It is now widely recognized that the business world is in the throes of constant, rapid, and unpredictable change. Everywhere we hear that a new kind of economy is emerging from rapid technological innovation -- particularly in the realm of computational power and communications -- and from the globalization of business and the arrival of the Internet. Faced with these profound changes, leaders and managers are discovering that many of their background assumptions and time-honored business models are inadequate to help them understand what is going on, let alone how to deal with it and survive.

The Soul at Work brings to businesspeople a new and powerful way of thinking about and working in the new economy, one that draws on the new science of complexity, which recognizes that business organizations are complex adaptive systems. The great contribution of prize-winning author Roger Lewin and developmental psychologist Birute Regine is to ground this science in organizational dynamics, in the interactions of people, and to show how leaders who embrace the principles of complexity science are developing highly innovative and adaptable organizations that are more likely to be successful in traditional financial bottom-line terms. Most important, as the old command-and-control style of management is relinquished in favor of a broader sharing of leadership, people in these organizations experience a greater sense of commitment to their work and to themselves in an atmosphere of genuine relationships and mutual respect. The authors explain how these transforming ideas are creating a more human-oriented and successful workplace, as revealed in the stories of a dozen actual companies of very different types and sizes.

Practical and wonderfully readable, The Soul at Work explores these new management practices to show what does and does not work effectively, what blocks the process and what enhances it.