Harnessing The Power of Tension: A paradoxical approach to building alliances at home, in the board room, on campus, and in communities.
The world is in emotional High Red Alert. From the Red Sea to the Mississippi, headlines read: "Fear mixes with anger as Ferguson braces for more unrest," "Holocaust fears haunt Israelis as they prepare for possible war," "Colorado girls' effort to join ISIS stokes fear in Muslim community," "Rising anger over accepting Muslim refugees and humiliation of not being wanted as fleeing Syrian refugees are being shut out of Europe".
Brenda and Samia see a need to create a tectonic shift in how leaders lead and problem solve.
This book introduces their paradoxical and evolutionary leadership approach to conflict transformation and cross cultural-communication - Tectonic Leadership. The word tectonic comes from the Greek word "tekton" which means builder and is used by geologists to infer to very significant or considerable changes in the earth structure.
They use earth plate tectonics (the large sections of the earth's surface that shifts) as a metaphor for visualizing human interactions. They recognize that human interactions in situations of conflict are like fault lines between tectonic plates. Plates interact and build friction at their boundaries, causing earthquakes to occur when the natural elasticity of surrounding rocks has been exceeded. Human interactions can similarly create fault lines. When the pressure generated by tension and fear becomes unbearable, the energy released is tsunami-like, creating mass hysteria, inciting hate and fear, separating nations, destroying businesses and communities, oppressing people and instigating wars. Their leadership model-Tectonic Leadership harnesses the power of tension and uses tension as an opportunity to inform those in conflict of the deepest fears, pains and trans-generational wounds that separate people and plague our world.
Harnessing the Power of Tension recounts the authors' personal journey as a Jew and an Arab and includes stories from other Tectonic Leaders of how they directly addressed the tension that separated them and used it to connect and build stronger relationships. Through a step-by-step process and included exercises, the book demonstrates how it is possible to step into the fault line and harness the power of tension: to use tension to connect and not separate, to engage and not alienate, to empathize and not destroy, to inform and not intimidate, to innovate and not imitate. These stories illuminate how Tectonic Leaders work with tension to deconstruct negative narratives, build trust, expand boundaries without changing core belief and create partnerships across divides.
About The Authors
Brenda and Samia are not historians, politicians, psychologists or philosophers. They are two women from radically different professions, backgrounds, cultures, ideologies and beliefs who share the frustration of unresolved conflict globally and locally; two activists alarmed by the lack of effective leadership in these times of high turbulence.
Brenda Naomi Rosenberg, was the first female Vice President of Fashion for J.L. Hudson Department Stores in Michigan (now Macy's) and Senior Vice President of Fashion Merchandising and Marketing for Federated Allied Department stores. Today she is a full-time peacemaker. Brenda identifies as a Jewish Zionist and is an active member of the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC). She serves as Vice-President of the American Jewish Committee in Detroit, Michigan. Brenda is the recipient of 17 local, national and international awards for her interfaith efforts. She became the first Jewish woman to give a Ramadan sermon at an American mosque and served as an (Islamic Society of North America) panelist on healing the Shia-Sunni divide. Brenda co-authored the book Friendship & Faith: The WISDOM of women creating alliances for peace. She co-created Reuniting the Children of Abraham - a multimedia toolkit for peace.
Samia Moustapha Bahsoun is a telecom executive, international business entrepreneur, secular Muslim, pro-Palestine activist and community organizer. Samia spent most of her adult life building telecommunication networks throughout the world. Bahsoun is of Lebanese Muslim descent, born and raised in Dakar (Senegal), an American immigrant since 1979, Samia has been exposed and sensitized at an early age to issues of race, ethnicity, faith, gender, and politics, becoming at the age of 14 an ardent Palestinian rights advocate and anti-Israel militant. Samia had given up on any prospects for peace until she paired with Brenda Rosenberg to co-create Tectonic Leadership. Samia coaches young Arab entrepreneurs and is a judge for the MIT Enterprise Forum (Pan Arab region). An immigrant and naturalized citizen, an entrepreneur in the high-tech sector, a small business owner, Samia is a steering committee member of the NJ Main Street Alliance, promoting policies for innovation, job creation, education, and immigration reform. She is the recipient of the 2013
David Sarnoff Award for Advocacy.
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