It never stops confounding me how the simplest truths are the most powerful. In this work Margaret Wheatley speaks the simplest truth of them all, that incredible changes can occur on a global scale with the spark of a simple conversation.
This is not groundbreakingly new, before the repurcussions of the industrial revolution, people gathered and talked to each other, made plans, even organized and brought about incredible changes. But today, in the midst of the media/technology flurry and the ensuing shortness of time with which to address each other personally, it is a truth too easily forgotten.
The beauty in this book is that the antidote to this social memory lapse is easily obtainable, and the remedy is very simple to put into action. This work is especially timely in that unlike the mass of other works which determine the root causes, events, and happenings that lead to the disaster of 9-11, it never addresses this with any definition (my suspicion was that the book was already in the works at the time of the horror), and yet offers a potential alternative to ensure that things such as this may not happen again.
The format of the work reflects its nature - no overfilled pages with laborous stories and instructions jammed in, rather, carefully selected simple words on a stark minimalist background accompanied by gentle and simple graphics.
Beautiful.