Customer Reviews

Leadership and the New Science

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Edit of 20 Dec 07 to add links.

This book is beyond five stars, and not just for business, where it is receiving all the praise it is due, but within government, where it has not yet been noticed. It was recommended to me by the author of Building a Knowledge-Driven Organization and I now recommend it to everyone I know. If there are two books that can "change the world," these are the ones.

Although the Chinese understood all this stuff centuries ago (Yin/Yang, space between the dots, the human web), the author is correct when she notes late in the book that the commoditization of the human worker (Cf. Lionel Tiger, Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution, and the Industrial System) and the emphasis on scientific objectivity and scientific manager (Cf. Jean Ralston Saul, Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West) were perhaps the greatest error we might have made in terms of long-run progress. Coincidentally, as I finished the book, on the Discovery channel in the background they were discussing how the leveeing of the Mississippi blocked the Louisiana watershed from cleansing the Mississippi naturally, as it once used to.

It's all about systems--the author does cite Donella Meadows' 1982 article in Stewart Brand's Co-Evolution Quarterly, but does not pay much heed to the large body of literature that thrived in the 1970's around the Club of Rome.

There are perhaps three bottom lines in this book that I would recommend to any government leader who hopes to stabilize and reconstruct our world:

1) Information is what defines who we are, what we can become, what we can perceive, what we are capable of achieving. Blocking or controlling information flows stunts our growth and virtually assures defeat if not death. It is the optimization of listening--being open to *all* information (and especially all the information the secret world now ignores)--that optimizes our ability to adjust, evolve, and grow.

2) Command & control is history, block and wire diagrams are history. General Al Gray had it right in the 1990's when he talked about "commander's intent" as the baseline. Leaders today need to be disruptive, to look for dissonant views and news, and to empower all individuals at all levels with both information, and the authority to act on that information.

3) Disorder is an *opportunity*. We have the power to define ourselves, our "opponents," and our circumstances in ways that can either inspire protective, constricted, secretive, "armed" responses, or inclusive, open, sharing "pro-active" peaceful responses.

The author is to be praised for noting early on in the book that "Ethical and moral questions are no longer fuzzy religious concepts but key elements in the relationship any organization has with colleagues, stakeholders, and communities." I would extend that to note that social ethics and foreign policy ethics are the foundation for sustainable life on the planet, and we appear to be a long way from understanding that it is ethics, not guns, that will stabilize and fertilize...Cf Jonathan Schell, The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People.

It also merits comment that the author essentially kills the industry of forecasting, scenarios, modeling, and futures simulations. I agree with her view (and that of others) that early warning is achieved, not through the theft of secret plans and intentions or the forecasting of behavior, but rather by casting a very wide net, listening carefully to all that is openly available, sharing it very widely (as the LINUX guys say, put enough eyeballs on it, and no bug will be invisible), and then being open to changed relationships. Trying to maintain the status quo will simply not do.

I give the author credit for carrying out an extraordinary survey of the literature on quantum mechanics, and for developing a PhD-level explanation of why old organization theory, based on the linear concepts of Newtonian physics, is bad for us, and how the new emergent organization theory, understood by too few, is let about the things and more about the relationships between and among the things.

This is an elegant essay and a heroic personal work of discovery, interpretation, and integration. While I would have liked to see more credit given to Kuhn, Drucker, Garfield, Brand, Rheingold, and numerous others that I have reviewed here for Amazon, on balance, given the academic narrowness of her Harvard PhD, I think the author has performed at the Olympic level. This is a radical book, somewhat reminiscent of Charles Hampden-Turner's book, Radical Man: The Process of Psycho-Social Development. which as I recall was not accepted by Harvard as a thesis at the time. Perhaps Harvard is evolving (smile).

For other key books that complement and precede this book, see my lists on information society, collective intelligence, business intelligence, and intelligence qua spies and secrecy in an open world.

A handful of other amazing books (am limited to ten total):
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration

In this brilliant book, Margaret J. Weathley brings parallels between the theory of leadership and the quantum physics. Being an organizational consultant, not the physical by herself, she
encourages "to stop seeking after the universe of the seventeenth century and begin to explore what has become known to us during the twentieth century".

She exposes the bright conclusions from her experience of working as a consultant, and these conclusions are confirmed by quantum physics as well:

- The things we fear most in organizations - disruptions, confusion, chaos - need not be interpreted as signs that we are about to be destroyed. Instead, these conditions are necessary to awaken creativity.

- What is critical is the relationship created between two or more elements. Systems influence individuals, and individuals call form systems.

- There is no objective reality; the environment we experience does not exist "out there". It is co-created through our acts of observation, what we choose to notice and worry about.

- Acting should precede planning.

- Instead of the ability to analyze and predict, we need to know how to stay acutely aware of what's happening now, and we need to be better, faster learners from what just happened.

- We need fewer descriptions of tasks and instead learn how to facilitate process.

- Power becomes a problem, not a capacity. People use their creativity to work against these leaders, or in spite of them; they refuse to contribute positively to the organization.

- Those who have used music metaphors to describe working together, especially jazz metaphors, are sensing to the nature of this quantum world. This world demands that we be present together, and be willing to improvise.

- If a manager is told that a new trainee is particularly gifted, that manager will see genius emerging from the trainee's mouth even in obscure statements. But if the manager is told that his or her new hire is a bit slow on the uptake, the manager will interpret a brilliant idea as a sure sign of sloppy thinking of obfuscation.

- In quantum world, what you see is what you get.

- Every time we go to measure something, we interfere.

- A place where the act of looking for certain information evokes the information we went looking for - and simultaneously eliminates our opportunity to observe other information.

- Every observation is preceded by a choice about what to observer.

- We all construct the world though lenses of our own making and use these to filter and select.

- It simply doesn't work to ask people to sign on when they haven't been involved in the planning process.

- Roles mean nothing without understanding the network of relationships and the resources that are required to support the work of that person. In this relational world, it is foolish to think we can define any person solely in terms of isolated tasks and accountabilities.

- What is distinguishable and important, he says, are the kinds of connections.

- Our old views constrain us. They deprive us from engaging fully with this universe of potentials.

Based on the parallels above mentioned, Margaret J. Weathley brings lot of compelling ideas about the leadership and organizational management. This book isn't a collection of dos and don'ts, but invigorates deep creative thinking.

On its face, this book seems to be on to something. The social sciences have long adapted ideas from the natural sciences, so why not look to current natural science and see what it could teach us? Unfortunately, she misquotes many parts of the scientific theories she examines and takes them in directions that they do not warrant. This is not good science.

First and foremost, Wheatley completely ignores the fact that the seventeenth century science she disparages was not wrong. It was incomplete, yes. But most of the modern theories she explores cover natural phenomenon beyond the margins of our everyday world. Newtonian mechanics continues to be a very accurate, widely used method. It is only at the margins - very small objects (quantum mechanics), very large objects (relativity), and very fast objects (special relativity) - that many of the new theories take over. It might be more appropriate, then, to try to discover how ideas from the new sciences could extend our ideas about leadership and organizations rather than replace them.

The first modern theory she discusses is quantum physics. She paints a metaphysical world where we all get to create our own realities, where nothing is real outside of our relationships, and where the idea of objective reality is a myth. This is not what quantum physics says. It does not say that there isn't an objective world out there. It says that it behaves in a probabilistic way. We don't get to create our own realities. Instead, at the quantum level there is no such thing as passive observation; our observation influences a reality that is already there.

Her treatment of thermodynamics is similarly skewed, and her understanding of open versus closed systems is in places flat wrong. Similar criticisms for her treatments of the other modern theories.

The conclusions she comes to have value, but they can be found in other books with MUCH more clarity and much better support (see Senge's "The Fifth Discipline" for example). Wheatley offers what one New York Times op-ed writer termed "quantum mysticism" instead of what could have been a very interesting and thoughtful treatment. I cannot recommend this book.

In this book, the author describes current theories in science and applies them to human organizational management. She develops a number of concepts that I think are applicable to organizational management, such as flexibility, greater communication within an organization, the importance of information, and valuing the intelligence of individual workers.

However, the reasons for applying these principles developed from science to organizations are not well established in this book, in my opinion. The applications may be valid, but a strong case for them is not made here. For example, one claim made to justify one conclusion is that "organizations are open systems and are responsive to the same self-organizing dynamics as all other life." (p. 97). This is a bold claim, to link life sciences to management, that is not well substantiated in the book.

The author seems to revel in the ancient (and ongoing) philosophical tension between the parts and the whole, calling us to look at the whole of a system, though rejecting objective reality (an ultimate whole), and with a bit of Gnostic thinking as well: "Matter doesn't matter" (p. 153),

Also, this is not an informative work, rather its intention appears to be persuasive. The author does reference many works in the scientific literature, but it is not intended to be a review or strict proof (I hope) of her position. Some aspects of science that seem to me to contradict some of her conclusions are not discussed, such as the order imposed top-down in the theory of relativity (according to my limited understanding of it), and the fact that some changes must be wholly destructive and cannot have positive effects (e.g., certain genetic mutations).

Again, some good points are made, but their basis is not well established here. As an industrial engineer, I do not think we should throw away all the current practices, and hopefully that attitude is not simply self-serving. I cannot recommend this particular book, but hope there is a more substantial treatment of these concepts elsewhere.

This may not be the book for everybody. It (like Meg's other) evokes the poetry of science (not the oxymoron one might think) that provokes rather than prescribes.

This is not for those pining for the next Martha (Stewart) of linear wisdom. It is for those bold enough to apply new frames to the emerging business landscape.

I have required and will continue to require this read to MBA students who want to succeed in a world that at best makes no sense, but must be navigated for its quantum possibilities nevertheless.

Executive Summary for the Leadership and the New Science Presentation Margaret Wheatley opens up a whole new world of thought in her book Leadership and the New Science. She brings about a revolutionary way of thinking about organizations by relating scientific discoveries to organizational behavior. She abandons 17th century Newtonian mindsets to embrace a more holistic and organic view of the world. This book can help give you the tools to successfully navigate the rough waters of rapid change in organizations; you find yourself welcoming change rather than fearing it. A must read for anyone that aspires to succeed and values personal growth.

She touches scientific breakthroughs in the areas of quantum physics, chemistry, and biology. Other topics that are covered include chaos theory and change. She uses discoveries in quantum physics to explain that the universe is interconnected and relies on an infinite series of relationships. Biology and chemistry discoveries are used as metaphors to explain that disequilibrium and change are requirements for systems to grow and survive in our ever-changing universe. Chaos theory is used to explain that chaos is needed to create new order. She explains that stability is never guaranteed and should not be desired. Fractals are used as metaphors to explain these concepts.

The author uses physics for analogies with organization behavior. There are two major problems here.
First, her physics is completely wrong: she thinks that Newtonian systems don't exhibit chaotic behavior, that quantum mechanics is non-deterministic, and even that light (also known as EM field) is invisible.
Second, the analogies are not justfied. She claims them with no reasons whatsoever, and then prescribes how an organization should work based on the false analogies.
It would seem at times that she brings up physics to dull the readers' critical thinking by associating herself with an established science and by overloading readers with irrelevant (and wrong) info. After that the readers are supposed to swallow the false analogies as well as the conclusions that don't even follow from those analogies.

This is a book to be savored slowly. Fundamentally, the book is about organizations, and why all our modern organizations aren't working so well these days.

Wheatley connects our struggling modern organizations with the scientific worldview that was reigning dominant in western civilization when these organizations were created. Modern organizations were birthed in an era that was steeped in Newtonian and Descartian understandings -- understandings that sought to make sense of reality by isolating things down into their smallest component parts (examples: protons, neutrons, and electrons; reading, writing, and arithmatic) and seeing these component parts as essential parts of a larger machine. Those kinds of understandings were appropriate . . . then.

Wheatley suggests that just as Newtonian and Descartian understandings of reality are giving way to new discoveries in biology, chaos theory, and quantum physics, so too do the structures of the organizations we have created need to give way to new, emerging realities. In the "new science," we now understand that the relational dynamics in a system are at least as important as the individual component parts. Rather than an atomistic view, we now need a systemic view.

Wheatley writes this book for people who work in organizations that function like machines. If one part of the machine breaks down, the whole machine stops. Her basic advice: stop trying to fix the machine! Take a step back, ask yourself: "What, exactly, is this machine trying to do?", and then consider: "Are there simpler ways to do that?" Near the beginning of chapter 1, she gives an analogy of a stream on a mission. The only thing the water wants to do (to the extent that the water has a "will," of course) is go downhill, and eventually get to the ocean. It doesn't care how it gets there. It will always take the simplest route. But we, in our industry, have created machines that are based on structures -- as if the only way for the water to reach the ocean is through this particular channel that we have dug. Our modern organizations, therefore, tend to focus more on structure than on mission. (Difficult words for me to hear, as someone who calls himself "Presbyterian," the very name of which has to do with structure and not with mission!) The implications of this little analogy kept me thinking for days.

That's just the beginning. The whole book is like that . . . savor this, enjoy this. Take it slowly. Let the ideas and concepts in this book permeate into you. I routinely found that Wheatley's discussion was leading me into very interesting conceptual thinking about the way we do things. What happens when our structures actually get in the way of our mission? Are there better ways to self-organize to promote the mission of the organization?

Be warned: this book will open your eyes to a whole new way of conceptualizing the universe and the systems that inhabit this universe. You won't be the same person by the time you are done. And you won't regret it, either.

I just re-read Leadership and the New Science, and am just as inspired by it as when it was first published. Wheatley describes the new science as new glasses to notice the way things have been working all along - that we live in a participatory universe. This universe is a living model for the key questions we ask ourselves about effective organization: How do we get people to work well together? How do we honor and benefit from diversity? How do we get teams working together quickly and efficiently? How do we resolve conflicts? If we understand that natural systems are self-renewing because they are kept in balance by the capacity for self-reference, we can answer the questions we've asked: We need an "unerring recognition of the intent of the system, a deep relationship between individual activity and the whole." When we step back from the problem we gain enough perspective so that a shape emerges - patterns and themes rather than isolated causes. Thus the leader's task is (a) to communicate a guiding vision of purpose and direction, strong values and organizational beliefs; (b) keep them ever-present and clear; and (c) allow individuals their random, sometimes chaotic-looking meanderings. If the "shape" of the system is clear, if every employee holds the company's vision and purpose, the organization will be self-renewing -- everyone will find their way toward that vision and purpose.

Margaret Wheatley provides a different dimension of understanding organizational behavior. Linking quantum physics and chaos theory she asks us to rid ourselves of our mechanistic approach to organization process in better understanding and analyzing the patterns of organization behavior. Chaos within the organization results from both information and the organization interacting with the environment. This chaos leads to order, then growth, as the organization becomes self-analyzing and self-creating. You will not need a PHD in Physics to appreciate this perspective. This book is designed to provoke thought and discussion. We would highly recommended it to anyone who desires to expand his or her perspective on standard organizational models.

Wheatley wrote this book to change old ways of thinking and create new ways of looking at organizations. The book is not a toolkit for a new style of management but a thought-provoking summary that applies changes in science (biology, chemistry, chaos theory, and quantum physics) to organizations.

It is not necessarily an issue of disliking, but more of a matter of follow-through, of substance. Yes, the main purpose of the book is to make you think, instill discussion on the connection of New Science to business. However, maybe we are, were, in more of a plan and results perspective. Throughout the book, numerous times the ideas presented "synapsed" with us, but then the immediate reaction was, "How/what does Wheatley propose to us so we can actually effect this change?" It is possible more application and implementation comes with more direct follow-up to her WEB site or discussion site, but after reading the book it remains more theoretical in today's business world, unless one could effect the organization and see positive and tangible results