Howard Ditkoff and Emergent Associates, LLC, the company he co-founded with Mark S. Meritt, were featured in the Detroit News today. Reprinted here is a copy of one of Howard’s announcements of the article.

Friends,

As many of you know, about a year and a half ago, I started a company called Emergent Associates, LLC along with a partner, Mark Meritt. The company was very much directly inspired by Daniel Quinn’s work. The idea of the company was to apply knowledge and tools we have found useful from various fields (all of which we saw as relating to and helping to make practical some of Quinn’s ideas) to help people improve and fulfill more of their potential in their lives and organizations, something I’ve always been passionate about. We came to feel that this was our best opportunity to both improve our own lives, while also doing our part to improve the world. Using these tools, we found we were able to impact people in areas ranging from career, relationship or business issues, to helping develop projects or ideas people had, to just helping someone find their direction or work through any particularly challenging issue. Mark has since gone on to spin off his own company, Potluck Creative Arts ( http://www.potluck.com/arts/ ), as well.

About a month ago, I saw an article in the Detroit News about a person who had left his job to start his own company. He talked a lot about how, in his new company, he had the freedom to focus on doing what he found worked well, rather than on the more superficial things that he found less important, but that some other companies spent so much time worrying about. I really related to that story and so I emailed the writer, Brian O’Connor, about my own career change. Last week he got back to me and brought me in to take a photo and then did an interview. The resulting article, which I’m really excited about – along with a photo of me with several relevant books that include Ishmael and Beyond Civilization – is in today’s Detroit News at:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061106/BIZ01/102120001/1010

Over the last year and a half, many of you have asked me to explain more about what Emergent Associates does. As the company and its marketing is still developing, I’m still improving my ability to give people a clear picture of what I do (since it’s much easier to demonstrate than to explain). Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll have a little bit better understanding of that. As mentioned in the article, I’m still really developing the marketing of the company – including a far better, professionally-created website that I hope you’ll come check out when it’s done (the current site is really just a placeholder). All of this should help clarify what Emergent Associates is all about, and in great part what I’m all about, as time goes on.

Like most articles I’ve been mentioned in, there are a couple small errors. Technically, I am not a psychiatrist, but rather I left medicine after finishing medical school but before starting a residency in psychiatry. Also, I am currently looking for a new place, so I may not be in Oak Park any longer (and by the way, the best way to reach me is still at my old phone # by leaving a voice mail). But other than that, I think the article does a nice job of capturing the mindset of the company. It also is an example of something I think is very important which is that the best way we can promote Quinn’s ideas in the world is through embodying them and then promoting the things we do as a result of being changed by his work. I was never able to get much publicity for Quinn’s work directly, yet here I managed to get a couple of his books in the paper by publicizing not his work, but the things that I’ve done after being inspired by his work. So I hope some of you find it interesting and feel free to talk to me if you have any questions about what I do, and to forward it on to anyone else who might find it of interest.

Thanks to all of you who have been offering support as I’ve been making these changes in my life and working to achieve my goals, and help others achieve theirs, through this company.

Best,
Howard
Emergent Associates, LLC
http://www.emergentassociates.com