Leadership Dynamics

Last updated
Leadership Dynamics
Company type For-profit, private
Genre Self-improvement
Founded1967
Founder William Penn Patrick
Defunct1973
Headquarters California, United States
Area served
National
Key people
 Alexander Everett
Services personal development
Owner William Penn Patrick
Subsidiaries Mind Dynamics, Holiday Magic

Leadership Dynamics, also known as Leadership Dynamics Institute (LDI), was a private, for-profit company, owned by William Penn Patrick. The company focused on executive training, personal development and self-improvement. Leadership Dynamics was the first form of what psychologists termed "Large Group Awareness Training". [1]

Contents

History

William Penn Patrick wrote a booklet entitled Happiness and Success through Principle, in 1967, and founded Leadership Dynamics based on those principles. Every employee in the management of Holiday Magic were then expected to take part in the Leadership Dynamics coursework, [2] which was described as having "overtones of strict military training techniques."

William Penn Patrick was the financial backer of the company, and also provided the financial backing for Holiday Magic and Alexander Everett's Mind Dynamics. [3] Patrick stated that students of the Leadership Dynamics Institute would be able to lead "a more creative and constructive life." [3] Patrick utilized the principles of Everett's Mind Dynamics in his company. [3]

Ben Gay, a high-level instructor at Leadership Dynamics, was President of Holiday Magic in the United States. [2] Though he claimed Leadership Dynamics was a separate company, "..in no way related to Holiday Magic, Inc.", author Gene Church pointed out many inconsistencies in this statement. [2] [4] According to a lawsuit brought against Holiday Magic by the Securities and Exchange Commission, in order to advance to the positions of Instructor General, Trainer General, and Senior General within the company, employees were mandated to take part in the Leadership Dynamics training. [5]

In 1970, William Penn Patrick bought Mind Dynamics, and the Leadership Dynamics coursework soon became popular in the United States, Europe, and Australia. [6] However, Patrick's businesses became involved in pyramid schemes, and Leadership Dynamics, Holiday Magic, and Mind Dynamics shut down in 1973. [6]

Techniques

Michael Langone wrote in Business and Society Review that Leadership Dynamics was one of the first "transformational trainings". [7] The extreme form of human potential movement training [7] led to a series of lawsuits for the company. This extreme training involved subjecting course participants to abusive practices such as beating, food and sleep deprivation, being placed inside of coffins, and degrading sexual acts. [7]

Lawsuits against the company by former participants in the coursework alleged that students were sexually abused and tortured, including being placed in coffins or on crosses. [8] The non-fiction book, The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled described some of these practices in great detail, [2] and this was later made into a film, Circle of Power . [9]

Influence

Langone noted that many forms of transformational trainings were at the least, indirectly influenced by Leadership Dynamics. [7]

While working for Holiday Magic, Lifespring founder John Hanley attended a course at Leadership Dynamics. [10] Chris Mathe, at the time a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology, wrote that most of today's current forms of Large-Group Awareness Training were modeled after the Leadership Dynamics Institute. [11] Mathe cited Lifespring, Insight Seminars, PSI Seminars, New Warriors, and Impact as groups that were influenced by Leadership Dynamics. [11]

Related Research Articles

The term large-group awareness training (LGAT) refers to activities - usually offered by groups with links to the human potential movement - which claim to increase self-awareness and to bring about desirable transformations in individuals' personal lives. LGATs are unconventional; they often take place over several days, and may compromise participants' mental wellbeing.

Lifespring was an American for-profit human potential organization founded in 1974 by John Hanley Sr., Robert White, Randy Revell, and Charlene Afremow. The organization encountered significant controversy in the 1970s and '80s, with various academic articles characterizing Lifespring's training methods as "deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control", and allegations that Lifespring was a cult that used coercive methods to prevent members from leaving. These allegations were highlighted in a 1987 article in The Washington Post as well as local television reporting in communities where Lifespring had a significant presence.

Mind Dynamics was a seminar company, founded by Alexander Everett in Texas in 1968. The company ceased operating in December 1973 after the death of co-owner William Penn Patrick and the resignation of President Robert White, alongside investigations for fraudulent representations and practicing medicine without a license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MIT Sloan School of Management</span> Business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, as well as executive education. Its degree programs are among the most selective in the world. MIT Sloan emphasizes innovation in practice and research. Many influential ideas in management and finance originated at the school, including the Black–Scholes model, the Solow–Swan model, the random walk hypothesis, the binomial options pricing model, and the field of system dynamics. The faculty has included numerous Nobel laureates in economics and John Bates Clark Medal winners.

A Bachelor of Applied Science is an undergraduate academic degree of applied sciences.

Holiday Magic was a multi-level marketing organization, founded in 1964, by William Penn Patrick (1930–1973) in the United States. Originally the organization distributed goods such as home-care products and cosmetics. Company distributors were encouraged to recruit other distributors in a multilevel marketing structure, which was later characterized as a pyramid scheme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York University Grossman School of Medicine</span> Medical school of New York University

NYU Grossman School of Medicine is a medical school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1841 and is one of two medical schools of the university, with the other being the Long Island School of Medicine. NYU Grossman School of Medicine is part of NYU Langone Health, named after Kenneth Langone, the investment banker and financial backer of The Home Depot.

The Pit may refer to:

<i>The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled</i> Narrative nonfiction book by Gene Church, and Conrad D. Carnes

The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled is a work of narrative nonfiction concerning book on Mind Dynamics, written by Gene Church and Conrad D. Carnes. The book was published Outerbridge & Lazard, Inc., in 1972, and was republished in a paperback edition in 1973, by Pocket Books. The book was later the basis for the 1983 film, Circle of Power. The title refers to the encounter group movement that was prevalent at the time, which evolved into what psychologists began to term Large Group Awareness Training.

<i>Circle of Power</i> 1983 film by Bobby Roth

Circle of Power, also known as Mystique, Brainwash and The Naked Weekend, is a 1981 drama thriller film, co-produced by Gary Mehlman, Anthony Quinn and Jeffrey White, and based on the nonfiction book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled. It stars Yvette Mimieux in one of her final film performances.

The Doctor of Management is an applied research doctorate with a degree focus in management, leadership, and organizational topics."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Penn Patrick</span>

William Penn Patrick was an American entrepreneur, businessman, and fraudster. He was the owner of Holiday Magic, Leadership Dynamics, and Mind Dynamics. Patrick was a proponent of the sour grapes philosophy, and has been widely quoted as stating: "Those who condemn wealth are those who have none and see no chance of getting it."

Alexander Everett (1921–2005) was a British self-improvement and personal development consultant. He was the founder of the company Mind Dynamics, and author of the motivational books The Genius Within You and Inward Bound. Everett's coursework and teachings had an influence on the human potential movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NYU Langone Health</span> Hospital in New York, United States

NYU Langone Health is an academic medical center located in New York City, New York, United States. The organization consists of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, both part of New York University (NYU), and more than 300 locations throughout the New York metropolitan area, including six inpatient facilities: Tisch Hospital; Kimmel Pavilion; NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital; Hassenfeld Children's Hospital; NYU Langone Hospital – Brooklyn; and NYU Langone Hospital – Long Island. It is also home to Rusk Rehabilitation. NYU Langone Health is one of the largest healthcare systems in the Northeast, with more than 46,000 employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penn State Army ROTC</span> Military unit

The Penn State Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps is the ROTC department at The Pennsylvania State University. It is the largest branch of the ROTC program at the school, which also has Naval ROTC and Air Force ROTC. The Nittany Lion Battalion (NLB) is one of the 41 participating battalions in the 2nd Reserve Officers' Training Corps Brigade, also known as the Freedom Brigade. The brigade is headquartered at Fort Dix, NJ, and comprises ROTC programs in the North Eastern United States including CT, MA, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, and VT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gifford Pinchot III</span>

Gifford Pinchot III is an American entrepreneur, author, inventor, and president of Pinchot & Company. He is credited with inventing the concept of intrapreneurship in a paper that he and his wife, Elizabeth Pinchot, wrote in 1978 titled "Intra-Corporate Entrepreneurship" while attending Tarrytown School for Entrepreneurs in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CIMBA</span> Study abroad program in Italy

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Robert I. Grossman is an American physician-researcher. He is chief executive officer of NYU Langone Health and dean of NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

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References

  1. ↑ Kilzer, Lou (July 18, 1999). "Desperate Measures Network of Behavior Modification Compounds Known as Teen Help Has Straightened Out Hundreds of Defiant Adolescents, But Its Methods Aren't For the Faint-hearted". Rocky Mountain News . E. W. Scripps Company.
    "The first of the genre psychologists call "large group awareness training" was the Leadership Dynamics Institute..."
  2. 1 2 3 4 Church, Gene; Conrad D. Carnes (1972). The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled . Outerbridge & Lazard. ISBN   978-0-87690-087-1. ISBN   0-87690-087-2.
  3. 1 2 3 Lande, Nathaniel (1976). Mindstyles, Lifestyles: A Comprehensive Overview of Today's Life-changing Philosophies . Price/Stern/Sloan. pp.  138, 143, 144. ISBN   978-0-8431-0409-7.
  4. ↑ Church, Gene., The Pit, Pp. 2, 8.
    "Ben Gay stated that leadership Dynamics Institute was a separate company, in no way related to Holiday Magic, Inc. (It must have been a coincidence that Ben Gay was at that time President of Holiday Magic in the United States. A coincidence that the founder of Holiday Magic, William Penn Patrick was co-owner of LDI. Coincidence that instructor Jerry Booz was National Vice-President for Holiday Magic Ltd. in Canada, that instrutctor Sharoll Shumate was Regional Vice-President for Holiday Magic in the United States Northeast, and that instructor Vance Powell was Regional Vice-President for Holiday Magic in the United States Southwest.)"
  5. ↑ 84 F.T.C. 748, IN THE MATTER OF HOLIDAY MAGIC, INC., ET AL. ORDER, ETC., IN REGARD TO ALLEGED VIOLATION OF SEC. 5 OF THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACT AND SEC. 2(a) OF THE CLAYTON ACT, Docket 8834., Complaint, Jan. 18, 1971, Decision, Oct. 15, 1974, 248. Leadership Dynamics Institute.
  6. 1 2 Navarro, Espy M.; Robert Navarro (2002). Self Realization: The Est and Forum Phenomena in American Society. Xlibris Corporation. pp. 55, 58. ISBN   1-4010-4220-1.[ self-published source? ]
  7. 1 2 3 4 Langone, Michael (1989). "Beware of 'New Age' Solutions to Age Old Problems". Business and Society Review. 69: 39–42.
  8. ↑ The Role of Small Business in Franchising, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Minority Small Business.", United States Congress. United States House of Representatives. House Permanent Select Committee on Small Business., 1973, P. 127, 137, 157, 203.
  9. ↑ Bobby Roth (1983). Circle of Power (Film). United States: Media Home Entertainment.
  10. ↑ Fisher, Marc (October 25, 1987). "I Cried Enough to Fill a Glass: In One Lifespring Session, Trainees May Find Themselves Crawling on Their Hands and Knees, Wailing Like Infants and Tightly Hugging 200 Total Strangers - All to Get Control of Their Lives. Does it Work? Sometimes". The Washington Post . 1987 The Washington Post.
  11. 1 2 Mathe, Ph.D., Chris., Choosing a Personal Growth Program: Ten questions to help you make an informed decision, Chris Mathe 1999. Alternate site

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