Rewiring the Corporate Brain ( [Hardcover]

Danah Zohar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

Corporate structures, like the physical and biological structure of the human brain, operate from one of three individually distinct but intricately interrelated systems: mental, emotional, and spiritual. The healthiest organizations, like the healthiest minds, learn to respond and adapt to external stimuli through a well integrated union of all three structures rather than a single, rigid approach. Business models, however, primarily neglect emotional and spiritual components in their operations, placing emphasis instead on efficiency, results, and other qualities readily associated with the mental structure alone. With only one-third of the corporate brain utilized, the remaining two-thirds present a vast reserve of ideas and opportunities for responding creatively to the daily demands of corporate life. Rewiring the Corporate Brain offers a new way to think about, lead, and structure organizations for fundamental transformation. It demonstrates how people must change the thinking behind their thinking - i.e., rewire the structures of the corporate brain - to operate more fully and achieve genuine fundamental organizational change. Written for managers at all levels, Rewiring the Corporate Brain takes its lead from quantum, chaos, and the latest brain sciences to offer practical, accessible, and inspiring alternatives to traditional structures in corporate design, practice, and implementation.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Applying concepts of quantum and chaos thinking to the working world, consultant and educator Danah Zohar's Rewiring the Corporate Brain: Using the New Science to Rethink How We Structure and Lead Organizations offers revolutionary advice for achieving workplace change. Businesses should be operated like brains, she argues, utilizing all of the mental, emotional, and spiritual stimuli at their disposal. Ordinarily, however, most ignore the latter two and rely solely on just one-third of their "corporate brains"--a shortcoming Zohar shows how to correct so that truly effective responses can be crafted for myriad predicaments.

From the Publisher

Questions for Discussion:

1. Why do most corporate transformation programs fail? What does it really take to bring about a deep "paradigm shift"?

2. What are the three levels of transformation required in any company, and why won't it work to concentrate on only one level?

3. How are paradigms wired into our brains? Why do we need them? Why are they dangerous to us?

4. What are the three kinds of thinking the human brain can do and why is each important for seeing potential corporate infrastructures?

5. What is "quantum thinking" and how does it link the new science to corporate creativity? Why is it essential to rewiring the corporate brain?

6. What are some of the main principles of the new science and how do they relate to corporate leadership issues? What are the three essential features that distinguish the Newtonian and quantum scientific paradigms?

7. What does Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle tell us about the importance of questions and "I don't know" to corporate creativity?

8. What does it mean for a corporation to "be at the edge"? Why is coming to "the edge" necessary to rewiring the corporate brain?

9. Why should a corporate leader want to be at the edge between paradigms? Is there anything essentially wrong with the Newtonian paradigm? Shall we just get rid of it?

10. What are the chief characteristics of the western "self" and the western organization? The eastern "self" and the eastern organization?

11. How does the quantum model of self and organization help to bridge the gap between West and East?

12. How does dialogue differ from debate?

13. Why is dialogue an essential tool of quantum thinking and corporate neural rewiring?

14. What does the Servant Leader really serve? Why is servant leadership essential to quantum leadership?

Suggestions for Further Reading:

* Morgan, Gareth, Images of Organization * Morgan, Gareth, Imaginization * Oshry, Barry, Seeing Systems * Stacey, Ralph, Complexity and Creativity in Organizations * Wheatley, Margaret J., Leadership and the New Science * Wheatley, Margaret J. and Kellner-Rogers, Myron, A Simpler Way

Courtesy of Berrett-Koehler Publishers BERRETT-KOEHLER STUDY GUIDE

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 172 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 1st edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576750221
• ISBN-13: 978-1576750223
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #401,739 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A new paradigm for leadership and organization., September 5, 2000

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rewiring the Corporate Brain ( (Hardcover)

"We live largely in a world of Newtonian organizations. These are organizations that thrive on certainty and predictability. They are hierarchical; power emanates from the top, and control is vital at every level. So, often, is fear. They are heavily bureaucratic and rule-bound, and hence inflexible. They stress the single point of view, the one best way forward. They are managed as though the part organizes the whole. Newtonian organizations do not respond well to change. Their primary value is efficiency. Human beings work and live in such organizations, but we often feel like passive units of production. Our lives serve the organizations, but the organizations serve only our utilitarian needs, and that only so long as we conform to the organization's purposes and are vital to the organization itself. The emphasis on control isolates these organizations from their environments. They don't interact with or respect those environments, including the people who work within them. It is my purpose here to describe a wholly different kind of organization. I hope to offer a new model for structure, leadership, and learning within organizations that can thrive on uncertainty, can deal creatively with rapid change, and can release the full potential of the human beings who lead and work or live within them. Such organizations, like the human brain, have the potential for self-organizing creativity just waiting to be unleashed within them. This new model is based on the thinking, ideas, language, and imagery of the new science-quantum physics, chaos and complexity, and the latest brain science. I believe that understanding the philosophical basis of these sciences, understanding the new paradigm from which they emerge, is critical to rewiring the corporate brain" (from the Introduction).

In this context, Danah Zohar divides this invaluable book into two parts:

I- Using the New Science to Rewire Corporate Thinking. In this part, she basically:

* describes the uses and limitations of traditional paradigms in business activities and other life contexts.

* focuses on three kinds of thinking (serial thinking, associative thinking, and quantum thinking) that the human brain can do, and discusses their advantages and disadvantages.

* contrasts eight key ideas from Newtonian science/old paradigm, and their effects on business thinking, with eight key ideas from quantum science/new paradigm and their application to new thinking about leadership, and thus constructs a management-leadership chart that puts the features of these two contrasting paradigms as follows:

- N.certainty, Q.uncertainty

- N.predictability, Q.rapid change; unpredictability

- N.hierarchy, Q.nonhierarchical networks

- N.division of labor or function fragmentation, Q.multifunctional and holistic (integrated effort)

- N.power emanates from top or center, Q.power emanates from many interacting centers

- N.employees are passive units of production, Q.employees are cocreative partners

- N. single viewpoint; one best way, Q.many view points; many ways of getting things done

- N.competition, Q.cooperation

- N.inflexible structures; heavy on bureaucratic control, Q.responsive and flexible structures; hands-off supervision

- N.efficiency, Q.meaningful service and relationships

- N.top-down (reactive) operation, Q.bottom-up (experimental) operation

II- Structure and Leadership of the Rewired Corporation. In this part, she basically:

* discusses Western/Newtonian and Eastern/Networked models of the self/person and organization, and then attempts to reach a Quantum model of self and organization drawn from the thinking of the new science. And she shows the features of these three models as follows:

- W.conflict and control, E.cooperation, Q.dialogue

- W.self (the personal) wholly excluded and isolated; interactions grounded in universal principles, E.self wholly embedded and contextual; no universal principles, Q.self embedded and contextual with universal dimension

- W.stability achieved through excluding the self and the emotions, and organizing only the predictable and controllable aspects of relationships, E.stability achieved through reinforced familiarity and discipline of the self, Q.stability balanced with instability

- W.rigid boundaries, E.ambiguous boundaries, Q.flexible boundaries

- W.dictatorial leadership, E.consensual leadership, Q.leader relies on trust and feel for situation

- W.rule-bound, E.habit-bound, Q.no set framework from rules or habits

- W.mechanical, E.organic, Q.both naturally unfolding (organic) and that which can be made from it (mechanical)

- W+E.rely on stability, Q.open to change

- W+E.weak in dealing with unexpected change, Q.open to change

- W+E.seek to dampen down or exclude the unexpected, Q.thrives on unexpected

* argues that servant leadership is the essence of quantum thinking and quantum leadership, and then presents a new model of servant leadership.

Finally, she writes, "much of the book contrasts the Newtonian and new sciene, or quantum, approaches to leadership. But this is not to convey a message of either-or. All the fundamental thinking of the new science is about both-and. The new science incorporates the old. Quantum physics does not invalidate Newtonian physics. It just shows that Newton's laws are restricted to one band of reality. But they are still necessary to corporate leadership as the new paradigm, quantum thinking. The core competence I hope to convey in this book is about 'managing at the edge' - that is, becoming aware that there are different paradigms and cultivating the judgement to know when to use one or another, or when to remain at the edge between the two."

I higly recommend this unique study.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A psuedo form of scientific plagiarism!, July 22, 1999

By 

J. BLUMBERG (South Africa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rewiring the Corporate Brain ( (Hardcover)

...she doesn't quite steal ideas as her own, but then doesn't quite acknowledge her sources either. The book has no footnotes, which doesn't please a technical reader like myself. She quotes passages out of books which don't appear either in the index or in her bibliography. She talks of the new science of chaos and complexity but doesn't seem to know the difference between the two. She throws in the popular images emanating out of the complexity academy without acknowledging who coined these terms, or even bothering to define them. The "edge of chaos" is an example. Overall, her message is in line with the latest fad of applying the new science thinking to business problems, but is largely derivative, and not well researched. I liked Danah before she was drawn into the commercial world, very disappointing!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Open your mind.....think differently, May 27, 2001

By 

Adam F. Jewell (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rewiring the Corporate Brain ( (Hardcover)

The new science, quantum theory, and related branches of physics are clearly defined and related to business structures and people within "Rewiring the Corporate Brain"

To some, the whole notion of "The New Science", let alone it's relation to the business world may seem like a bunch of new age babble. We (in the US especially) are used to thinking in terms of action-reaction, events, actions, and people, as individual and isolated. We make distinctions and often-strict divisions between work and the rest of our lives. We thrive on predictability, being able to determine outcomes, and control environments, which can inhibit the ability to quickly adapt to and accept change.

"Rewiring the Corporate Brain" recognizes this, and uses quantum theory to illustrate that we might be missing something. The author demonstrates the shortcomings of the common, rigid Newtonian thinking and organization that permeates so many companies and minds, yet also recognizes that a pure quantum approach is not a cure all. The author presents a hybrid model that recognizes the importance of managing and living to obtain certain objectives, while allowing and encouraging the creativity, exploration, and openness to continually grow and adapt to the torrid pace of change. Not only does the application of quantum thinking make sense for the development and management of organizations, but also when trying to bring the separate parts of ones' life together into a more holistic, satisfying existence.

The book refers to a few related "new science" books, which may be of interest to the reader. It also draws on some early Fast Company articles from the good ol' days before Fast Company became the useless waste of paper it is today.

This book is not technical or difficult to read. You'll be able to polish it off within a few hours. If you liked this book, and would like to read more on the "New Physics", or would simply like to explore it ("New Physics") w/o the business context, pick up a copy of:

"The Dancing Wu Li Masters : An Overview of the New Physics"