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Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (Revised and Expanded 2nd Edition) Paperback – January 15, 2001
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Leadership and the New Science is the bestselling, most acclaimed, and most influential guide to applying the new science to organizations and management. In it, Wheatley describes how the new science radically alters our understanding of the world, and how it can teach us to live and work well together in these chaotic times. It will teach you how to move with greater certainty and easier grace into the new forms of organizations and communities that are taking shape. You’ll learn that:
Relationships are what matters—even at the subatomic level
Life is a vast web of interconnections where cooperation and participation are required
Chaos and change are the only route to transformation
In this expanded edition, Wheatley provides examples of how non-linear networks and self-organizing systems are flourishing in the modern world. In the midst of turbulence, Wheatley shows, we create work and lives rich in meaning.
- Print length216 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBerrett-Koehler Publishers
- Publication dateJanuary 15, 2001
- Dimensions7.25 x 0.75 x 8.75 inches
- ISBN-101576751198
- ISBN-13978-1576751190
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Customers find the book offers helpful insights and a new way of thinking about human organizations. They describe it as an interesting, thoughtful read with valuable analogies.
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Customers find the book's insights helpful and revolutionary. They say it offers a new way of thinking for human endeavors and invigorates creative thinking. The book helps organize multiple theories into one big meta theory, providing a new twist on existing theories. It would be interesting for anyone interested in group dynamics and how humans work together.
"...This book isn't a collection of dos and don'ts, but invigorates deep creative thinking." Read more
"...Take it slowly. Let the ideas and concepts in this book permeate into you...." Read more
"...and perfect companion to Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity by Jamshid Gharajedsghi...." Read more
"...I can't explain it other than tell you that it is an enlightening experience. I have included two of my favorite quotes from this text. &..." Read more
Customers find the book interesting and thoughtful. They appreciate the analogies and insights into human organizations. The book provides a meaningful approach to leadership and conceptual thinking about how we do things.
"In this brilliant book, Margaret J. Weathley brings parallels between the theory of leadership and the quantum physics...." Read more
"...found that Wheatley's discussion was leading me into very interesting conceptual thinking about the way we do things...." Read more
"This book is amazing. There is no other way to put it...." Read more
"...The author offers very interesting analogies and intuition to support her ideas. This is clearly a thoughtful book...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2002In 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.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2006This 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.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2012Margaret Wheately takes the reader on a journey of what an organization could become if viewed through the lens of chaos, field theory and natural laws of thermodynamics. I would compare this to the poetic version and perfect companion to Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity by Jamshid Gharajedsghi. My only criticism is to undertake better editing choices. There are some long musings, which are unnecessary and sometimes dilute an excellent point - a little indulgent.
Top reviews from other countries
Jeff BigginReviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 20195.0 out of 5 stars Great service
Thanks for the book. Very interesting read.
amazon customerReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 20155.0 out of 5 stars essential
The essential book for anyone interested in leadership in the modern age. Rereading it again and again.
Niall MacTaggartReviewed in Canada on December 16, 20164.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Iconoclastic
MaryReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 25, 20133.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant read
I really respect the Author's view of the world - it is an easy to read format but felt it could have been better edited.


