Based on 30 years of consulting experience, this unique book provides a concrete program for prospering in dangerous times. Using examples, case studies, guidelines, and worksheets, this father and son team explain how exceptional leaders and companies have transformed the threat of economic meltdown into an opportunity for new levels of success.

Every few years a book changes the way people think about a field. In psychology there is Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence. In science, James Gleick's Chaos. In economics and finance, Burton Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street. And in business there is now Surfing the Edge of Chaos by Richard T. Pascale, Mark Millemann, and Linda Gioja. Surfing the Edge of Chaos is a brilliant, powerful, and practical book about the parallels between business and nature -- two fields that feature nonstop battles between the forces of tradition and the forces of transformation. It offers a bold new way of thinking about and responding to the personal and strategic challenges everyone in business faces these days. Pascale, Millemann, and Gioja argue that because every business is a living system (not just as metaphor but in reality), the four cornerstone principles of the life sciences are just as true for organizations as they are for species. These principles are: Equilibrium is death. Innovation usually takes place on the edge of chaos. Self-organization and emergence occur naturally. Organizations can only be disturbed, not directed. Using intriguing, in-depth case studies (Sears Roebuck, Monsanto, Royal Dutch Shell, the U.S. Army, British Petroleum, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems), Surfing the Edge of Chaos shows that in business, as in nature, there are no permanent winners. There are just companies and species that either react to change and evolve, or get left behind and become extinct. Some examples: Parallels between Yellowstone National Park and Sears show why equilibrium is a dangerous place in both nature and business. How Monsanto used a "strange attractor" to move to the edge of chaos to alter its identity and transform its culture. The unlikely story of how the U.S. Army embraced the ideas of self-organization and emergence. Why the misapplication of linear logic (reengineering a business or attempting to eradicate predators in nature) will inevitably fail. The stories in Surfing the Edge of Chaos are of pioneering efforts that show how the principles of living systems produce bottom-line impact and profound transformational change. What's really striking about them, though, is their reality. They are about success and failure, breakthroughs and dead-ends. In short, they are like the business you are in and the challenges you face.

Praise for Leading at the Edge of Chaos "If your organization is facing any anticipated chaotic event in the next six months-and who isn't-you should read Daryl Conner. His tough-minded definitions of winners vs. losers will make you think twice." -Craig E. Weatherup, Chairman and CEO, The Pepsi-Cola Company "Conner's new book is thoroughly original and useful on the mastery of leading change." -Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business Administration, University of Southern California, and author of Organizing Genius "Daryl Conner has done it again! The leading authority on managing change has given us what we need right now. Leading at the Edge of Chaos offers prescriptive advice for leading in today's world, where the tempo and thrust of change has escalated. A must read for anyone who is still breathing and leading." -Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager(r) "Delightful and thought-provoking . . . [links] deep organizational research with useable 'real world' advice . . . I would recommend this book to others-senior line leaders and their management teams." -Kenneth Schwenke, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Aramark Corporation "In the new reality in which the human need for control is continuously assaulted by escalating change, Daryl Conner provides [organization leaders] . . . steps to take . . . in clear language and vivid images, with psychological insight and knowledge born out of broad hands-on experience." -Judy Bardwick, author of In Praise of Good Business and Danger in the Comfort Zone "Every executive who is leading constant change in their organizations should read this book." -Don Beattie, Chief Executive, Personnel, The BOC Group (U.K.) "Gone are the days when innovations and new ventures were incremental in scope and sequential in nature. In their place is 'perpetual unrest,' unending, fundamental changes . . . " -Daryl Conner In his 1993 classic, Managing at the Speed of Change, Daryl Conner showed managers how to implement business innovations on time and under budget. In this groundbreaking new book, he shows them how to ride the whirlwind. The tempo of change has sped up to a dizzying pace over the past few years. Globalization, rapid-fire technological innovation, and mounting pressure for shareholder value have pushed the markets into a state of ceaseless turmoil. What was cutting-edge change management theory just five years ago now seems naive. Success amidst such a maelstrom of change calls for much more than what change management models have to offer. It calls for a radically new kind of organization, nimble enough to adapt instantly to changing market conditions, and piloted by leaders versed in the art of Leading at the Edge of Chaos. This book is not about decision making; it is about execution. It is not about predicting change; it is about adapting to it at a moment's notice. Internationally renowned "Change Doctor" Daryl Conner defines the new roles that all leaders must assume in order to direct the changes that are crucial to their organizations' survival. He schools them in all of the essential components of the change process. And, most importantly, he arms them with action steps for instilling their companies with the nimbleness and resilience needed to survive and thrive in today's supervolatile markets. Conner also introduces the revolutionary concept of human due diligence-the human equivalent of financial due diligence and an indispensable tool for orchestrating major enterprisewide transitions. Strategic, results-oriented, and proactive, human due diligence focuses on people's capacity to absorb change as a limited resource, and offers tools for ensuring that there is sufficient capacity available to face the next challenge-and the many others sure to follow.

From an internationally acclaimed economist, a provocative call to jump-start economic growth by aggressively overhauling liberal democracy Around the world, people who are angry at stagnant wages and growing inequality have rebelled against established governments and turned to political extremes. Liberal democracy, history's greatest engine of growth, now struggles to overcome unprecedented economic headwinds -- from aging populations to scarce resources to unsustainable debt burdens. Hobbled by short-term thinking and ideological dogma, democracies risk falling prey to nationalism and protectionism that will deliver declining living standards. In Edge of Chaos, Dambisa Moyo shows why economic growth is essential to global stability, and why liberal democracies are failing to produce it today. Rather than turning away from democracy, she argues, we must fundamentally reform it. Edge of Chaos presents a radical blueprint for change in order to galvanize growth and ensure the survival of democracy in the twenty-first century.

"Put together one of the world's best science writers with one of the universe's most fascinating subjects and you are bound to produce a wonderful book. . . . The subject of complexity is vital and controversial. This book is important and beautifully done."—Stephen Jay Gould "[Complexity] is that curious mix of complication and organization that we find throughout the natural and human worlds: the workings of a cell, the structure of the brain, the behavior of the stock market, the shifts of political power. . . . It is time science . . . thinks about meaning as well as counting information. . . . This is the core of the complexity manifesto. Read it, think about it . . . but don't ignore it."—Ian Stewart, Nature This second edition has been brought up to date with an essay entitled "On the Edge in the Business World" and an interview with John Holland, author of Emergence: From Chaos to Order.

Aid has become a tangle of donors and recipients, so unwieldy that it is in danger of collapse. This ground-breaking book presents fresh thinking that transcends the 'more' verses 'less' arguments. Drawing on complexity theory it shows how aid could be transformed into a truly dynamic form of global cooperation fit for the twenty-first century.

In their startling new book, authors Brown and Eisenhardt contend that to prosper in today's fiercely competitive business environments, a new paradigm--competing on the edge--must be implemented as a new survival strategy. This book focuses on specific management dilemmas and illustrates solutions that work when the name of the game is change.

Order on the Edge of Chaos answers the question: how do people today create and sustain order in their lives and in their groups?

An internationally renowned scientist who fears she’s taken one scientific risk too many; a distinguished archaeologist who’s haunted by taking too few; a world famous financier who’s lost everything except his money; an art gallery owner with a heartbreaking burden; a fugitive filmmaker; the head of a battered women’s shelter—these are some of the people who find themselves at the end of the Old Santa Fe Trail at the end of the 20th century. Chance has brought them from all over to beautiful, legendary Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they shape, illuminate, and even deform each other’s lives unexpectedly, as if on the very edge of chaos. This edge of chaos, a scientific term for that slender territory between frozen predictability and hopeless disorder, is a dangerously unstable place. Learning and change can only happen there, but always under threat of sliding back to frozen order—or over into the chaotic abyss. And Santa Fe’s sons and daughters, even now, keep a precarious foothold on “The Edge of Chaos,” bringing their own pasts and their city’s rich history into an uncertain but exhilarating future. PAMELA McCORDUCK has published eight other books, translated into most of the major European and Asian languages. She has written for magazines ranging from “Redbook” and “Cosmopolitan” to “Daedalus,” and was a contributing editor to “Wired.” She was a board member and officer of the American PEN Center in New York, the authors’ organization, and an officer of the New Mexico Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. She has appeared on many television shows, including PBS’s News Hour and the CBS Evening News. CNN based a two-part documentary on her book, “The Futures of Women.”

What are fractals? Why are they such fun? How do you make one? Why is a dripping tap not as random as it seems? What is chaos? Is the Mandelbrot Set really the most complex object in mathematics? In this beautifully illustrated book, fractal-hunter Oliver Linton takes us on a fascinating journey into the mathematics of fractals and chaos, diving into many kinds of self- similar structures to reveal some of the most recently discovered and intriguing patterns in science and nature. "e;Fascinating"e; FINANCIAL TIMES. "e;Beautiful"e; LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "e;Rich and Artful"e; THE LANCET. "e;Genuinely mind-expanding"e; FORTEAN TIMES. "e;Excellent"e; NEW SCIENTIST. "e;Stunning"e; NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.