Leadership and the New Science. Discovering Order in a Chaotic World
Margaret Wheatley
A bestseller–more than 300,000 copies sold, translated into seventeen languages, and featured in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Fortune • Shows how discoveries in quantum physics, biology, and chaos theory enable us to deal successfully with change and uncertainty in our organizations and our lives • Includes a new chapter on how the new sciences can help us understand and cope with some of the major social challenges of our times We live in a time of chaos, rich in potential for new possibilities. A new world is being born. We need new ideas, new ways of seeing, and new relationships to help us now. New science–the new discoveries in biology, chaos theory, and quantum physics that are changing our understanding of how the world works–offers this guidance. It describes a world where chaos is natural, where order exists "for free." It displays the intricate webs of cooperation that connect us. It assures us that life seeks order, but uses messes to get there. 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.
Margaret J. Wheatley
Leadership 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,