The Chaos Imperative
How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness, and Success
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- CHF 3.50
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- CHF 3.50
Publisher Description
Following the booming popularity of titles such as Switch and Made to Stick, Ori Brafman reveals how organizations can drive growth and profits by allowing contained chaos and disruption the space to flourish, generating new ideas that trigger innovation.
In The Chaos Imperative, Brafman shows how even the best and most efficient organizations, from Fortune 500 companies to today's US Army, benefit from allowing a little unstructured space and disruption into their planning and decision-making.
Brafman's approach is a groundbreaking new way of managing company policy and making astute, inventive choices, and can be applied to any type of organization, be they small or infinitely powerful. In our economy's current state of flux, it is crucial that we take risks, think organically and allow a little freedom for improvement to take place, and The Chaos Imperative shows us how to do this with vigour, and in an accessible, practical manner.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this surprising tome, organizational expert Brafman (Sway), who has consulted with Fortune 500 companies and the U.S. Army, argues that contrary to conventional wisdom, chaos is essential for generating new ideas. While noting that organizational structure and discipline have their place, the best ideas, he posits, come from what he calls "white space" short, unstructured moments that allow the brain to ruminate without performance pressure. Using examples such as Albert Einstein who is said to have derived many of his best ideas in coffeehouses and on hikes and the Army, arguably the least likely group to accept anything unstructured, the author offers five rules of chaos. The rules are based on a training program Brafman developed with the Army over the past two years: avoid the seductive lure of data, because not everything can be determined by metrics; put a loose structure around the chaotic; make white space productive; embrace "unusual suspects," those outside the inner circle, who approach the issues from a fresh perspective; and organize serendipity (set the stage for spontaneous interactions of different groups). This useful and practical book will be welcomed by managers looking for new ways to innovate.
