Edmondson clarifies Buckminster Fuller's synergetic geometry in conventional language and mathematics and illuminates his effort to employ synergetics as a strategy for human survival. Updated author Preface and new Foreword by J. Baldwin
Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, where she teaches courses in leadership, organizational learning, and operations management in the MBA and Executive Education programs.
If you've ever tried to actually read Buckminster Fuller's Synergetics, you know it's pretty wild and obtuse. I have a copy and I've always had to be content with just looking at the weird diagrams. I just ain't that smart!
Edmondson tries to put it all into normal English, in the hopes that mostly normal people can understand it. And she does a damn fine job. She's lightyears more readable that Bucky. Which is not to say that this is a light read. It's not. But at least you feel like you have a shot at understanding.
One warning, though. You'll forever cringe when someone speaks of squaring and cubing numbers.
Wow. Things you'll never be taught in school, but will change the way you view your world. Not just out of the box thinking, it's about completely re-fashioning what the box is in the first place (or rather replacing it with a tetrahedron).
I love Fuller's ideas, and having gone through parts of Synergetics, I was curious to see what another fan, more invested and expert than I am, could do in terms of explaining his ideas.
Amy Edmondson will have my ear, and eye, and I will let you know how it goes.