Finding Merlin: Handbook for the Human Development Journey - Hardcover

My rating. Five stars. This book is a journey that many of us undergo and love to meander through. Using mythology and metaphors in a very unique and heart warming ways Kate Cowie captures attention and curiosity . The development of an individual through six streams of consciousness is a very easy path leading to deep reflection. I was amazed at the depth of understanding and wisdom. I loved the paradoxes one has to deal with in such a journey of growth, of control and surrender, discipline and unplanned opportunities, being willing to go with them, riding the waves . It's also very contemporary as it deals with complexity. I feel envious of Kate for writing such a masterpiece . People who are in the business of personal growth and behavioral sciences must read this book. --Sushma Sharma, CEO, Resonate Consulting

This is an important book. Kate Cowie has re-invigorated the (until now almost lost) humanistic thrust of mid 20th century organizational behavior thought leaders by integrating their ideas with contemporary emerging global awareness. She does this by re-introducing a well-researched, highly systematic, comprehensive and updated adult identity development perspective. She brings insights from both modern organizational theory and recent neuroscience to bear on the problem ( and the opportunity) of human social, spiritual and moral development in organizations. She makes a hard-to-argue-with case for expanding the old paradigm of human resource development and of organizational development to include a new level of world-centric thinking and being. Throughout the book she uses the evocative metaphor of the legendary magician-mentor Merlin, King Arthur's leadership coach. Each of us need help and guidance, if we are to pull the sword of wisdom out of the stone of our own being and claim our king-ship-- our full human maturity. This is a problem not just of individual learning but of individual and institutional becoming. Kate shows how, by becoming Merlin to their organizations, the leaders of the future can empower their teams and others to go beyond the confined logic that passes for strategic management but has, in fact, led us to the tragedy of the commons. She makes the business case for developing a broader, enlightened Self-interested way of thinking and being in our organizations. This mind-set is better suited to this brave new world of turbulent markets, diverse settings, and increased complexity, where thoughtful interconnectedness may hold the key to individual, group, organizational, and planetary survival. Those of us who think about organizations and leadership needed someone to take on this challenge, whether we were aware of it or not. Kate has done it and, hopefully, a whole new practice of organizational and leadership development may follow from this achievement. --David Kiel, Dr. P.H., Leadership Coordinator, Center for Faculty Excellence, University of North Carolina

We are all embarked on a journey of development a process of discovering who we are and who we could be. Today we spend most of our waking hours at work. The organisation has become the main arena for our personal growth. But how many of us know how to grasp the development opportunities available so that we may realise our full potential as human beings as well as professionals? Finding Merlin offers a timely and comprehensive road map for the journey, drawing on the wisdom of the sages and storytellers of the past, and the discoveries and models of modern researchers and theorists. Written by a member of the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioural Science with 25 years of corporate and consulting experience in human resource management, this illuminating and invaluable guide will help you to move forward on your quest for self-fulfilment in both work and life that illusive Grail we all seek.