Navigating Complexity: The Essential Guide to Complexity theory in Business and Management (Paperback)

by Arthur Battram (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
A powerful guide to thinking and managing your way into the new economy. A "how to think" book for practicing managers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Spiro Press (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858358701
• ISBN-13: 978-1858358703
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,672,074 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the author wishes to share this information with you:, January 10, 2001

By	APBATTRAM "dissilusioned skiffy fan" (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

- REVIEWERS SAID: -

"A writer and consultant with a profound understanding of complexity and its applications" Roger Lewin, author of `Complexity: life at the edge of chaos'

"The best designed and best illustrated of all the complexity and management books. More than just another `how-to' book , this is a `how-to-think' book for practicing managers. Within this book lies the craft of management. Armed with the concepts herein, the manager of today is better prepared to face the complexities of tomorrow. Without such mastery, the risk is chaos and confusion." Michael Lissack, Editor-in-Chief, Emergence: A Journal of Complexity Issues In Organizations and Management

"An excellent, easy-to-read overview" New Scientist

"Navigating Complexity contains ideas to provoke, challenge and stimulate those working at senior levels in any role. Battram has taken a huge amount of source material and put it into a form where it can (and should!) be used by innovative managers and consultants. He has done a splendid job of bringing together the different aspects of complexity into a single excellently laid out volume. This book should find a place in the library of any leader, strategist or consultant who likes to create their own models and methods by synthesising ideas rather than following someone else's recipe" Long Range Planning, the Strategic Planning Society journal

"A powerful guide to thinking and managing your way into the new economy." Charles Leadbeater, author Living on Thin Air: The New Economy. "Presents concepts of complexity theory in a structured, well illustrated and direct way which is anything but complex." Management Skills & Development magazine

"He has grasped a wide variety of concepts from many contemporary fields and made them accessible and useful for executives and managers. Breakthroughs in results will occur if they are taken on board." Michael McMaster, Director, Knowledge Based Development Ltd, and author of `The Intelligence advantage'

"Essential reading for every manager in local government who wants to bring about creative change" Professor Tony Bovaird, University of the West of England

"For me it is the key reference guide to this crucial area of management theory" Nick Zeniuk, co-developer of the Team Learning Lab with Fred Simon and Peter Senge

"Short comprehensible chapters doing just what he promises - taking the interested manager (or other amateur `nexialist') on a guided tour of the field, from fractals to factories. It requires no maths background, but teaches you how to think about complex issues in today's ways." Jack Cohen, co-author, with Ian Stewart: `The Collapse of Chaos'

- ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

Arthur Battram is a consultant and a thinker, writer and teacher in the fields of strategy, change, knowledge management and participation. He coaches senior management teams in the `complexity perspective' and is the creator of Possibility Space Design, a methodology for enabling creativity and collaboration in groups. His work with senior teams focuses on organisational learning, creatvity and adaptation.

He has over 20 years experience as a facilitator of learning and change, with individuals, teams and large groups.

His earlier career in community development and playwork enables him to make an original contribution to groups seeking sustainable change.

He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on complexity, management, organisational learning and teamwork and is a visiting lecturer and research associate at Aston Business School, Warwick University and The London School of Economics.

Email Arthur Battram at: [e-mail]

4.0 out of 5 stars appropriate for a wider readership, April 6, 2007

By	boudu (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews

This charming crib to the memes of complexity is a standout among far less informed writing in management. I have recommended it to my college students in a class on the edge of chaos that has nothing whatever to do with business, and I feel it deserves to be kept in print, as a gentle counterpoint to the turgid 'professionals', and vain opportunists, that are hard to avoid in the field. A very nicely judged piece indeed.