Barry Oshry: Leading Systems. Lessons from the Powerlab, Berret-Koehler 1999

This is an accessibly written, keenly observant description of the workings of systems as part of our human condition. It focuses on the very essentials, pushing academic pretensiousness totally aside. Minimalistic in its scholarly aspects, the book is based on the author's experiences in his "Power Lab", a site for experiential learning of the functioning of everyday power systems. The author is extremely powerful in finding ways to capture crucial aspects of systems life in a few carefully crafted sentences. Key concepts include systems life, subtle forces of the human potential, system mastery, system leadership, and system energy. There is an uplifting air of optimism at the core of the book but that optimism is embedded in brilliantly observed paradoxes and miseries that result when the system aspect of our being is not respected or observed. Oshry's mission is to increase both. I found the first five chapters particularly strong. Notice also the summary of Oshry's key observations at the end of the book.

A couple of crystallizations:
"Lead from the inside. You are not a visitor to your systems, you are of (italics) these systems, they run through you."

"Do not expect systems to work like clockwork; they are more like energy fields."

"...system leadership has to do with breaking the system out of its current patters, radically transforming the system's mission, direction, traditions, and culture, elevating the system to previously unattained levels of performance."

As an introduction to the thematics of systems life, the area that Raimo Hämäläinen and myself have approached through the concept of Systems Intelligence, this book is one of the best if not the very best I know.