Natural Creativity for Organizations with Margaret Wheatley & Myron Kellnor-Rogers

Program Description

The usual approach to work life in an organization does not allow much room for play, risk or individuality. But principles in the natural world suggest a more creative, effective approach. “Everywhere you look in life,” says Wheatley, “what you see is enormous creativity, diversity and experimentation.” She and Kellnor-Rogers describe how the same methods nature uses for producing vital, thriving life forms can bring new life to individuals and organizations of all kinds. They tell us how to let go of our need for control, invite innovation–and be ready for surprises! Says Wheatley, “This isn’t a superficial shift at all.”

She is the author of Leadership and the New Science (Berrett-Koehler 1992). Both are organizational consultants with the Berkana Institute and co-authors of A Simpler Way: On the New Self-Organizing Paradigm for Organizations (Berrett-Koehler 1996).

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• How to take risks and experiment in business and life
• Play and its role in the modern organization
• How education can produce more creative people
• The demise of the five-year plan
• Using intentionality to guide decision-making
• A re-thinking of Darwinian theory
• Challenges to the earliest life on Earth
• The trouble with procedures manuals
• Nature’s secrets for vital and creative organization

Program Number: 2573                Host: Michael Toms                 Interview Date: 6/17/1996