Brian Allain

From “Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most” by Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz What is the shape of flourishing life? It’s what we’ve called the Question. The effectiveness question pushed you to find reliable strategies to get wherever you happened to be going. The self-awareness question pointed you to your […]

From “The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything” by Stephen M. R. Covey A cynic might ask, “So what? Is trust really more than a nice-to-have social virtue, a so-called hygiene factor? Can you measurably illustrate that trust is a hard-edged economic driver?” I intent to answer these questions emphatically in this

From “The Language of the Soul: Meeting God in the Longings of Our Hearts” by Jeff Crosby  After reading The Grand Essentials a new life was breathed into a passage in Colossians 3, becoming a guiding verse for my life and my work, whatever occupation I would hold: “Whatever you do, accomplish it from the

From “How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion” by David McRaney “There is no superior argument, no piece of information that we can offer, that is going to change their mind,” he said, taking a long pause before continuing. “The only way they are going to change their mind is by

From “Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life” by Richard Rohr This pattern of resistance is so clear and even so defeating for Jesus that he makes what sounds like one of his most unkind statements: ”Do not give to dogs what is holy, or throw your pearls before swine. They will

From “We Become What We Normalize: What We Owe Each Other in Worlds That Demand Our Silence” by David Dark More than one person in my life has helped me feel and access my own moral power and get curious and creative over my conflicts, my own stupefied moments. At our best, we lean into

From “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker J. Palmer “Leadership” is a concept we often resist. It seems immodest, even self-aggrandizing, to think of ourselves as leaders. But if it is true that we are made for community, then leadership is everyone’s vacation, and it can be an evasion

From “Trust the Whisper: How Answering Quiet Callings Inspires Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Grace“ by Kathy Izard That became the miracle of HopeWay. We started by meeting with a small circle of friends whom we knew had mental health issues in their family, and they would typically end a meeting by connecting us to others.

From “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck, PhD Enron And The Talent Mindset In 2001 came the announcement that shocked the corporate world. Enron – the corporate poster child, the company of the future – had gone belly-up. What happened? How did such spectacular promise turn into such a spectacular disaster?

From “Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation” by Steven Johnson The Web has explored the adjacent possible of its medium far faster than any other communications technology in history. In early 1994, the Web was a text-only medium, pages of words connected by hyperlinks. But within a few years, the possibility