Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity (JBUMBS Series) (Hardcover)

The ideas will not be knew to anyone familiar with Weick's past writing (his extended essays on Mann Gluch and (with Karlene Roberts) Aircraft Carrier Flight Decks are amoung his best in the early 90s. The argument is that how people in organisations respond to certain events often makes the difference between a disaster and a reliable organisation. These reponses are mediated by the social context created by the organisation.

In this book, Weick and Sutcliffe make an effort to extend these ideas to all organisations. All organisations are on the verge of a 'disaster' -- all can benefit from the secrets of high-reliability management.

How successful is it?

Firstly, the argument that all organisations can learn from High Reliability Organisations (HROs) is not completely convincing. The simple fact is it relies on their being a degree of slack in the organisation which would cost money. It is not a simple cost-benefit analysis: the benefits are often hidden, the costs not always clear.

The second problem is the diluting of the very rich ideas. In his analysis of the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, Weick developed a sophisticated model of collective mind. This model has been reduced to the concept of 'mindfulness' in this book, which is the secret to successful management of high reliability organisations. This shows Weick's hand in what he finds to be the most important of the ideas in his earlier, more academic papers. But it is still a weakened form of the complex ideas he has presented elsewhere.

The third problem is 'how-to' like guide for successful management. While it is clearly not Weick and Robert's intention to over-simplify the task of management, the nature of this book and its intended audience has forced them to offer a simple, recipe-like set of steps. This is most evident in the final chapter, which offers mindful manangement in five easy steps.

Depite these criticisms, this is a good book. The most valuable thing I have learnt from reading Weick over the years is not the specific ideas he portrays, but the attitude towards organising and managing. This attitude is present in this book. The final chapter begins "Mindfulness is as much a mindset as it is a style of management." How you think and act is as important as what you think about and what you do.

Rather than emphasising certainty and optimisation, Weick has always empahsised ambiguity and making do with what you have at hand. Rather than taking a rational and deadly serious approach to organisations, Weick has emphasised a counter-intuitive, playful attitude to thinking about organisations. Rather than offering simple answers, Weick has emphasised a set of tools for thinking about organisations. Rather than offering answers, Weick has tried to help his readers come up with their own answers.

In many ways, Weick's writing has always taught as much by how it is written as by what he is writing about. And this strength is present in Managing the Unexpected.