Margaret Wheatley, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. Annotated Edition. Berrett-Koehler, 2007.
Referenced in: Leadership and New Science
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This is one of a growing number of texts on Leadership and the New Science. I recommend it alonside Holman’s Engaging Emergence as first level expsore to New Science Theory, followed by others as listed in the Ministry Resource Guide on the subject.
Margaret Wheatley is the standard voice on the implications of new science on the subject of leadership. There is some overlap between this volume and material in her heftier work, Leadership and the New Science. It is a less technical and more narrative, personal style.
Wheately divides the book into two parts. Each section is a collection of articles that appear elsewhere in Wheatley’s material, but are here updated and revised. In the first section, Wheatley “describes and applies the new paradigm of living systems. It tells how living systems – which includes people – self-organize, change, create, learn, and adapt.” (3) She addresses some of the fundamental questions of leadership, offering many different applications:
“How do leaders shift from control to order? What motivates people? How does change happen? How do we evoke people’s innate creativity? What are useful measurement systems? How do we solve complex problems? How do we create healthy communities? How do we lead when change is out of control? How do we maintain integrity and peace as leaders?” (4)
The second part arranges essays in chronological order that reveals the evolution of Wheatley’s thinking on the subject. The insights and applications of this section are more personal. She asks questions such as:
“Do you work in ways that support interconnectedness rather than separateness? Are you taking the time to think? How well do you listen to those you disagree with? What’s happening with your children? Do you speak up for what you believe in?” (5)
From the Publisher
Though management expert Margaret J. Wheatley works with a broad variety of clients, from Fortune 100 CEOs to ministers, she points out that they all struggle to maintain integrity, humanity, and effectiveness in a relentlessly fast-paced, technology-driven world. Credited with establishing a fundamentally new approach to leadership based on living systems theory, or, as she puts it, “how Life organizes”, Wheatley shares her first-ever compendium of essays about her real-world experiences helping clients introduce more authentic, life-affirming practices into their organizations. Essays cover a wide scope of topics including leadership strategies, raising children in turbulent times, and the role of communities in the lives of organizations. “Finding Our Way” is filled with practical advice on applying the ideas in Wheatley’s groundbreaking books and has particular relevance for managers and leaders who are trying to run their organizations in more progressive, egalitarian, and effective ways.
About the Author
Margaret Wheatley is president of The Berkana Institute and an internationally acclaimed speaker and writer. She has been an organizational consultant and researcher since 1973. Her clients and audiences range from the head of the U.S. Army to twelve-year-old Girl Scouts, from CEOs to small town ministers.
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