Navigating into the Unknown

Preface
Navigation is the helmsman's art: how to identify our current position, determine our destination, and steer our ship towards it.
The high art of navigation is the ability to get our bearings in unknown territory - that is, when we are faced with uncertain locations, moving targets and a variety of possible routes.
Most organizations today confront such a "New World." This book describes the new methods of navigation required in the New World, including principles of thought and rules of action in conditions of uncertainty and great complexity.
The New World is unknown to us in many respects. So what can we nevertheless know? Perhaps we know much more already than we are aware of.
We know, for instance, that the new will be complex. Managing complexity will be the greatest challenge. This will be true for organizations of every kind: commercial enterprises and hospitals, public authorities and schools, cities and states. We know that all these organizations need to function in conditions of growing complexity; it is also true that this very complexity will enable them to function better and better, and in ever new ways. This book describes the methods and tools to handle complexity, and how systems-cybernetic management helps us master complexity.
As such, we are able to navigate through periods of change despite all the uncertainties we face. With each step we take we will learn more, for that is how complexity-compatible control methods with appropriately designed feedback loops work.
The New World is born from the Great Transformation21, a term I coined in 1997 for the ongoing fundamental change processes across society. It frees us from the organizational and managerial limitations of the Old World, allowing us to function better and to think in new ways and design new things.
It is a principle of mine not to publish any of my books until their content has proven valid in years of cooperation and discussions with hundreds of man-
agers -

Contents
Preface 9
Chapter 1: Why we must revolutionize our thinking 11
Observations 11
Chapter 2: The Great Transformation21 14
A Sign of Our Times? 14
From the Old World to the New 15
A Complete Change 16
The Old World of 1997 22
"Classical Management": an Obsolescent Model 24
Almost Everything Will Change 26
Birth Pangs of a New World 27
Economics Is Not Enough 29
A Crisis of Dysfunction 31
The REvolution of Organizations 33
Chapter 3: The Basic Law of Change 36
A Map of Growth, Uncertainty, and Creative Destruction 37
Navigating into the Unknown 39
Not One but Three Strategies Needed 41
Substitution and Experiencing Creative Destruction 42
Fundamental Transformations 43
Being Ahead of Change 46
Chapter 4: The Drivers of Transformation 48
Demographics 49
Ecology 53
Science and Technology 57
Economics and Debt 62
Complexity as the Main Driver 67
Chapter 5: Complexity - a Raw Material of the New World 68
Limits to the Old Ways of Thinking 70
What Is Complexity? What is Variety? 71
Inconceivable yet Manageable 73
Simple and Complex Systems 75
Complicated or complex? 78
Chapter 6: Systems Out of Control? 81
New Governance by Cybernetics: Communication and Control 84
Cybernetics for Self-Capabilities 87
Doing Business Is Not Enough 88
Chapter 7: Complexity for the Functioning of Organizations 90
Two Levels of Functioning 90
Operational and Management Tasks 93
Constants in Change: Master Controls 94
How Master Controls Work 96
Navigation Assistants for the Great Transition 104
Chapter 8: Heuristics: Navigation Principles for New Territory 114
Principles for Assessing a Situation in Circumstances of Uncertainty 116
Principles for Control Capacity and the Shaping of Relationships 118
Principles for Information 120
Principles for Persuasiveness 121
Chapter 9: From Disruption to New Destinations 123
On Dealing with Limitations 124
When Something Is New: Managing by Instructions 130
Not Only Communication but also

Fredmund Malik is one of Europe's leading authorities on management. The bestselling author's work represents a standard of professional management that can be both taught and learnt. Malik's thinking goes beyond economics and draws inspiration from modern sciences of complexity, particularly cybernetics. He is an expert on corporate governance practice and an adviser to executives at the highest levels of international leadership. Fredmund Malik is a Professor at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. His honors include the Heinz von Foerster Prize for Organizational Cybernetics and the Austrian Award of Honor for Science and the Arts, awarded for his wholistic management systems.

"Malik accomplishes what management authors have tried to do since pre-Y2K. He has distilled to its essence the birth pangs of a new world order. [...] A management primer cum self-help book suitable for undergrads through CEOs." G. E. Leaf, Community Colleges of Spokane, Choice, 10.08.2017