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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 500
EAN num: 9781576753446
Format: Illustrated
ISBN number: 1576753441
Label: Berrett-Koehler Publishing houses
Manufacturer: Berrett-Koehler Publishing houses
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 218
Printing Date: September 01, 2006
Publishing house: Berrett-Koehler Publishing houses
Sale Popularity Level: 4042
Studio: Berrett-Koehler Publishing houses
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Product Description:
Leadership and the New Science launched a revolution by demonstrating that ideas drawn from quantum physics, chaos theory, and molecular biology could improve organizational performance. Margaret Wheatley called for free-flowing information, individual empowerment, relationship networks, and organizational change that evolves organically -- ideas that have become commonplace. Now Wheatley's updated classic, based on her experiences with these ideas in a diverse number of organizations on five continents, is available in paperback.
Amazon.com:
When Margaret J. Wheatley's Leadership and the New Science was initially published in 1992, it outlined an unquestionably unique but extremely challenging view of change, leadership, and the structure of groups. Many readers immediately embraced its cutting-edge perspective, but others just could not understand how the complicated scientific tenets it described could be used to reshape institutions. Now Wheatley, an organizational specialist who has since coauthored A Simpler Way, updates the original by including additional material (such as an epilogue addressing her personal experiences during the past decade) and reconstructing some of her more challenging concepts. The result is a much clearer work that very first explores the implications of quantum physics on organizational practice, then investigates ways that biology and chemistry affect living systems, and finally focuses on chaos theory, the creation of a new order, and the manner that scientific principles affect leadership. 'Our old ways of relating to each other don't support us any longer,' she writes. 'It is up to us to journey forth in search of new practices and new ideas that will enable us to create lives and organizations worthy of human habitation.' --Howard Rothman
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Rated by buyers 
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1. Why aren't organizations working well? Organizations fail because they devalue the relationship networks that exist within their organization. This world of relationships is rich and complex. None of us exists independent of our relationships with others. Systems influence individuals, and individuals call forth systems. It is the relationship that evokes the present reality. Which potential becomes real depends on the people, the events, and the moment. There is a growing demand for spiritual experiences in peoples relationships and work environments.
2. Why is progress coming from unexpected places or synchronistic events? Space is everywhere, filled with fields that exert influence and bring matter into form. Sheldrake has postulated the existence of morphic fields that influence the behavior of the species. Morphic fields are built up through the skills that accumulate as members of the same species learn something new. Leaders are encouraged to consider the impact of non-material forces in organizations: culture, values, vision, ethics. Each of these concepts describes a quality of organizational life that can be observed in behavior. What influences employee behavior to practice things like excellent customer service? We might discover while we want outstanding customer service there are forces exerting reversing pressure. Perhaps, people are signaled that they must make certain quotas this quarter no matter what. We can see the influence of the field by looking at behavior.
3. Why do projects fail to achieve any significant results? More advocates are now speaking about strategic thinking rather than planning. They are focusing on acquiring new skills, instead of analyzing and predicting, says Jack Welch, "predicting is less important than reacting." Our environment and future remains uncreated until we engage with the present. We must interact with the world in order to see what we might create. Without a clear sense of who they are, and what they are trying to accomplish, organizations get tossed and turned by shifts in the environment.
4. There exists in the Universe an inherit orderliness
5. Present ways of organizing are outdated. There exists better ways causing change in complex systems.
6. We are all searching for a simpler way to organize
7. We must embrace our despair as a step to wisdom
8. No one person knows everything about a complex system. However, there exists individuals who know much about the system.
9. We expect to be predictable and are searching for better methods of objectively measuring and perceiving the world.
10. Curiosity not certainty is the saving grace within complex systems. An environment where employees are constantly learning.
11. Learn how to engage creativity that exists in the organization
12. How do complex systems change? Systems change when a critical business need emerges. Systems change as companies begin identifying core values and promoting core values from the top. Systems change as core ideologies are discovered and explained. Discovery and recruitment of talent helps the system to change by empower talent with the ability to implement change within the system and change the culture of the company. System change to allow organizational fit, creating more adaptive and flexible structures to service customers and employees. System change occurs through small improvements, increased housekeeping, and removal of waste. Core ideology and beliefs stimulate system change over time. Network relationships give power to the system and facilitate change. System change occurs as barriers are removed. As people understand the big picture, system change will occur. Positive feedback loops cause system change. System based on living system dynamics will change constantly. Systems change when they players listen to the customer. Organization crisis often stimulates system change. Preventing organizational components from becoming to large, reduces complexity, increase communication and coordination, and facilitates rapid system change. Incongruence between one or more organization building block causes incremental system change.
13. How can we create structures that are flexible and adaptive? Self organizing system have the great capacity to adapt as needed, to create structures that fit the moment. Process structures, reorganized into different forms in order to maintain their identity. The system may maintain itself in its present form or evolve to a new order, depending on what is required. Temporary teams are created to deal with specific and ever-changing needs and eliminate rigidity in the organization. If an organization is to acquire qualities of adaptability, it needs to open itself to information. "Information must actively be sought from everywhere, from places and sources people never thought ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
Margaret Wheatley's Leadership and the New Science book is a paradigm shifting book about the changing accountabilities of leaders in the 21st century.
Margaret provides a bridge between the old sciences that our current world view is based on, and the new sciences that we have yet to understand and integrate into our thinking. She points out implications such as the importance of relationships, chaos as an important part of evolution as we reorganize to a more evolved level as a result, and self-reference as an opportunity for growth and development for leaders.
I like that she provides clues as to the implications vs. solutions - she leaves us in an essential inquiry about how to foster environments that open to, and integrate, new paradigms for leadership and organizational development.
It's also a great book for stimulating conversation that connects science-oriented leaders with those who have a more qualitative or intuitive approach.
It's a must read for all!
Rated by buyers -
As CEO Coach, Poet and author of a leadership book that helps leaders learn how to unleash the genius of teams and corporations, I feel this book is a must read. If you want to know how the universe works so that you can live more effectivly in that universe, this is the book to read. She extends scientific understanding into life. Great book. Paul David Walker Unleashing Genius: Leading Yourself, Teams and Corporations
Rated by buyers -
I had a migraine for three days reading this in 1990. Since then I've struggled to find a way to apply this knowledge to improve organizations. Well, I finally found it. This is the the science of culture. Self-organization, strange attractors, emergence, nonlinear interactions of agents in a system, sensitivity to initial conditions, fractals . . . and so on, are much easier to apprehend with a view of organization as organisms, and even easier to see as the underlying science of the intangible dimension of organizations. We all owe a special debt to Meg Wheatley for her pioneering work in this area . . .
also read Superperformance
Rated by buyers -
As I read this book I gain flashes of insight from almost every page. I am an engineer and, while not expert in the scientific fields Wheatley discusses, I had read quite a bit about them. As I venture into unfamiliar organizational territory, I find that we have been instinctively using Wheatley's approaches. They seem especially suited to what we are endeavoring to do. Reading her book has clarified and affirmed what we are doing and allowed me to more deeply understand the processes.
Reading the reviews here, I see that some people 'get' what Ms. Wheatley is saying and some people don't. The ones who 'get it' are going to change the world.
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