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In 'Combining', Nora Bateson invites us into an ecology of communication where nothing stands alone, and every action sets off a chain of incalculable consequences. She challenges conventional fixes for our problems, highlighting the need to tackle issues at multiple levels, understand interdependence, and embrace ambiguity.Insisting on our collective responsibility to confront the looming threats to humanity's survival, she advocates change through interconnectedness and challenges us to rethink our perspectives on relationships, community, and the very essence of being human.A blend of intellectual inquiry, essays, emotional engagement, storytelling, poetry and graphic art, Combining is an invitation to nurture genuine connections and navigate a world brimming with "Warm Data" - the interrelationships that integrate elements of every complex system. The book calls on us to shed our linear thinking and embrace "Aphanipoiesis" - the unseen ways in which life comes together to foster vitality and propel evolution.In 'Combining', love, humor, curiosity, and vulnerability entwine amidst the trials of a world in flux. As we face the Polycrisis, Nora Bateson urges us to swerve from the traditional paths and to dismantle the illusions of fitting in. She beckons us to step into a world where learning, uncutness, and readiness converge, promising both revelation and revolution.

For the late Russell Ackoff, the important principles and qualities on which his work was based - clear-sightedness, looking at the bigger picture, working backwards to dissolve problems, radicalism - crossed over into most, if not all, other aspects of his life. "Ackoff's Memories" tell of his experiences of serving in the US Army during World War II; of bringing up a young family; of encountering different cultures whilst working abroad. From analyzing birth rates in India, to a fireside chat with the Queen of Iran, to introducing theme parks to the US, the stories collected in this book lay bare the workings of a number of well-known businesses and other organizations - and the people who run them. They describe common attitudes, behaviors and assumptions, which, if left unchallenged, can destabilize or even destroy an organization. This book shows how thinking systemically leads to real organizational improvements in a variety of academic and workplace settings and - just as important - how failure to do so can be both personally embarrassing and damaging to the organization.Each story is used to illustrate a belief, principle or conclusion central to Ackoff's theories of Systems Thinking and Design Thinking. And each of them is told with his customary generosity, wit and wisdom.

This is a 'Whole Earth Catalog' for the 21st century: an impressive and wide-ranging analysis of what's wrong with our societies, organizations, ideologies, worldviews and cultures - and how to put them right. The book covers the finance system, agriculture, design, ecology, economy, sustainability, organizations and society at large. In it, Daniel Wahl explores ways in which we can reframe and understand the crises that we currently face and explores how we can live our way into the future. Moving from patterns of thinking and believing to our practice of education, design and community living, he systematically shows how we can stop chasing the mirage of certainty and control in a complex and unpredictable world. The book asks how can we collaborate in the creation of diverse regenerative cultures adapted to the unique biocultural conditions of place? How can we create conditions conducive to life? "This book is a valuable contribution to the important discussion of the worldview and value system we need to redesign our businesses, economies, and technologies - in fact, our entire culture - so as to make them regenerative rather than destructive."Fritjof Capra, author of The Web of Life, coauthor of The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision. "This is an excellent addition to the literature on ecological design and it will certainly form a keystone in the foundations of the new MA in Ecological Design Thinking at Schumacher College, Devon. It not only contains a wealth of ideas on what Dr Wahl has termed 'Designing Regenerative Cultures' but what is probably more important, it provides some stimulating new ways of looking at persistent problems in our contemporary culture and hence opens up new ways of thinking and acting in the future." Seaton Baxter OBE, Professor in Ecological Design Thinking, Schumacher College, UK

When it was first published in 1990, 'Body Space Image' was acclaimed as the first book of its kind - a remarkable guide to improvisation, using a narrative of discovery that "set the mind loose from the rut of everyday perception". It was groundbreaking in the way it addressed improvised movement, experimental performance and how to create performance settings.Thirty years later, 'Body, Space, Image' still stands out from anything published in the interim - largely because of the way it combines a unique collection of images (from dance, theatre and painting) and statements by working artists.The authors start with the individual's movement itself as the basis of improvisation, then broaden their perspective to include groups working together and the physical setting of performance - space, light, sound and objects. 'Body Space Image' explores ways of working and ways of thinking about performance that have inspired beginners and experienced artists alike. It is a manual intended to stimulate rather than a comprehensive system of working and, in it, word and image combine to celebrate and record one of the most exacting art forms. Previously published by Dance Books, this is a very slightly revised new edition from Triarchy Press

This is a collection of essays, reflections and poems by Nora Bateson, the noted research designer, film-maker, writer and lecturer. She is the daughter of Gregory Bateson and president of the International Bateson Institute (IBI). Building on Gregory Bateson's famous book Towards an Ecology of Mind and her own film on the subject, Nora Bateson here updates our thinking on systems and ecosystems, applying her own insights and those of her team at IBI to education, organisations, complexity, academia, and the way that society organizes itself. She also introduces the term symmathesy to describe the contextual mutual learning through interaction that takes place in living entities at larger or smaller scales. While she retains her father's rigorous attention to definition, observation and academic precision, she also moves well beyond that frame of reference to incorporate more embodied ways of knowing and understanding. These are reflected in her essays and poems on food, Christmas, love, honesty, environmentalism and leadership. [Subject: Systems thinking, education, social anthropology, environmentalism, Bateson, symmathesy]

It is well known that, in their professional lives, most academics and researchers will - like cats - seek to exercise as much independence as possible and may display resistance to anything resembling authority. Nevertheless, leaders of academic/research institutions must still lead and, by common agreement, need all the help and advice they can get!In the ten years since they wrote their hugely popular first book on the subject, the world has changed almost beyond recognition. Geoff Garrett and Graeme Davies have also accumulated even more experience of leading international academic/research institutions, and have talked to even more colleagues around the world. In Herding Cats Revisited they have extended, rewritten and updated their advice to reflect the technology, equality and financial realities of the 2020s. Once again, the authors address common leadership and management themes, like making tough strategic choices, leading change effectively, crisis management, dealing with bureaucracy, managing social media, allocating resources, managing budgets and ensuring effective implementation.'Herding Cats Revisited' guides academic/research leaders and aspiring leaders through the process of learning to accept and embrace the qualities of their 'cats' so they can tempt them into successfully achieving exciting and demanding goals with agility.

Innovation is a necessity in a changing world. But what kind of innovation?'Sustaining innovation' props up and temporarily fixes structures and processes that are failing - making them cheaper, faster, safer, more efficient.'Disruptive innovation' shakes things up. Typically however disruptive initiatives offer only short-term impact or are eventually adapted and 'mainstreamed' to help sustain existing systems. That is particularly true in the public, social, cultural and civic sectors where the natural patterns of renewal that have been developed in market settings (creative destruction, sophisticated financial support etc.) are generally absent.Only 'transformative innovation' can deliver a fundamental shift towards new patterns of viability in tune with our aspirations for the future.This book offers a first stand-alone practical guide to how to realise transformative potential at scale. It offers six elements for policymakers, funders and innovators:Knowing: how to expand our sense of what constitutes valid knowledge to become more comfortable with complexityImagining: how to conceive, develop and design transformative initiatives to carry a group's longer term aspirationsBeing: how to organise for action, manage the process, and sustain the people involved over timeDoing: how to introduce the new in the presence of the old, enrol others and figure out what to do when you don't know what to doEnabling: how to construct a policy framework for long term transition and provide smart financing to matchSupporting: how to develop systems and structures to support a culture of renewal in our public, social and civic systems. It concludes with an invitation to join a growing community of transformative innovators around the world - a network of hope in powerful times.

Russell Ackoff's long and distinguished career as the doyen of Design and Systems Thinking was built around a collection of deceptively simple - but often overlooked - principles and observations. In "Differences That Make a Difference" - the last of his many books - Ackoff determined to distill the wisdom of a lifetime into a 'glossary' that would be easily accessible to managers, employees, students, and academics alike. His aim was to dissolve (not solve or resolve) some of the many disputes in professional and private life that revolve around meaning and (mis)understanding. For example, development and growth do not mean the same thing. A cemetery or rubbish heap can grow without developing, whereas a person continues to develop long after he or she has stopped growing. Ackoff understood that getting to the bottom of differences like this one could have far-reaching practical consequences for improving our organizational health. In "Differences That Make a Difference", he has succeeded magnificently in creating what Charles Handy in his Foreword calls 'a manual for clear thinking'. And if the world ever needed clear thinking...

Russell Ackoff is one of the world's top business brains. Herbert Addison has worked for years in business book publishing. Sally Bibb is a pioneer of organizational change. Who better to zero in on organizations, take them apart and then suggest ways of putting them back together - but better! We have all heard of Sod's Law. Most of us know about Parkinson's Law. But what about "Management f-Laws"? "Management f-Laws: How Organizations Really Work" is a collection of subversive epigrams by Ackoff and his co-author Addison. The f-Laws, an expression coined by Ackoff, expose the commonly established laws of management - the hierarchies and power struggles, the ineptitudes and time-wasting, the prejudices and careless thinking - as flaws of management, all of which hinder successful strategies of change. With wit and wisdom, the authors set out the uncomforable truths about the way organizations really work to help sort out good management ways from bad, to get us thinking about how to change our own practices for the better.But can Ackoff and Addison, despite their life-long careers in Organizational Change and Systems Design really claim to speak for present-day management practice? Sally Bibb has a fine reputation as a writer and journalist, is ebullient, witty and an enthusiastic pioneer of change. To test them out, she picks up the gauntlet thrown down by Ackoff and Addison and rises to the challenge by giving some feisty responses to their ironic and provocative claims. The conversation crosses cultural, status, gender and age divides and results in a book that will appeal to readers from the lowest to the highest ranks of the organizational hierarchy as well as to those who have resisted being part of it altogether.

As the former CEO of Shell Chemicals UK and Celltech, Gerard Fairtlough speaks about business with enormous authority and experience. In this ground-breaking book, he draws on that experience to explain why hierarchy is not the only way. He explains the alternatives to hierarchy and shows how they can work in practice. This extensively revised and updated edition is vital reading for anyone who wants organizations to work better.

The free market has become the accepted model for the public sector. Politicians on all sides compete to spread the gospel. And so, in the UK and elsewhere, there's been massive investment in public sector 'improvement', 'customer choice' has been increased and new targets have been set and refined. But our experience is that things haven't changed much. This is because governments have invested in the wrong things. Belief in targets, incentives and inspection; belief in economies of scale and shared back-office services; belief in 'deliverology... these are all wrong-headed ideas and yet they have underpinned this government's attempts to reform the public sector. John Seddon here dissects the changes that have been made in a range of services, including housing benefits, social care and policing. His descriptions beggar belief, though they would be funnier if it wasn't our money that was being wasted. In place of the current mess, he advocates a Systems Thinking approach where individuals come first, waste is reduced and responsibility replaces blame. It's an approach that is proven, successful and relatively cheap - and one that governments around the world, and their advisers, need to adopt urgently. "A refreshing deconstruction of the control freakery of the current performance regime. It could do for thinking on business improvement what An Inconvenient Truth has done for climate change." Andrew Grant, Chief Executive, Aylesbury Vale District Council "This is the must-have book. It correctly identifies why the present regime is failing our citizens and customers, but more importantly it gives the reader a proven method by which to bring about real improvement in service performance and cost." Dr Carlton Brand, Director of Resources, Wiltshire County Council "This book is uncomfortable, challenging and very direct. It offers huge learning and insight... A superb read." David McQuade, Deputy Chief Executive, Flagship Housing Group "If ministers, local authority leaders and chief executives only read one book this year this is it. A true beacon of sanity in an increasingly insane regime; ministers should read this and recognise the error of their ways." Mark Radford, Director of Corporate Services, Swale District Council

If the idea of a conceptual emergency was wacky and original when it was taken up in the first edition of this booklet, it now appears inescapable. Brought on by the global credit crunch and the collapse or effective nationalisation of so many familiar institutions (HBOS, Lehman Brothers, Woolworths...), we face a fresh crisis of faith, as the instability of our previous perceptions of identity, morality, cultural coherence and social position is revealed. In a world where we are losing our collective bearings, we urgently need leadership inspired by fresh and insightful thinking. This booklet provides a remarkable amount of both. The authors are writing under the banner of the International Futures Forum (IFF), an innovative and forward-thinking group that has inspired many communities to respond powerfully to severe social and economic challenges. "Ten Things" records IFF's learning over seven years on how to take more effective and responsible action in a world we do not understand and cannot control. This second edition has been expanded and updated with seven inspirational case studies from around the world, generated by the work of the IFF.Insightful yet playful, compact, readable and touchingly illustrated, this is a gem of a book. It will appeal to managers and organisational and political leaders but also to environmental campaigners, social psychologists and educationalists.

Most organizations - public, private and third sector - know they need to offer better leadership. But, in trying to do so, they too often look in the wrong place. Experience tells us that even heroic leaders are no better than the systems they work in. Flawed systems strangle leadership. The answer? Stop polishing the fish and tackle the water they swim in! "The Search for Leadership" shows why it is naive to expect much leadership from individual managers acting alone. Only when we start to see leadership as a property of the organization can we begin to improve it. William Tate pulls no punches in his examination of leadership in business, politics and institutions like the police and the Health Service. Using forensic analysis, cogent argument and damning case studies, he shows why conventional leadership models and programs miss the point and waste our money. In their place he presents a proven and practical 'Systems Thinking' approach that will transform the way leadership is developed, applied and held accountable for delivering results. "The Search for Leadership" is a comprehensive study of the way leadership operates in organizations.Split into two parts - the thinking challenge and the more practical intervention challenge - it tackles each aspect of leadership on a theme-by-theme basis and is an invaluable resource for anyone working to improve leadership in an organization. The chapters provide an in-depth focus on current leadership issues, from discussing the difference between managing and leading, through learning the language of Systems Thinking and developing a leadership culture, to exploring a range of processes by which leadership can be held to account. This eye-opening account of the challenges organizations face is written for managers as well as developers, teachers, researchers and coaches. Its systemic focus sets it apart from other leadership books. It will change the way you think about leadership and help improve the way any organization is run.

This gem of a book introduces the extraordinary world of Systems Thinking and its 'Dean', Russell Ackoff, to curious and enquiring managers, teachers, business people - anyone, anywhere who works in an organisation. Finished just before Professor Ackoff's death late in 2009, "Systems Thinking for Curious Managers" opens the door to a joined up way of thinking about things that has profoundly influenced thinkers and doers in the fields of business, politics, economics, biology, psychology. Although Systems Thinking was 'invented' early in the 20th century, even Peter Senge's best-selling "The Fifth Discipline" (Systems Thinking is the fifth discipline) failed to popularise the term. But now, in business and academia, in the public sector and in the search for solutions to the environmental problems we face, Systems Thinking is being talked about everywhere. In the same way, it's only since his death in 2009 that management thinker, writer and guru Russell Ackoff has achieved the reputation he deserves. This timely book presents 40 more of Russ Ackoff's famously witty and incisive f-Laws (or flaws) of business - following on from his 2007 collection "Management f-Laws".All those in this collection are new and previously unpublished. Andrew Carey's extended introduction ties these f-Laws into the rest of Ackoff's work and gives the reader new to Systems Thinking a practical guide to the implications of Systems Thinking for organisations and managers. The Foreword by Jamshid Gharajedaghi is a moving tribute from Ackoff's friend and business partner of many years.

In his acclaimed 2008 book "Systems Thinking in the Public Sector", John Seddon blew the whistle on public sector 'reform' and the flawed gospel of quasi-markets, competition, targets and inspection. He showed how thousands of people in the UK and elsewhere had been engaged at a cost of millions of pounds, to impose and enforce targets that simply made things worse...Those people are still there - from the Audit Commission down - and the quasi-market model is still creating waste, driving up costs, damaging services and destroying morale. Now a new book spells out the alternative. "Delivering Public Services that Work" brings together case studies from 6 different public sector organisations, in the UK and New Zealand, that are using "Systems Thinking" to bring about rapid and extraordinary change. These Case Studies show: how they did it, step by step; how they overcame initial resistance and hostility from staff; how they rolled-in (rather than rolled-out) the programme across other departments/services; the astonishing results that have been achieved; and, the unexpected benefits that can accrue (a 44 per cent drop in staff illness in one case).

Economies of Life argues cogently that there is a 'default assumption that there is only one economy in our lives - the economy which is the one based on money. Our position is that there are many economies, of which the one based on money is just one, and that they all contribute to the health and sustainability of our shared lives'. To extend this thinking, money is the currency of trade, and art is the currency of experience. In his collection of five essays, Bill Sharpe uses the principles of ecological thinking to redefine our hitherto narrow understanding of terms like economy and value. The essays consider - with poetic sensitivity and intellectual clarity - what keeps each economy healthy, what sort of wealth each one accumulates and what sort of policies are most supportive of innovation and sustainability in a changing world. Bill Sharpe and a small group of other IFF* members, working with the Watershed Media Centre in Bristol, took as the starting point for their inquiry the question 'Can we help people who fund the arts develop better policies if we use ecological thinking to understand how the arts work in society and in the economy?'The resulting parallel publication from the Watershed - Producing the Future: Understanding Watershed's role in Ecosystems of Cultural Innovation - catalogues the thinking undertaken by the IFF and the Watershed in order to understand what makes for a healthy, creative, innovative ecosystem. It offers as a case study the experience of putting these emerging ideas into practice at the Watershed. The insights resulting from both Economies of Life and Producing the Future offer an ecologically informed and dynamic framework for understanding creativity, the arts and how the arts should be funded into the future.