About the Book: Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers don’t discuss libraries and librarians in their book, A Simpler Way, but the library community should find much to reflect on in their work. The authors discuss systems, arguing that much of the best organizational structure happens organically, when people and organizations are allowed to create and grow in response to the world around them. A Simpler Way offers ways to think about the organization of information, about staffing organization, and about planning in libraries.The authors write that we live in a self-organizing world, and that life seeks to organize itself so that it can flourish. Yet, they also note that many lives and organizations provide little opportunity for experimentation, and for organizations to evolve. “If order is for free, than we don’t have to be the organizers,” they write (p. 35). Librarians, certainly historically and perhaps by their nature, are organizers. Some of us still believe it is possible to create an organizational system for the world’s information. Even if we were willing to give up on Dewey, many of us would like to believe that perhaps there’s a better way to organize information out there. Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers ask us to look at patterns that emerge, recognize that organizations and people will self-organize, and that change is a constant. Maybe there is no one, perfect system, and maybe that’s okay.
These same ideas may also be applied to library management and staffing systems. Unlike earlier books we’ve read, Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers don’t value a visionary leader. “The systems they create are chosen together. They are the result of dances, not wars,” the authors write (p. 44). Like other authors we’ve read, Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers offer up the values they think determine the form of a system: information; relationships; identity. What would a library staff look like where information was shared with all; people valued their relationships with co-workers and those they served; and felt empathy for identity of the organization (library)?
Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers offer a number of thoughts about planning, beginning with the idea that information is a necessary first step. “Information is one of the primary conditions that spawns the organizations we see,” (p. 82) they write. They argue for “parallel processing” – allowing many people and organizations to be working on a solution, which allows for both errors and multiple solutions. Interestingly, they are skeptical of traditional evaluation: “Every act of observation loses more information than it gains. Whatever we decide to notice blinds us to other possibilities” (p.26). So how do we create change in a system? Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers argue that we need to be “present and aware” about our organizations and ourselves. By reflecting on who we are, and who we want to become, we can move ourselves toward that change.
About the Authors: According to “the authors” section at the back of A Simpler Way, Margaret J. Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers have been “friends, colleagues, and partners” since 1976. They partner at both a consulting firm, and at the non-profit Berkana Institute. Wheatley earned a Ph.D. in administration, planning and social policy at Harvard; Kellner-Rogers studied at Holy Cross, Tufts and the University of Massachusetts.
Questions:
1. Thinking about the principles in this book, how might you organize an American public library? A grants program?
2. What successful organizations don’t have visionary leaders?
3. When does the creative process work best for you?
A Very Short Webography:
Book Reviews and Summaries
A short summary from Berrett-Koehler book sellers:
http://www.bkconnection.com/ProdDetails.asp?ID=1881052958&PG=1&Type=BL&PCS=BKP
The Illuminated Innovant is a blog with a good summary of the book by Paul Schumann (whom I do not know anything about): http://illuminatedinnovant.blogspot.com/2005/11/simpler-way.html
About the Authors
Margaret J. Wheatley has her own website at: http://www.margaretwheatley.com/.
Wheatley also has an entry at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Wheatley.
For a more traditional biography, and a photo, go to: http://www.integralleadershipreview.com/biography/bio_wheatley_margaret.html
Most everything about Myron Kellner-Rogers also included much info on Wheatley. Here’s a short bio from Berrett-Koehler: http://www.bkconnection.com/SearchResult.asp?SEL=1881052958&Type=RLA2
