Leadership and the New Science

"I no longer believe that organizations are inherently unmanageable in this world of constant flux and unpredictability."

"It's a hostile world out there, and organizations, or we who create them, survive only because we build crafty and smart?smart enough to defend ourselves from the natural forces of destruction. "

"In Newtonian organizations, we've drawn boundaries everywhere."

"The invisible influences that field theory exposes can help us manage other amorphous aspects of organizational life."

"For leaders, being alert to the observation dilemma is critically important."

"While a self-organizing system's openness to disequilibrium might seem to make it too unpredictable, even temperamental, this is not the case."

"Beyond our leadership skills, and often in spite of them, the system is self-organizing to accomplish its work."

"Organizations that display a strong commitment to their values make good use of the fractal creation process."

"As good engineers, we've been trained to identify the problem part and replace it."

"Many disciplines, in different voices, now speak about the behavior of networks."

"We cannot hide behind our boundaries, or hold onto the belief that we can survive alone."