Biologist Rupert Sheldrake, in taking the ideas of physics into the biological and physiological realms, offers a strong case for considering seemingly random chance events as dependable energy manifestations.

The new physics indicates that tremendous energy resources lie within each of us and that we are united with energy patterns in the universe. Sheldrake proposes that there are morphogenic fields, or “invisible organizing structures that mold or shape things like crystals, plants, and animals, and [that] also have an organizing effect on behavior.” He posits that these fields contain influences from all of history and evolution. As such, they begin to explain the “lucky coincidences” that sometimes solve our problems.

Emergent Strategy - Adrienne Maree Brown

“I dedicate this book to the memory of Grace Lee Boggs, who opened the door to emergence and pushed me through, who taught me to keep listening and learning and having conversations. She said, “Transform yourself to transform the world.” I dedicate this book also to the memory of Charity Hicks, who saw all the interconnected patterns as clear as day. She said, “Wage love.

Introduction:

“First and foremost, thank you for opening this book. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed living, learning, and gathering it.

Micheal Jackson’s Creative Problem Solving (John Wiley, 1991) is probably the one read if you really fancy having a go at applying management cybernetics to a real-world consulting assignment, although many friends swear by The Fractal Organization by Patrick Hoverstadt (John Wiley, 2011). Of course, Eden Medina’s Cybernetic Revolutionaries (MIT Press, 2011) is the definitive account of what really happened in Chile.

A New Lens on Leadership*

There is a great irony for me as I finish this project: I learned more about effective leadership in doing this study than in all my decades of studying what makes great organizations tick. That’s an irony because many people who know my prior work would categorize me as a “leadership expert” based on five books wherein I’d studied and written about some of the greatest corporate leaders of all time. Yet it took this project to finally see perhaps the most important ingredient in effective leadership: leading from your encodings.