Sublime

I find that building trust simply works better than exerting force. Detention simply works better than assassination. They are pragmatic decisions, the fastest, cheapest, most reliable way to save lives and prevent attacks. But Dean hears them as a condemnation of the moonless nights he spent in Afghanistan, firing at moving shapes to prevent them

the artistry of leadership and the artistry of teaching recognize the opportunity within the conflict—the gap between how things are and the needs and aspirations of the social system—the adaptive challenge. One learns, not only how to take action and intervene, but also how to pause, to wait, to pace the work to let a process the leader cannot ful

Leavenworth’s “applicatory method” drew heavily upon military history to analyze the quandaries faced by an army’s high command and to devise solutions under rapidly changing conditions. Students learned, through map exercises, to plan and control the movement of troops from afar.

Ireland. She is moved by his conviction that a central piece of the practice of leadership is “helping people to see the contradictions in such a way that they can discover what is in everybody’s best interest”—what Heifetz describes as “recognizing the gap that signals adaptive work.”

Many mediations I have witnessed consist of waiting for people to wear down to the point where they’ll accept any compromise. This is very different from a resolution in which everyone’s needs are met and nobody experiences loss.

adaptive challenges require new learning, innovation, and new patterns of behavior. In this view, leadership is the activity of mobilizing people to address adaptive challenges—those challenges that cannot be resolved by expert knowledge and routine management alone.

Reentry, as the term is used in conflict resolution, refers to helping someone who has gone through an intense experience within the bubble of a dialogue return to their original context.