Synchronicity

June 1, 1996
%% This is a multi-book review: SEE also the title "Corporate Tides." %% With publication of "The Fifth Discipline" (1990), Peter Senge has become one of today's leading management gurus. His argument that organizations must make learning a continuous process struck a chord, and now a number of writers on management and organizational behavior are attempting to ride Senge's dust-jacket tails by emphasizing their connections to Senge or by having him write introductions to their work.Twenty years ago, Fritz and Senge helped start Innovation Associates, a management consulting firm. Fritz is also the author of "The Path of Least Resistance" (1989) and the so-called founder of "structural consulting." Fritz emphasizes the effects of change on organizational structure and, at the same time, shows how structure can affect, effect, or limit change. Change, just as the tide ebbs and flows, oscillates through a structure, affecting subsequent units or departments in often unforeseen or unintended ways. Fritz argues that change cannot be successful unless this factor is taken into consideration.Senge contributes a lengthy introduction to Jaworski's book. In 1980, Jaworski founded the American Leadership Forum, a private agency responsible for developing collaborative leadership to work on urban and regional problems, and he went on to run that organization for 10 years. He is fascinated by the phenomenon that Carl Jung described as synchronicity, "a meaningful coincidence of two or more events." Jaworski feels that it is possible for synchronicity to "occur collectively in a group or team of people," and when this happens, it can lead to "predictable miracles." It is the role of the leader in an organization to create conditions that foster such occurrences. This book is Jaworski's highly personal story of the synchronous events in his own life that led to his transformation and made him a better leader. ((Reviewed June 1 & 15, 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)