A Simpler Way

Vague, abstract, slightly frustrating, and comforting in its hopeful point of view. Life is playful, self-referential, messy, self-organizing, and a mutually co-dependent dance of exploration. Recommended for C. Alexander fans, systems folks, Caprof disciples, poets, ponderers, wanderers, the org.-minded, and anyone who's got the funny feeling that things just aren't right.

After reading Leadership and the New Science about 8 years ago, I was excited to find this book in a used bookstore not long ago. Unfortunately, I found that it spent too much time repeating the same "keep life simple, things have a way of organizing themselves from chaos to order, don't try to impose too much organization" messages over and over again, sometimes within the same chapter, sometimes across various different chapters. It sounded preachy rather than enlightening. I finally resorted to skimming the last few chapters before calling it quits.

Margaret Wheatley & Myron Kellner-Rogers explore the primary question, "How could we organize human endeavor if we developed different understandings of how life organizes itself?" They draw on the work of scientists, philosophers, poets, novelists, spiritual teachers, colleagues, audiences, & their own experience in search of new ways of understanding life & how organizing activities occur. They describe a new paradigm of life as self-organizing & coevolving. A Simpler Way presents a profoundly different worldview that could change how we live our lives & our ability to create organizations that thrive. The authors examine five major themes-play, organization, self, emergence, & coherence-each grounded in both the science & philosophy show more of a world that knows how to organize itself. Each theme is explored in depth & then applied to how we think about human organizations. A Simpler Way explores fundamental new beliefs about organizations & life. The authors challenge many assumptions about life, organizations, & change while providing inspiration & guidance for readers on their own journey to a simpler way to organize their endeavors. show less