The writing here, I must say, is less inspired than the ideas. And although this is one of the few business books in which the diagrams actually add something, they occasionally confuse more than clarify. This is a demanding book. Still, anyone who leads without having attempted this book is carrying a toolbox with at least one item missing. Postmodern science has proved that Newton's science was far from perfect.
Living systems create their own order through self-organization.
Complex systems become robust when they stray from equilibrium and become brittle when they get too close. Unfortunately, Dr. Wheatley, a consultant and former management professor, occasionally loses her scientific moorings and ranges perilously close to New Age territory. Just because subatomic particles act on each other at a distance, for instance, doesn't means that organizations are filled with waves and fields. Still, this book provides the most basic introduction to how science after Newton creates a vital new model for leadership. Your employees are already getting hip to this stuff.