IN HER PIONEERING BESTSELLER

Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World (Revised Edition)

Margaret Wheatley showed how the “New Science”—revolutionary discoveries in quantum physics, chaos theory, and biology that are overturning centuries-old images of the universe—provides powerful insights into the design, leadership, and management of organizations. Now, in a completely revised and expanded edition, Wheatley uses her past seven years’ experience putting these ideas to use in a wide array of organizations all over the world to shed new light on issues crucial to organizing work, people, and life, including:
o How do systems move from chaos to order?
o How is order different from control?
o How can we reconcile individual autonomy and organizational order?
o How can we create more participative, open, and adaptive organizations?
o What are the keys to organizational growth, learning, and communication?

This revised edition is written in even more accessible language and adds an entirely new chapter to this now classic book. In “Change—The Capacity of Life,” Wheatley explains how the new physics offers an entirely new understanding of change, in which change happens at the level of identity rather than by isolating and changing one defective part of ourselves or our organizations.

In a new epilogue, Wheatley adds a personal chronicle of her experiences since the publication of the first edition. She tells about the shift in her own understanding that occurred as she came to realize that Leadership and the New Science not only presents an alternative view of organizational dynamics but challenges people’s most fundamental beliefs about the way the world works.

“Wheatley makes a great case here for how the new science (quantum science and chaos theory) turns our old linear way of thinking on its head. She presents leadership from the perspective of relationship building and systems thinking and emphasizes the strength leaders and systems draw from multiple connections. The imagery that comes to my mind is that of a two ton weight being dropped and caught by a single strand of rope vs. being caught by a net. The latter is inherently stronger because of it’s network. She insists that people cannot live or work in isolation and that they will only support what they create. This is a very powerful read for anyone who is trying to change the conversation and/or the dance in which they are engaged.”

– Review by Marty Jacobs