Rating: 
Summary: The Power of Intuition Is the Irresistible Opportunity to Be
Review: Many books about leadership view the subject as being akin to mechanical engineering. How do you get all those people (like cogs in a machine) to act in just the ways you want them to? Mostly written by leaders to describe their own experiences or by writers to explain what leaders told them, these books are unsatisfying in the extreme. Take a look at Flawed Advice and the Management Trap by Chris Argyris to get a further perspective on this problem. This book is totally different, and quite appealing.Jaworski (son of Leon Jaworski, the famous special prosecutor of the Watergate scandal) tells of his personal journey from being a successful corporate lawyer to becoming someone who works on making leadership better for all of us. Like most personal journeys, this one has low points (his wife falling in love with another man and telling Jaworski to move out that day, his father not telling him that he loved him, and the deaths of a child of each of his two sisters) and some high points (breakthrough meetings with great thinkers and stimulating helpful change). You could read the book for this, and you would have the rewards of a nicely done biography of someone who is working towards living an exemplary life. But there is more. Jaworski has accumulated some important insights into leadership that are well worth knowing. He makes an appealing case for servant leadership (the leader looks out for the group, rather than his self-interest). He also tells a fascinating tale of running the scenario development work at Royal Dutch Shell for 4 years. From this, he develops what seemed to me to be a profound insight: Scenarios can be used both to prepare for the future by helping us think through it in advance, and to create the future. That last thought provided me with a nice epiphany. Although I was very familiar with the Shell planning technique from the business literature and from talking to Arie de Geus about it, this implication had never dawned on me. I deeply appreciate learning this. Beyond that, the book is a living testament to the importance of finding your true self and listening to the wee small voice of intuition that can steer you in the right direction. Jaworski to his credit has been quite willing to do both, and it has made all the difference. Many books on leadership talk about the role as a state of being. That usually leaves me confused. Jaworski makes the same point, but through his personal history I was able to understand what he meant. At another level, I found the book to be quite astonishing because it paralleled my own personal journal. I started out as a lawyer, heeded my inner voice to become a management consultant, and then heeded my inner voice again to become an author to spread important ideas about how people can become more effective in working with one another. He was fascinated by how to use scenarios to help the political transition in South Africa. I founded a company in the early 80s to find ethical ways for companies to leave South Africa while strenthening the position of nonwhite employees. I have read the works of everyone Jaworski cites in the book. At first, this seemed like a big coincidence. Then I realized that Arie de Geus is someone we both know, and he probably suggested more then a few of the authors to both of us. In fact, Arie de Geus played a pivotal role in the development of our new book, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise. Six degrees of separation is occuring all over again! If you read this book, and read the works of those who Jaworski cites, you will have given yourself a valuable trip towards becoming the kind of signficant leader you have the potential to be. With the help of you wee, small inner voice, this should be an irresitible call to action!
Rating:
Summary: An inspirational needle in the haystack
Review: Many books on leadership are written for managers or those
unique individuals who will save the world. This book, "Synchronicity," sheds some light on that community. More important to me, it shed a light into some of the far, dusty
corners of my personal life.
I'm newly 48 years old with many different jobs in the past and new challenges staring
me in my face. Mr. Jaworski's scenarios and suggestions did
a good job with two areas: (1) it rattled me into reviewing
the path that I have been working on and (2) it bolstered me
up in realizing that following "gut feelings" is not just magic, it's hard work. So? Well, it's my path, my life but
now I have a different way to look positively at the past. At the same time Mr. Jaworski has given me new ways of looking ahead, sharpened my survival senses.
Thanks to "Synchronicity," I may not change the world you know but, I am changing the world immediately around me...
for the better.
----Geo.Brett (not the baseball player)
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and thought provoking
Review: Mr. Jaworski's book is very good reading, you just have to realize not everyone has the same drama quotient in their daily lives. It is inspiriational with just a little unbeliveability.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like a good mystery novel
Review: My colleagues and I have been designing and facilitating leadership development programs for about 20 years. I've also served as a VP of three Fortune 500 companies. I recommend this book to everyone who is a leader or who wants to be one. Not only does it contain THE secret to true leadership, Mr. Jaworski has written his account so that it reads like a good mystery novel. You wonder what will happen next. And he has written this book from his heart. I hope our paths cross one day soon.
Rating:
Summary: handbook of real leaders
Review: Synchronicity includes invaluable lessons on leadership and organizations. I recommend this groundbreaking book to everybody as a handbook of real leaders.
Rating:
Summary: Some day more books will be written this way.
Review: Talking of dreams, magical moments with animals, following hunches and coincidences, dealing with the pains of personal history, talking about life as if it were an adventure story of wonder and self-discovery; you could say this is no way to write a book about business leadership. But thank goodness Joseph Jaworski, with the help of friends and a visionary editor, had the courage to do just that. Because the result is as profound as it is compelling. Dialogue is at the heart of Joe’s leadership philosophy, and the style and integrity of his writing is such that it draws the reader’s mind into just that state. His words are no dry treatise, they leave the page and make a direct emotional connection. Some day, more books will be written this way, and the world will be wiser for it.
Rating:
Summary: Live the dream to manifest in reality
Review: This book describes how people are hindered in their perception and appreciation of their world by their limiting beliefs and paradigmas. Jaworski describes his own personal development process, how this empowered him to lived his dream and how it manifested for him in reality in a poignant way.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome and Inspirational
Review: This book is not for those who aspire to be a leader. Rather, think of this book as the guidebook for a journey that connects you to life and culminates in the gift of leadership. From the forward from Peter Senge (which to me was best skimmed and reread midway through the book) to the last page, Truths were exposed and enjoyed. This book takes the premise that leading is serving and gives insight to the transformation we must make internally, not externally to become a leader. For me though, this book was not about leadership or developing leadership. It is a book that helps you understand life in a new context. Synchronicity becomes the goal and the added benefits of leadership qualities become more of an after-thought. Since reading the book and trying to consciously build in lessons from Joe in my life, I have seen remarkable changes in my life. It is still a journey not a destination, yet a more fulfilling journey.
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading title...
Review: This book should carry the title "Autobiography of Joe Jaworski".
I bought the book because I wanted to know more about Jung's Synchronicity, it is not... I give it 2 stars as a book on synchronicity (for good articles check out the Namaste newsletters by Deepak Chopra) and 4 as a autobiography, that's why the 3 stars on average (no rocket science here).
The conversations with David Bohm are the parts I liked in particular. The rest is the story of a remarkable and impressive career.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading title...
Review: This book should carry the title "Autobiography of Joe Jaworski".
I bought the book because I wanted to know more about Jung's Synchronicity, it is not... I give it 2 stars as a book on synchronicity (for good articles check out the Namaste newsletters by Deepak Chopra) and 4 as a autobiography, that's why the 3 stars on average (no rocket science here).
The conversations with David Bohm are the parts I liked in particular. The rest is the story of a remarkable and impressive career.
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