Customer Reviews

The Power of Spirit: How Organizations Transform

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is that this book is clearly written from the heart, and offers a deeply human solution to the "soul pollution" in today's workplace. I've read most the well known books on organizational change/transformation - and there are some excellent ones - but this one really rings true.

Mr. Owen suggests that management, a barely disguised euphemism for control, is a figment of our imagination. He holds that choas is actually the natural state of human affairs, not the exception. If we let go of outdated beliefs, and simply observe how things really get done, we will transform toxic workplaces into inspired organizations. By simply embracing what is.

Like a lot of people, especially women, I left corporate America because I was unable to reconcile their values w/ mine. Always puzzled by people who contrasted their "work personalities" with their "real personalities", I'm more convinced than ever that separating from ourselves at work is not only unnecessary, but destroys the organization along with the selves that make it up!

Spending time with Harrison Owen's voice allows you to hear your own.

Harrison Owen's book has its share of shortcomings, but there is certainly something to recommend here as well. Owen's explanations of organizational change, complex adaptive systems and chaos theory as they apply to business and innovation are lucid and easy to understand. Less appealing are his lapses into jargon that seems more appropriate to a yoga class than a human resources department, and the theoretical tone that permeates the book. We from getAbstract recommend this book to anyone in search of an alternative perspective on modern management.

Harrison Owen, The Power of Spirit: How Organizations Transform (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2000)

Owen, an Anglican Priest and civil rights worker, extends his meeting management tool `open-space technology' to more broadly treat organisational transformation. The process begins with anyone who wants to come sitting in a circle (with `open space' between), and then allowing the group to set the agenda related to the central concern, such as a church's future. Owen has consistently seen groups achieve amazing results in two-to-three days; processing grief, expressing anger, sorting priorities, restructuring, letting fresh vision emerge, and unearthing stories and myths that cultivate `spirit'. This is an application of chaos theory, suggesting that the disequilibrium that chaos brings is an essential condition for life, learning, innovation and - strange as it may seem - organisation. The resulting InterActive organisations are characterized by chaos, high learning, high play, appropriate structure, and genuine community. Stories and myths are central to cultivating `Spirit' and counteracting `soul pollution': `When people hear the story, become part of the story to the point that the story is them, Spirit tends to soar and all the rest is just icing on the cake.' (p.171) So Owen describes a process for interviewing 10-20 people, collecting common stories, telling them (warts and all), burying some, and celebrating those that describe the organizational ethos. He says it is amazing what his two questions unearth: `What is this place and what should it be?' This is a scary process for managers who are used to modern Pro-Active control and strategic planning, but for brave new leaders it offers some guidelines for cultivating the sort of innovation, synergy and vibrancy that emerging churches need.

Originally reviewed for "The Emerging Church: Pioneering Leadership and Innovation Reading Guide", Zadok Paper (Forthcoming 2010).