Building High-Performance, High-Trust Organizations

Originally a physicist with a life-long interest in the complexity sciences, Gerrit Broekstra is Professor Emeritus of Organization Behavior at the Nyenrode Business University, the Netherlands. He was previously a professor and dean at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, the Netherlands, and a visiting professor at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, USA.

Prologue 1. Complexity is a Consequence of Living in a Sandpile World 2. Only Variety Absorbs Complexity 3. Top-down Decentralization and the Folly of Power First Story: The Pennsylvania Railroad Company 4. Going Against the Grain: Aborted Bottom-up Decentralization Second Story: The Durham Coal Miners 5. Common-sense Decentralization by Working with Human Nature - Not Against It Third Story: Svenska Handelsbanken 6. Deep Leadership Creates the Social Glue Keeping High-variety Organizations Together Epilogue