Acknowledgments

 

First and foremost, I owe my professional career to the subject of this book, Kurt Lewin. The book itself should be ample testimony to my respect for and debt to this extraordinary man.

My knowledge of Lewin and his methods has come primarily from my father, organization development (OD) practitioner extraordinaire, Robert P. Crosby, and so he gets the second tip of my hat. Dad, by the way, is still sound of mind and engaged in life socially and professionally at 91 at the time of this writing. His latest book, Memoirs of a Change Agent: T groups, Organization Development, and Social Justice, just hit the presses in October 2019. You will get to know him better, especially towards the later end of this book.

From my father, with my mother’s help (thanks, Mom!), came my primary professional peer, a skilled OD professional and a scholar in his own right, my brother Chris Crosby. Chris has been a support through thick and thin, which is a rare blessing for an independent consultant to have. And like most brothers, we have had our fair share of conflicts, and are both the better for it. Thanks Chris!

Thanks also to my son Willow, for helping my colleagues and me understand Lewin’s formulas, and for helping me get over my fear of topography. I’m proud of his doctorate in physics!

Another deep tip of my hat goes to the plethora of other mentors and colleagues I have been blessed with, including my OD professors John Scherer, Ron Short, Brenda Kerr and Denny Minno, my early OD supervisor Rob Schachter, my step-mother and OD colleague Patricia Crosby, my subcontractors and peers Cotton Mears, Mark Horswood, and Pam Madison, just to name a few.

I appreciate the respect and support Michael Papanek, the grandson of Kurt Lewin, has given me in this project.

I would know nothing and be making my living some other way if not for my customers, especially Jerome Maxwell, Paul Hinnenkamp, who have pulled on me for decades, and David Ledesma, my current “full speed ahead” collaboration. I’ve had many other great partnerships along the way, and I am thankful for all of them. A big thank you to the thousands of people in organizations who have given me a chance and helped my interventions succeed.

This book, with its brushing of cultural anthropology, brought me back full circle to my favorite undergraduate professor, Stephanie Coontz. Stephanie took me under her wing when I was a nervous freshman and helped me learn to think systemically and across disciplines. Her objective approach to the social construction of gender roles helped me become more scientific in all of my thinking.

A gigantic tip of the hat to my OD colleague professor Rodney Coates and his co-authors Abby Ferber and David Brunsma for bringing much needed scientific objectivity to the emotionally charged topic of race.

Like my mom’s much appreciated contribution of bringing my brother and me into the world (as well as my other siblings, even though they did not follow the OD path), my son Parson (”Par") has taught me a lot as he has become a father and I in turn a grandfather. My grandson, now almost three, is in a photographic example in this text. Mom did a great job of raising us by the way, as my son is also doing. As a father I know that is easier said than done. My grandson gets a tip of the hat for doing a great job of developing!

Every day I give thanks to the Great Spirit from whence we all have come. As my maternal grandfather, Methodist Pastor Lewis Frees used to say every day, in good times and bad, “God is good.”

Last but not least, I would be lost without my wife Lisa, who puts up with my hours of writing and my frequent business trips with surprising patience. Like the song says, you, my love, are my motivation.

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