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This Land of Strangers

"..the most important book of the decade." — Richard Boyatzis, co-author of best seller Primal Leadership

Relationships, in all their varied forms, have been the lifetime study of Robert Hall. He brings a rare combination of experience as a researcher, consultant, writer, teacher and CEO in dealing with the real-world relationship challenges of modern organizations. When coupled with a decade of hands-on experience in the gritty world of inner-city homeless families it translates into a tapestry of vivid stories, well-researched and oft startling facts, and strategic insights that weave together the yet untold narrative of society's gravest risk and most stellar opportunity.

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Blog & Articles

Robert has published more than 150 columns, articles, white papers, and research studies on relationship. In addition to being a regular contributor at Huffington Post, his work has been published and discussed in Forbes, American Banker, Sales & Marketing Management magazine, The CEO Magazine, ABA Bank Marketing magazine, Computerworld, The Daily Beast, Business Week, The Dallas Morning News, Los Angeles Times, The Detroit News, The Indianapolis Star and in international publications including Sydney Morning News (Australia), European Financial Management Association (London) and Relational Thinking Network (Cambridge, UK).

Sandy Hook, One Month Later: Building Relationships and Winning the Peace, by Robert Hall, Huffington Post

Feb 6

One month later, the tragedy at Sandy Hook has caused us to reflect on what kind of society we have become. Increasingly it feels like we have become a land of strangers and estrangement that has lost our relational glue. The metrics of our growing relationship fight and flight are excruciating: over the past few decades divorce is up 50 percent, marriage is down 50 percent, single-parent children born to those under 30 are the new normal hovering at 50 percent in 2012, […]

Article

Writer in Residence, by Monica S. Nagy, quotes Robert Hall, Advocate Magazine

Feb 5

Click here to read the article “Writer in residence: Robert E. Hall” by Monica S. Nagy, on Robert E. Hall’s new book This Land of Strangers. Article originally appeared in Advocate Magazine, Far North Dallas edition, February 2013.

Through his work volunteering with the inner-city homeless, former businessman Robert E. Hall had an epiphany. “I found that most of the families I coached and mentored, most often the straw that broke the camel’s back and resulted in their homelessness was the severing of a […]

Article

2012 – Flight from Relationship, by Robert Hall, Huffington Post

Jan 22

The untold story of 2012 is how “not” became the new relationship normal — not married, not a parent, not a close friend, not a loyal customer, not a committed employee, not a Democrat nor Republican and not affiliated with organized religion. This flight from relationship flies in the face of a society that says individual relationships matter most, and where many organizations attempt to brand themselves as “relationship” focused. We speak in the poetry of relationships — home, family, […]

Article

How to Avoid a Thanksgiving Food Fight, by Michelle Cottle, quotes Robert Hall, The Daily Beast

Dec 15

Click here to read the article “How to Avoid a Thanksgiving Food Fight” by Michelle Cottle, writer for The Daily Beast, on Robert E. Hall’s new book This Land of Strangers.

Excerpt:

In terms of our substantive beliefs, the nation has not become radically more divided, clarifies relationship specialist Robert E. Hall, author of the book This Land of Strangers. The big shift, he says, is that “we have exaggerated our differences and joined tribes that celebrate and exaggerate those differences and […]

Article

The 2012 Election, by Robert Hall, Huffington Post

Dec 12

“By mid October, the Obama team had personally… spoken with each voter 5 times. Not ‘sent a letter’ but actually spoken, face-to-face, or via phone, on average 5 times!” Tomi T. Ahonen, Communities-Dominate.Blogs.com, describing personal contacts of targeted voters.

Politics aside, one of the defining stories of the 2012 presidential election was how sales and marketing relationship-building efforts delivered unexpected, targeted voter turnout. Even the Romney campaign was in awe of the Obama “ground game.” While much has been made about Obama’s sophisticated […]

Article

Proud Nation Disconnecting, by Mike Masterson, quotes Robert Hall, Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Dec 7

Click here to read the article “Proud Nation Disconnecting” by Mike Masterson via the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, on Robert E. Hall’s latest book This Land of Strangers.

Excerpt:

Hall penned the book This Land of Strangers: The Relationship Crisis that Imperils Home, Work, Politics and Faith, in which he documents how we have steadily become a nation adrift whose citizens aren’t anchored in much that endures. From our relationships to our jobs, families, politics and even our organized faiths, words nowadays […]

Article

Surviving Thanksgiving and the Relational Cliff, by Robert Hall, Huffington Post

Dec 7

Collectively this relational decline is the most destructive trend we face. We are becoming a society of strangers and estrangement. Who would have guessed that sports — inherently competitive and partisan — would be one of the safest topics at the Thanksgiving table this year? How did we get here?

A series of wonderful societal advancements have produced unintended consequences: devalued relationships.

…General Peter Pace, addressing sectarian violence at the height of the Iraq war, said, “If the Iraqi people as a […]

Article

A Human Deficit, Russ Pulliam, IndyStar.com (Review: This Land of Strangers)

Dec 7

Click here to read the article “A Human Deficit” by Russ Pulliam, Associate Editor of The Indianapolis Star, on Robert E. Hall’s latest book, This Land of Strangers.

“Think of it as an updated version of Robert Putnam’s book, ‘Bowling Alone,’ one with plenty of data.”

Article

Growing Larger or Growing Smaller

Nov 9

Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape.

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Dr. Paul Uhlig, a nationally known thoracic surgeon recently asked several of us: What do you think is the most frequent question I and my team get from cardiac patients? After some lively speculation and discussion, he gave us his answer: “Don’t you guys ever talk?” Dr. Uhlig has worked intently the last few years on improving the experience and medical outcomes of cardiac patients. One […]

Article

Soft Skills, Dog Love and Front Porches

Oct 3

“Nearly 20% of employers cited a lack of soft skills as a key reason they couldn’t hire needed employees. Interpersonal skills and enthusiasm/motivation were commonly found lacking” – USA Today quoting Manpower Group’s 2012 Talent Shortage Survey

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It is tragic that in this era of painfully high unemployment, employers are struggling to find the basic skills needed to answer phones effectively and converse with customers. The need for stronger math and science skills in today’s highly sophisticated world is much […]

Article