Linda Kohanov - The Power of the Herd: A Nonpredatory Approach to Social Intelligence, Leadership, and Innovation

Praise for The Power of the Herd

Complex and multi-layered...there are many rewards as Kohanov explains the interspecies culture, the connection between emotional intelligence and professional success and shares meaningful examples of individuals who have learned valuable life lessons from their horses.

Publishers Weekly

In her latest book, The Power of the Herd, Linda Kohanov not only invites us to recognize the immense intelligence in other animals to handle complex and challenging situations, she also focuses attention on another much-ignored reality: the power and wisdom of nonverbal collective consciousness. Business and political leaders, like all of us, can learn a great deal from her examples of nonverbal, thumb-less intelligence how cooperation with the network of life trumps manipulation for self-serving ends. Once again, Linda Kohanov shows us a much-needed alternative to business as usual in our relationships with each other and with other species.

Dr. Christian de Quincey, professor of philosophy and consciousness studies at John F. Kennedy University and award-winning author of Radical Nature and Radical Knowing

The Power of the Herd belongs at the top of your list of books to read this year. Sweeping in scope, Kohanovs latest work is a blend of scholarship and storytelling so finely crafted that youll want to pause occasionally just to marvel at the quality of the writing. Its a fascinating read, brought to life with examples drawn from historical figures and the evolution of human development as well as lessons learned from years of working with her beloved horses. This is a book to be savored.

Bob Wall, author of Coaching for Emotional Intelligence and Working Relationships

Linda Kohanov has created a unique synthesis of myth, symbology, psychology, neuroscience, and, most important of all, the insight she has gained from horses to give us a manual to guide ourselves and our leaders through the twenty-first century and beyond. In this book, a must for every leader, or everyone who wants to be one in his or her own life and in our world at large she takes horsemanship from a personal level to a global one.

Allan J. Hamilton, MD, FACS, author of Zen Mind, Zen Horse

In The Power of the Herd Linda Kohanov reveals the ways in which humans can learn from the behavior and social infrastructure of horses. Well written and well researched, this book is a valuable contribution to the literature on interspecies communication.

Dr. Andrew Weil, author of Spontaneous Happiness

For millennia we humans were mere prey. Were here only because some of our ancestors could mimic the animals who knew how to run the gauntlet of the great carnivores. Horses are one of those creatures still amongst us. Linda Kohanov is that rare twenty-first-century watcher with the wit to see the lessons horses can still teach us and the talent to harness them in this remarkable book. She lays out a powerful case that our evolution still rides on the shoulders of these giants.

Meg Daley Olmert, author of Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond

Also by Linda Kohanov

Riding between the Worlds: Expanding Our Potential through the Way of the Horse

The Tao of Equus: A Womans Journey of Healing and Transformation through the Way of the Horse

Way of the Horse: Equine Archetypes for Self-Discovery A Book of Exploration and 40 Cards

Copyright 2013 by Linda Kohanov

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

The material in this book is intended for education. It is not meant to take the place of diagnosis and treatment by a qualified medical practitioner or therapist. No expressed or implied guarantee of the effects of the use of the recommendations can be given or liability taken.

Text design by Tona Pearce Myers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kohanov, Linda.

The power of the herd: a nonpredatory approach to social intelligence, leadership, and innovation / Linda Kohanov.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-57731-676-3 (hardcover: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-57731-681-7 (ebook) 1. Social intelligence. 2. Leadership. 3. HorsesPsychological aspects. 4. Animals Therapeutic use. I. Title.

HM1261.K64 2013

First paperback printing, August 2015

ISBN 978-1-60868-371-0

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For

Steve Roach,

my husband, anchor, confidant,

and muse

CONTENTS

T hroughout history, knights in shining armor often rode spirited, well-trained horses like those featured on the cover of this book. If youre an experienced equestrian, you know that these luminous creatures arent white; theyre gray. And they were, in all likelihood, born black.

Pure white horses are extremely rare. Some experts argue that they dont even exist. All those movie heroes racing around on snow-colored stallions are riding older mounts whose youthful coal-colored coats lightened dramatically over time as their focus, self-control, and athletic prowess increased through years of careful training.

Dark horses slowly turning gray, then silver, then white are the perfect metaphor for developing power innovative, compassionate, and mentally, emotionally, and socially intelligent power. The more faithfully we work to bring our talents out of the shadows, shining a light on those notoriously elusive areas related to creativity, charisma, and mutually supportive relationships, the more quickly we are bound to excel.

If black horses represent unconscious, unbridled spirit, energy, intuition, and instinct, the process of developing this raw material, of making it fully conscious, is, truly, the path we must undertake today. We can no longer wait for great leaders to emerge accidentally, as radiant freaks of nature whose inspiring presence nonetheless remains mysterious, untranslatable, unteachable to others. The stakes are much too high.

In my fifty-plus years on this planet, so much has changed. Like millions of other baby boomers, Ive seen racial segregation and traditional, 1950s-style family structures erode and evolve under the influence of civil rights, womens liberation, the sexual revolution, the fall of the communist empire, financial deregulation, economic strife, and the creation of the Internet, among other social and technological upheavals.

Many of these forces combined in 2008, leading to the election of Barack Obama, our first mixed-race U.S. president, a development my conservative southern grandparents couldnt have imagined in their wildest dreams. Yet no matter who runs for this coveted office in the future, this presidential race marked a significant turning point in American history for other reasons as well.