RapidStart Leadership

AUGUST 1, 2017

Back in the 1950s, Social Scientist Muzafer Sherif was trying to understand what drives groups apart and what brings them together. Sherif had the teams of boys live in separate, isolated cabins. Sherif and his team had seen what they thought they would. If it is starting to feel like you are trapped at Robber’s Cave and the Eagles just stole your flag, it might be time to step back as ask yourself, “What would Sherif do to bring us back together?”

Sherif 183

Sherif Cooper Sports Travel 183

Ron Edmondson

APRIL 15, 2020

I have also communicated with our local sherif who has taken a very forward role in encouraging social distancing downtown – and we are a downtown church. There is so much information today about COVID-19 and how the church needs to respond to it – especially going forward. I’ve been invited to more webinars than I can count. I receive new suggestions everyday. Recently, I asked some of our staff to listen to some of them and take notes to share.

Sherif 57

Sherif Webinar Crisis Cooper 57

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 26, 2015

Psychologists Muzafer Sherif and Carl Hovland identified a powerful dynamic about attitude change, and gave it a clunky name: the latitude of acceptance. Wherever your own attitude along the continuum, Sherif and Hovland argued, you are willing to entertain some other views, but only within a narrow range around your own attitude—this range is the latitude of acceptance, or “OK zone.”

Hovland 13

Hovland Sherif Audience Resistance 13