Articles

By Amanda Blake
with Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Ph.D., and Staci Haines

History of Strozzi Somatics

For the last 40 years, Strozzi Institute has been training leaders in business, education, military, non-profit, social change, and many other domains. What distinguishes our work is our unique mind-body approach to developing a greater capacity for effective action. Some have seen this approach as cutting-edge; others have seen it as marginal at best. Despite a long history of positive results, the question “What does the body have to do with leadership?” remains bewildering to many.

By Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Ph.D.

We are made to feel. Feeling is that part of us that is aware when danger is present, and when it is safe; who we can trust, or not; to empathize with others; to love; to be touched by beauty; to live in purpose and meaning; to be part of the natural order; and, to lead a moral life. Feeling brings us present to our livingness. Simply said: Feeling makes us fully human.

By Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Ph.D.

Recently skimming through my daughter’s books for her World Literature class I came across James Joyce’s novel The Dubliners. Remembering what is required to engage with Joyce’s dense prose I forged ahead anyway and came across a certain Mr. Duffy who “lived a short distance from his body.” I soon learned that Mr. Duffy is a one-dimensional bureaucrat who lives an unattractively plain, colorless life. He represents the post-modern everyman: cut off from his feelings, defined by rules and protocols, and lacking purpose and meaningful connections.

By Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Ph.D.

All virtues are physiological conditions;
Our most sacred convictions
Are judgments of our muscles...
Perhaps the entire evolution of the
spirit Is the question of the body;
It is the history of the development of the higher body
That emerges into our sensibility.

—Nietzshe

“We are what we repeatedly do.”
--Aristotle

By Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Ph.D.

In the mid-fifties an up and coming sportscaster named Howard Cosell interviewed Carl Furillo, the right fielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Cosell began the interview by describing Furillo in glowing terms as the master of the right field at Ebbets Field, the Dodger home stadium. The right field at Ebbets, with the odd angles of the outfield wall, was notorious for its difficulty to play. With obvious reverence for the older and well-known Furillo, Cosell asked, “This is such a difficult fence to play Carl. No one else can even come close to playing it as well as you can, how did you ever learn to do it?”

By Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Ph.D.

In a world of continuous change and constant social innovation learning has taken on a new meaning. Where it was once sufficient to be competent at the same job over a lifetime we are now required to continually learn new skills, to adapt to people with widely different backgrounds, and to be flexible enough to change roles, job positions, and organizational directions. Learning over the course of our career has become a necessity, but even more critical is learning how to learn. To become competent in the ‘how’ of learning increases our productivity as well as enhancing our general well-being. Learning how to learn is one of the most powerful ways of dealing with the changes of today’s world. In this time of accelerated change learning to learn gives us a competitive advantage. To succeed in the future we must be learning individuals in learning organizations.