AND....Volume One: Foundations: Making a Difference by Levereging Polarity, Paradox, or Dilemma - Barry Johnson

Johnson, Barry: - Barry was raised in Rice Lake, Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire in 1965. That same year he wrote an unpublished book called All from his awareness that all are saved, a very elementary glimpse into Richard Rohr's comprehensive Universal Christ. Barry enrolled at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and began a one-year Secular Internship Program in East Harlem where he lived for five years. While there, he witnessed some of the impact of his dominant, white culture on those marginalized by that dominant culture. It's dehumanizing for both cultures. There was and is plenty of injustice to protest and he found himself doing a lot of it. By 1970 Barry realized he wanted to understand how to develop organizations, communities, and nations that functioned well for all, rather than just protest when they became oppressive for many. Protest is important and Barry continues to do it. And, there is a need for prevention and development. Barry decided to start with his own development and work up to larger systems. In 1975, while in the final weeks of a two-year program with the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, he had a breakthrough session with a client. In an effort to get unstuck when encountering resistance, they walked around two chairs and discovered a predictable flow to the energy in the system. The first polarity map emerged. This powerful session impacted both the client and Barry. It was clear to Barry that the polarity map and principles were applicable to any system regardless of size. Since then he has been learning with people all over the world from a variety of disciplines, how to apply the Polarity Map(R) and principles to their situations. In 1992 Barry wrote his first book on polarities, Polarity Management, Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems. In 1994 he founded Polarity Management Associates. In 1995 he began developing the current online Polarity Assessment(TM) tool. The first Two-year Mastery Program in Polarity Thinking began in 2005. In 2009 he coauthored a second book with Roy Oswald, Managing Polarities in Congregations. In 2011 Barry joined Leslie DePol and Robert 'Jake' Jacobs to found Polarity Partnerships, LLC. The culmination of his work is a community of polarity practitioners authoring several polarity-related books. The two volumes of And represent what Barry and his colleagues have learned about And-thinking since his first book in 1992. In 2015 Barry received