8: Mary Parker Follett and Margaret Wheatley, Systems Pioneers in a VUCA World

Margaret Wheatley believes that the way we see our businesses is a larger threat than the VUCA nature of our world.¹ We see and diagnose problems with “skewed” vision, missing breakthrough clues from an “elegant world of possibility.”² Is elegance possible in a VUCA world? We hope that after we introduce you to systems thinking and two pioneers in systems thinking — Mary Parker Follett and Wheatley — you may catch a glimpse of that. Systems thinking is a way of seeing, a language and a set of tools to simplify the way we solve problems, and innovate and lead change in our organizations. Follett and Wheatley’s systems wisdom will challenge you to see and respond differently to the challenges and possibilities of a VUCA environment.