The lies dealt with include:

• I'm too old for that
• There's nothing I can do
• Winning the lottery would solve everything
• What doesn't kill me makes me stronger

and so on. Just find what resonates with you and it will be helpful if you are ready to make changes in your thinking.

Of course, if you suffer from any of these self-limitations, just reading about it won't fix it (there must be half a dozen books on Yoga in our house and the lotus position remains at best a distant ambition).

Perhaps the most important message in the book is not to assume uncertainty until you have carried out the analysis needed to separate the knowable from the truly uncertain. 'If you want to make better strategy choices under uncertainty, then you have to understand the uncertainty you are facing...you must embrace uncertainty...get to know it.' This is the basic thesis of the book, which suggests that:

• for any decision, a manager must first identify the variables and time frame that matter in crafting the right strategy. the variables typically include customer demand, drivers of cost, technology, competitor behaviour and others.
• the manager must then ask what is and can be known about these key variables
• there are four basic levels of 'residual uncertainty', which the author defines as 'the uncertainty left after the best available analysis to separate the unknown from the unknowable', each of which requires a different strategic response.

The levels are:

level 1 uncertainty provides a clear, single view of the future,

level 2 involves a limited range of outcomes, one of which will occur,

level 3 involves a wider range of possible outcomes and

level 4 a limitless range of possible outcomes in which the range of outcomes is unknown and unknowable. There is a fairly detailed discussion of each of these, with examples, with the key message being to get the analysis of which level is applicable right.

• strategy under uncertainty requires arriving at the best possible answers to five basic questions:

1. shape or adapt (eg seek to shape a market or adapt to an existing market)
2. now or later
3. focus or diversify - for example a strategic portfolio
4. should we use new tools and Frameworks - the author explores scenarios, game theory and systems dynamics among others
5. new strategic planning and decision making processes - should we challenge a traditional planning cycle or set of decision processes?

• management should operate with a four step process:

1. Define the strategic issue and the level of residual uncertainty
2. Frame possible solutions
3. Analyze possible solutions and make strategy choices
4. Monitor and update strategy choices over time

• the appropriate approach is issue related, not organization related. Organizations in stable environments may encounter major strategic issues involving high residual uncertainty, while those in very dynamic environments may have issues involving low uncertainty. The strategic process must be appropriate to the situation.

The book is a detailed exploration of these variables, starting with a detailed examination of the 'four levels of residual uncertainty'. The rather extravagant title is meant to signify, not perfect strategies, but the best available in the context of the level of uncertainty being confronted. Most of the rest of the book is concerned with how to answer the five basic questions above in the context of each level of uncertainty, and which tools are most appropriate for guiding the decision process. The tools discussed in the Appendix 'The Uncertainty Toolkit' are:

• scenario planning
• game theory
• decision analysis
• systems dynamics models
• management flight simulators.

Ken Wilber is an extraordinary writer who works to synthesise material from science, philosophy, psychology, sociology and eastern and western spiritual traditions into a comprehensive diagnosis of the western condition and the nature of the challenges which face us. Having said that, a fuller review of what is also a powerful polemical attack on the inadequacies of modernist and postmodernist philosophy belongs in another forum.

This commentary is simply an attempt to explain why the book merits inclusion in a manager's reading list. Astonishingly, he achieves his synthesis in a way which is, in general, very readable and which clarifies a lot of concepts and ideas which, for me as a non-specialist in the field, have been pretty unapproachable. In particular, I have a much clearer idea of the content of 'modernism' and 'post modernism' and why it is important to understand something of that debate.

Perhaps most valuable of all, for people who are concerned with organisations and organisational change, is his framework of analysis, based on 'holons' and 'holarchies' and on four quadrants for consideration of the properties of holarchies. [A holon is simply an entity which is both complete in itself (e.g. an atom) and a part of a larger complete entity (e.g. a molecule), with the essential characteristic that more complex units in the holarchy (e.g. particle, atom, molecule,cell, etc.) have properties which can not be found in a simple aggregate of the separate holons of which they are composed.] Each of these has an exterior (i.e. susceptible to scientific examination, like the structure of the brain) and an interior (i.e. not susceptible to such examination, like my train of thought) aspect and an individual and a collective aspect.

Wilber develops the thesis that each aspect has to be dealt with on its own terms - the attempt to subject interior aspects to exterior or 'scientific' examination leads to gross distortions. He sums this up in the phrase 'surfaces can be seen, but depths [i.e. interior aspects] must be interpreted.' Equally, no consideration is complete without taking account of both individual and collective aspects. With these tools, Wilber enters into an exploration of the four aspects of holarchies, which is very revealing, even if there is a stage beyond which the reader, like myself, can no longer confidently follow him and even if the reader is uncomfortable with Wilber's conception of Spirit.

Margaret Wheatley's first book, Leadership and the New Science was essentially an enquiry round the questions:

* 'Is there a better way to organise?

* Is control the only way to achieve the results we want?

* Can we learn from observation and emulation of the apparent economy with which natural systems, even those which appear chaotic, organise themselves?

The book suggested that these ideas are worth exploring and experimentation and that such a world view fits far better with human aspiration than the high control model. A Simpler Way is a passionate affirmation that our world is indeed self organising and that the life force is an exploratory, playful, cooperative thrusting reality which is continually exploring and seeking out new places and new directions for life.

The opening invitation introduces the themes and the central question: 'How could we organize human endeavor if we developed different understandings of how life organizes itself?' In the same invitation, the authors summarise their beliefs, which are worth quoting in full:

'The universe is a living, creative, experimenting experience of discovering what's possible at all levels of scale, from microbe to cosmos Life's natural tendency is to organise. Life organizes into greater levels of complexity to support more diversity and greater sustainability Life organizes around a self. Organizing is always an act of creating an identity Life self-organizes. Networks, patterns and structures emerge without external imposition or direction. Organization wants to happen People are intelligent, creative, adaptive, self-organizing and meaning seeking Organizations are living systems. They too are intelligent, creative, adaptive, self organizing, meaning seeking'

The theme of the book is that governance is not simply a set of rules that have to be followed, but that good governance is an aid to effectiveness and can contribute to building sustainable competitive advantage.

'Governance', says the author, 'may be seen as a process for reconciling the ambitions of the individual with the need to preserve and develop the 'common weal', which binds individuals through shared interests.' Good governance is essentially strategic in its scope, in that its aim is to create a balance in which all stakeholders (owners, customers, employees, suppliers, and others) are able to see sustainable benefits from maintaining the relationship and are therefore committed to its continuance. As Sir Adrian Cadbury points out in the Foreword, transparency is the key to governance of any organisation and checks and balances are needed to ensure that too much power is not concentrated in one person or group.

The author's historical perspective is useful in bringing out the key historical issues and in demonstrating that many of the traditional mechanisms in governance reach back to the 19th century and are in need of change. As the author remarks, new structures are needed to reflect new and more complex relationships. It is also useful in demonstrating that similar considerations apply to all organisations, not only companies.

The case studies that make up the second half of the book are useful in illustrating the range of issues, with most of the cases being UK based, but also some of them covering global organisations. On the other hand, it is frustrating for those who simply want a guide for action.

The coverage of the issues is complete, but it is surrounded with a good deal of discussion, in which the key points are not always clearly flagged. As a general overview of the issues, it is useful. For me it fails to get to grips in a clear and easily referenced way with the key issues of changing power relationships between stakeholders - for example the growth of environmentalism, the issue of equal alliances between companies and the question for global companies of reconciling differing governance rules around the world.