Leadership and the New Science. Discovering Order in a Chaotic World. Margaret J. Wheatley

eadership and the New Science

Praise for One of the Bestselling, Most Influential, and Most Widely Talked About Business and Management Books Today

      “ONE OF THE TOP TEN BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL TIME.”

– Xerox Business Services Magazine

      “MEG WHEATLEY GAVE THE WORLD A NEW WAY OF THINKING ABOUT ORGANIZATIONS with her revolutionary application of the natural sciences to business management. … Her ideas have found welcome homes in the military, not-for-profit organizations, public schools, health care and churches as well as in corporations..”

– American Society for Training and Development

      “A BOOK LIKE LEADERSHIP AND THE NEW SCIENCE ONLY COMES ALONG ONCE IN A DECADE. Margaret Wheatley pushes our thinking about people and organizations to a new dimension. You will never think about organizational life in the same way again.”

– Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager

      “IF THERE’S A SINGLE BOOK THAT SETS THE STAGE FOR THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONS, THIS IS IT … Wheatley makes complex ideas simple, and then shows how those simple ideas can be used as powerful tools.”

– Stephen E. Ewing, President and CEO, Michigan Consolidated Gas Company

      “LEADERSHIP AND THE NEW SCIENCE SURPASSES ALL BOOKS TO DATE IN MANAGEMENT SCIENCE. It is truly in a class by itself, introducing a standard of excellence in thought and perception against which all other management books and thought will surely be measured.”

– Gerene Schmidt, Founder and CEO, Science, Business, and Education, Inc.

      “IF YOU WANT TO THINK ABOUT CHANGE AND ORGANIZATIONS IN AN ENTIRELY NEW WAY .. READ THIS BOOK NOW.”

– John R. Berry, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Herman Miller, Inc.

      “HOLD ONTO THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU READ THIS BOOK. … Using exciting breakthroughs in biology, chemistry, and especially quantum physics, Wheatley paints a brand-new picture of business management. this new relationship between business and science is nothing less than an entirely new set of lenses through which to view our organizations.”

– Library Journal

      “AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOK. The new physics is opening frontiers of knowledge that are among the most significant of this century. Applying these discoveries to management and leadership is extraordinarily eye-opening.”

– Marjorie Kelly, Founder and Publisher, Business Ethics magazine and author of The Divine Right of Capital

      “YEARS AHEAD OF ITS TIME, THIS DARING BOOK will convince you that leaders must substitute their Newtonian mental model for a biological model in organizations of every size. … Your employees are already getting hip to this stuff. You’d be wise to catch up.”

– The Wall Street Journal

      “.. A THOUGHT-PROVOKING WORK FOR PRACTITIONERS AND STUDENTS who are serious about wanting to understand the forces impacting organizations and themselves, and who desire to move forward to achieve goals and objectives.”

– Choice

      “A BREAKTHROUGH. Wheatley has taken leadership to the cutting edge.”

– Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy and editor of Brain/Mind and Common Sense

      “A WORK OF IMMENSE IMPORTANCE IN MANAGEMENT AND SCIENCE. … [Wheatley] writes about scientific theory with clarity and precision – yet her observations are unfailingly poetic and human.”

– The Salt Lake Tribune

      “WHEATLEY’S MESSAGE IS BRILLIANT AND IT ENCOURAGES A PROVOCATIVE PARADIGM SHIFT. Her explanations of quantum theory reduce what could be a mindboggling complexity into an unpretentious beauty that even a science-challenged person can understand.”

– Andrea Markowitz, Adjunct Professor, University of Baltimore

      “LEADERSHIP AND THE NEW SCIENCE IS A WONDERFUL BOOK, at once clear and profound, practical yet poetic. It is a lot like the new sciences it describes.”

– Timeline

      “THIS BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND COMPELLING BOOK IS A GIFT to many of us who wrestle without the relationship between scientific thinking and organizational life.”

– Judy Sorum Brown, educator, writer, and Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute

      “A WARNING TO ANYONE WHO PICKS THIS BOOK UP … BE PREPARED TO THROW OUT ALMOST EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW about organizations, management, and leadership while reading this book. … It is quite literally one of the most interesting books I have ever read.”

– Journal for Quality and Participation

      “A PIONEERING VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY INTO THE ESSENTIAL ELEGANCE AND SIMPLICITY OF ORGANIZATIONS. This is a book that must be read by any thinking manager, consultant, or professor who wishes to shake loose the shackles of limiting, old-world views and be free to explore the bountiful possibilities of what is in front of us.”

– Jim Kouzes, coauthor of The Leadership Challenge and Credibility

      “ONE OF THE TEN BOOKS OF THE DECADE THAT ARE MUST-READS FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS PROFESSIONALS.”

– CIO Magazine

      “MEG WHEATLEY HAS A WAY OF HELPING US TO DISCOVER THAT WHICH WAS THERE BUT REMAINED UNSEEN and that which we knew but did not recognize. A great teacher, she makes discovery a joyous and sought-after experience.”

– Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut and author of The Way of the Explorer

      “ANY INDIVIDUAL INVOLVED WITH ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP NEEDS TO READ THIS BOOK.”

– Carlson Learning Company Journal

      “IF YOU ARE COMMITTED TO HUMANE, DEMOCRATIC, AND HIGHLY PRODUCTIVE CORPORATIONS AND COMMUNITIES, you have to pay attention to Leadership and the New Science. Wheatley’s integration of the new science and its implications for leading organizations are, I believe, at the cutting edge of a whole new theory and practice of organizations badly needing to be born.”

– Marvin Weisbord, author of Productive Workplaces and Discovering Common Ground, and coauthor of Future Search

      “WHEATLEY’S NEW AND DEEP INSIGHTS ARE MUST READING for any management consultant who is serious about making a difference in the world.”

– Journal of Management Consulting

      “BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND PRODUCED. A WONDERFUL ROAD MAP INTO THE NEW SCIENCE. … It should be on all of our bookshelves, and we should have extra copies available to send to our clients and friends.”

– The Chaos Network newsletter

      “WHEATLEY’S BOOK SHOULD BE ON EVERY MANAGER’S, HRD SPECIALIST’S, AND OD PRACTIONER’S BOOKSHELF, and the concepts therein incorporated into our own understanding of organizations. … Even if you reject some of her notions, the book will make you think about what you do, why you do it, and the assumptions, filters, and biases you carry around with you.”

– OD Practitioner Journal

      “WHEN I WAS A CORPORATE CEO, I WAS ASTONISHED BY LEADERSHIP AND THE NEW SCIENCE. It affirmed for me that everything in organizational life – indeed I could say in life itself – is about relationships. It was so wise, so insightful, and so abundantly graceful. … I frequently call on Meg’s work. She became both teacher and prophet in my mind. And yes, she became and still is, one of my heroes. … Her open, wise, and generous spirit is an example for all of us.”

– James Autry, bestselling author and former CEO, Meredith Corporation

      “THIS IS ONE OF THOSE SEMINAL BOOKS THAT, ONCE READ, CAN CONTINUE TO LIVE ON IN THE PSYCHE, RESHAPING ONE’S WORLD-VIEW PERMANENTLY. To borrow an image from one of the new sciences contemplated in the book, it may well be like the butterfly in Tokyo whose flapping wings generate a tornado in Texas; it may fan subtle winds of change that eventually amass enough energy to transform corporate organizations into systems barely recognizable to us today.”

– The Advocate newsletter

      “I READ LEADERSHIP