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Product Description
Review
“Getting to Maybe addresses making big, significant change actually happen. It is thoughtful, insightful, sobering and inspirational. The ideas articulated are new and practical. Anyone from the business, government or not-for-profit world who wants to understand change better, and change the way things are, should read this book.”
—Courtney Pratt, chairman of Stelco
—Courtney Pratt, chairman of Stelco
Product Description
A practical, inspirational, revolutionary guide to social innovation
Many of us have a deep desire to make the world around us a better place. But often our good intentions are undermined by the fear that we are so insignificant in the big scheme of things that nothing we can do will actually help feed the world’s hungry, fix the damage of a Hurricane Katrina or even get a healthy lunch program up and running in the local school. We tend to think that great social change is the province of heroes – an intimidating view of reality that keeps ordinary people on the couch. But extraordinary leaders such as Gandhi and even unlikely social activists such as Bob Geldof most often see themselves as harnessing the forces around them, rather than singlehandedly setting those forces in motion. The trick in any great social project – from the global fight against AIDS to working to eradicate poverty in a single Canadian city – is to stop looking at the discrete elements and start trying to understand the complex relationships between them. By studying fascinating real-life examples of social change through this systems-and-relationships lens, the authors of Getting to Maybe tease out the rules of engagement between volunteers, leaders, organizations and circumstance – between individuals and what Shakespeare called “the tide in the affairs of men.”
Getting to Maybe applies the insights of complexity theory and harvests the experiences of a wide range of people and organizations – including the ministers behind the Boston Miracle (and its aftermath); the Grameen Bank, in which one man’s dream of micro-credit sparked a financial revolution for the world’s poor; the efforts of a Canadian clothing designer to help transform the lives of aboriginal women and children; and many more – to lay out a brand new way of thinking about making change in communities, in business, and in the world.
From the Hardcover edition.
Many of us have a deep desire to make the world around us a better place. But often our good intentions are undermined by the fear that we are so insignificant in the big scheme of things that nothing we can do will actually help feed the world’s hungry, fix the damage of a Hurricane Katrina or even get a healthy lunch program up and running in the local school. We tend to think that great social change is the province of heroes – an intimidating view of reality that keeps ordinary people on the couch. But extraordinary leaders such as Gandhi and even unlikely social activists such as Bob Geldof most often see themselves as harnessing the forces around them, rather than singlehandedly setting those forces in motion. The trick in any great social project – from the global fight against AIDS to working to eradicate poverty in a single Canadian city – is to stop looking at the discrete elements and start trying to understand the complex relationships between them. By studying fascinating real-life examples of social change through this systems-and-relationships lens, the authors of Getting to Maybe tease out the rules of engagement between volunteers, leaders, organizations and circumstance – between individuals and what Shakespeare called “the tide in the affairs of men.”
Getting to Maybe applies the insights of complexity theory and harvests the experiences of a wide range of people and organizations – including the ministers behind the Boston Miracle (and its aftermath); the Grameen Bank, in which one man’s dream of micro-credit sparked a financial revolution for the world’s poor; the efforts of a Canadian clothing designer to help transform the lives of aboriginal women and children; and many more – to lay out a brand new way of thinking about making change in communities, in business, and in the world.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Book - Inspiring and Practical,
By
This review is from: Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed (Paperback)
You cannot read this book without marking up the margins of each page with your own creative ideas that springboard from the authors insights. This book draws the reader into a whole new paradigm of social innovation and organizational leadership.It creates a healthy dissatisfaction in the reader which compels you to rethink your current values, strategies and approaches and think creatively about your organization. This book is strong affirmation for those individuals and organizations who believe that there can & should be a more "natural" and "organic" way of conducting business and service than we are currently investing. Validing thinking, creativity, the power of self-organization, and the hope that motivates and captivates all social entrepreneurs are common themes throughout this book. A difficult read for linear and pragmatic thinkers but one that creates a vibrant balance between purpose and praxis. Worth every penny!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary thinking,
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This review is from: Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed (Paperback)
I love the way this book challenges my thinking, and helps me move beyond my strategic processes to make a difference in the real and complex world. Everyone leading a nonprofit or government organization, whether board or staff, should read this book; learn to identify complex issues, and gain the tools and mindset to truly cope with that complexity. The results might amaze us!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hard-headed analysis, practical ideas for effective action... and genuine inspiration,
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This review is from: Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed (Paperback)
An extraordinary book. The authors' research, covering a diverse array of social innovation cases from the Boston Miracle to the Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network, teases out some crucial common threads. And interestingly enough for the Web 2.0 crowd, a lot of them run close and parallel to the world of the social web.What sets this book apart from similar works is its seamless connection between a high-level examination of how chaos theory applies to social change, and practical, hands-on advice to would-be innovators and those who want to support them. It's that rare work that succeeds both in inspiring the reader, and providing a solid framework of theory and evidence to ground that inspiration in the real world.
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