The Potentiality

John Horn's Website for Community Builders

leadership

Three Ways to Bring Historical Analysis to Your Community

A thorough analysis of the past might just be the best thing for your community’s future. Because great community-builders think like historians. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by John T. Seaman, Jr. and George David Smith (both historians) entitled “Your Company’s History as a Leadership Tool” argues that “[g]reat leaders…[d]on’t ignore history until the time comes to plan their organization’s next anniversary. And though they may not view themselves as historians, they find it useful to think and talk about the past – in the present and in living color.”

Eight Ways to Practice Pragmatic Consensus-Based Decision Making

Whether you’re discussing the foundations of governance or how to take our an enemy sniper in Call of Duty, you’re probably talking about consensus-based decision making, which informs everything from family trips to important business decisions. Consensus-based decision making has been widely used, in everything from early democracy to organizational theory. But what exactly is consensus-based decision making, and how best can it be practiced?

Sport and Community Leadership

The Vancouver Whitecaps FC is leading positive change in Vancouver. We predict the club’s ideas, commitments and positive role modeling will soon send ripples throughout the worlds of sport, wellness and community. We look forward to measuring the myriad ways that Vancouver’s newest professional sporting club reaches its potentiality – on the pitch as well as in the community. As part of their club vision, the Whitecaps are committed to being a significant community asset. For the past year, the club has been championing the Vancouver Street Soccer League through a unique partnership with the DTES community sport association.

How to Lead Like a Pioneer

A few weeks ago, I took a road trip through Oregon and got a firsthand look at how the philosophy of the state’s early pioneers continues to influence that culture of leadership in Oregon to this day. During my trip, I traveled down the coast (pirates!), inland through a State Forest (Tillamook!), and then wrapped up our brief trip with some urban adventures in Portland (craft everything!). Through conversations, news, museums, universities, and various other sound bites, I learned about the pioneer culture of Oregon and how such a philosophy still informs and inspires the community to this day.