repeatedly, especially when I look at the long-term impact of what I hoped to accomplish. Combining the foundation of generosity with another idea I've recently encountered might actually work. The other idea is authentizotic culture. These ideas, generosity and authentizotic culture, are explained in the following paragraphs.

Fitzpatrick and Edwards engaged in conversation about how essential it is for higher education institutions to transform themselves into generous rather than competitive places. Especially at a time when enrollments are shifting, public support has softened, and where some governments (particularly in the U.S.) have become skeptical or hostile, institutions and their faculty/staff, need to pull together. Fitzpatrick advocates twelve practices or tools for personal and institutional transformation (chapters in Generous Leading, 2025). They might also be viewed as values that guide the conduct of leading generously - people, yourself, vulnerability, together, trust, values, listening, transparency, nimbleness, narrative, sustainability, and solidarity. Fitzpatrick identified these characteristics by talking to mid-level institutional leaders and reflecting on those things that seemed to make the most difference. In doing so, she also recognized the difficulty of consistently putting them into practice.

The idealization of an authentizotic organization was coined by Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries. From the INSEAD description of his 2022 article, "Authentizotic Organizations: Best Places to Work":

"authentizotic" - derived from the Greek words authteekos and zoteekos. An organization that is authentic inspires employees through the integrity of its vision, mission, values, culture, and structure. Zoteekos, meaning "vital to life", when applied to an organizational context implies that people are invigorated by their workplace and find in it a sense of balance and completeness.

I have not read Kets de Vries' complete article, but this definition alone is enough to stimulate images of joy, fulfillment, and innovation in work and leisure. The problem is that I've seldom worked or lived within such an environment. What often occurs is that there are those, often in leadership roles, who envision and advocate ideas much like an authentizotic organization, but their behavior contradicts it.

The two concepts - generosity and authentizotic culture - are inseparable in my view. It would be extremely difficult to be generous without true knowledge and compassion for an individual or institution. It would also be difficult to foster an authentizotic culture without a commitment to generosity, forgiveness, and welcoming different perspectives. How inspiring and fulfilling would it be to work and live in an organization that strove for both of these ideals?

Schlossberg - Revitalizing Retirement

I've supposedly been retired for over 10 years now. Yet, I've not been able to actually say that I am retired nor have I been able to stop learning, writing, working, and creating. The only difference between my life before 2014 and now is that I used to get paid for my contributions. Now I either volunteer, am invited, or fall into opportunities on a regular basis and, thus, I call myself "semi-retired." Fortunately, Nancy Schlossberg's Revitalizing Retirement: Reshaping Your Identity, Relationships, and Purpose  (2009) gave me a fuller understanding that the way I've chosen to spend these years isn't that strange - it's one of several paths that people can choose after their full-time working careers.

For a starter, retirement is best framed as a series of phases or stages rather than a destination. Schlossberg cites Gene Cohen who defined them as:

1. Midlife reevaluation, which is a better way to describe this "time for exploration and transition" than the term midlife crisis;
2. Liberation, a "time to experiment";
3. Summing up, a period to review one's life, followed by giving back through such activities as volunteering; and
4. Encore, which he described as "the desire to go on, even in the face of adversity or loss." (Locator 203)
   

Schlossberg reviews these phases through a lens that she used throughout her career as a researcher and author - mattering. Mattering, the belief or feeling that we are noticed or count, is a human need that is present throughout the life span. How one finds ways to enhance mattering is unique to the individual even though there are predictable life thresholds that can put that sense of mattering at risk. The specific qualities that support a sense of mattering include attention, importance, appreciation, and dependence. Particularly during one's post-working years, the recipe for how these ingredients can be enhanced include 1) "getting involved and staying involved, b) harnessing the power of invitation, c) taking initiative, and d) doing your best to make others feel that they matter" (Locator 514).

Six pathways that retirees may choose are 1) continuers, 2) easy gliders, 3) adventurers, 4) searchers, 5) involved spectators, and 6) retreaters. Schlossberg provides definitions and examples of each of these and is careful not to show preference or judgment about whatever path one might choose. Retirees may adopt one of these six depending on everything from health to wealth, to opportunity. The point is that retirees have choices and whatever the path one chooses, some way of maintaining a sense that you matter and make a continuing contribution is a must.

Revitalizing Retirement is a great resource for individuals to read or Schlossberg even suggests the possibility of a study group whose members might go through the book, reading and discussing as they go, and responding to the check up that concludes each chapter. Particularly during the preparatory time for retirement, it's important not to move too quickly and without a period of testing and evaluation. To age gracefully and embrace whatever model one chooses requires "time: time to mourn for what you left, time to figure out what's next, and time to feel comfortable with a new life" (Locator 2052).

Grant - Think Again

Adam Grant's Think Again (2021) asserts the central thesis that sometimes our first response or intuition is incorrect. Further, because errors are more common on first-blush, leaders and constituents need to adopt strategies that can help to critically examine and thereby come to better plans to respond.

The common approaches to arguing issues on which we disagree are the preacher, prosecutor, politician, or the scientist. The preacher mode is invoked when sacred beliefs are in jeopardy. The prosecutor mode is activated when we recognize flaws in others' reasoning. The politician mode is used when we seek to win over the opposition. Grant's proposition is that we would make better decisions if we abandoned the first three strategies and, instead, cultivate a more scientific approach motivated by the search for truth and utilizing experiments to test hypotheses and discover new knowledge. "Scientific thinking favors humility over pride, doubt over certainty, curiosity over closure" (Locator 437). The antidote to arrogance, which Grant characterizes as "ignorance plus conviction" (Locator 653) is humility, a word derived from the Latin root meaning, "from the earth," or being grounded.

A very interesting assertion in relation to the current political strategy of the Trump administration is that "skilled negotiators rarely went on offense or defense. Instead, they expressed curiosity with questions like 'So you don't see any merit in this proposal at all?" (Locator 1462) Perhaps negotiations in Washington and around the world would be different if this approach were embraced.

How to apply scientific thinking is then examined in the broader sections of Grant's book, labeled individual rethinking, interpersonal rethinking, and collective rethinking. Spoiler alert - the best thinking and highlights of Think Again are summarized in the Epilogue of "Actions for impact" and in Grant's own book summary.

The following quote directly addresses the dilemma faced in leadership:

It's easy to see the appeal of a confident leader who offers a clear vision, a strong plan, and a definitive forecast for the future. But in times of crisis as well as times of prosperity, what we need more is a leader who accepts uncertainty, acknowledges mistakes, learns from others, and rethinks plans (Locator 3428).

The advice on how to cultivate this kind of leadership from Grant's "Action for Impact" include:

Individual rethinking:

1. Think like a scientist
2. Define your identity in terms of values, not opinions
3. Seek out information that goes against your views
4. Beware of getting stranded on the summit of Mount Stupid
5. Harness the benefits of doubt
6. Embrace the joy of being wrong
7. Learn something new from each person you meet
8. Build a challenge network, not just a support network
9. Don't shy away from constructive conflict

Interpersonal rethinking:

1. Ask better questions
2. Practice the art of persuasive listening
3. Question how rather than why
4. Ask "What evidence would change your mind?"
5. Ask how people originally formed an opinion
6. Acknowledge common ground
7. Remember that less is often more
8. Reinforce freedom of choice
9. Have a conversation about the conversation

Collective rethinking:

1. Have more nuanced conversations
2. Don't shy away from caveats and contingencies
3. Expand your emotional range
4. Have a weekly myth-busting discussion at dinner
5. Invite kids to do multiple drafts and seek feedback from others
6. Stop asking kids what they want to be when they grow up
7. Abandon best practices
8. Establish psychological safety
9. Keep a rethinking scorecard
10. Throw out the ten-year plan
11. Rethink your actions, not just your surroundings
12. Schedule a life checkup
13. Make time to THINK AGAIN

At the core of these recommendations are intellectual humility, curiosity, and the eagerness to explore perspectives that contrast with our own. My experience has taught me that there are those who are interested in this level of honesty and inquiry and others who are not. The key is determining who welcomes your curiosity and the "clearest sign of intellectual chemistry isn't agreeing with someone. It's enjoying your disagreement with them" (Locator 1133).