The final section of "The Visionary's Handbook" gets specific about the future, charting changes in the ways that people will live, worship, relax, and travel. In the future envisioned by the authors, work isn't just personal -- it's spiritual. "Every company today harbors people who view their jobs as their life's work," they write. "Undefined problems are for them the elixir of the workplace; unknown solutions occupy their waking and sleeping moments, whether they work on the assembly line or in logistics." By the time you reach the end of the "Handbook," it will be obvious that "no one is less ready for tomorrow than the person who holds the most rigid beliefs about what tomorrow will contain."

The "A" List for Leaders

Early on in "The Soul at Work," Lewin and Regine make a perceptive comment about how language influences our view of the world. We use words to describe the world, and we add a negative prefix to indicate an exception -- "real" versus "unreal," "controlled" versus "uncontrolled." But, argue these authors, "most of the words we use to describe the dynamics of the world are in fact the exceptions, not the rule: namely, 'linear,' 'stable,' and 'equilibrium.' In fact, 95 percent of the world is nonlinear, unstable, and far from equilibrium. It reflects a lot about our psyche, and the way we have assumed things to be, not as they really are."

Tossing aside such assumptions, Lewin and Regine offer a guided tour of the world of complexity science. Then they follow it up with a series of case studies and finish with some observations about how all of this applies to the work of leaders. "Companies whose management is guided by complexity science are organizationally flat and promote open and plentiful communication and diversity," write the authors. "Complexity science argues that these properties enhance businesses' capacity for adaptability, thus giving them a cutting edge in these fast-changing times."

What does that mean for managers? In an unpredictable world, companies that treat their employees as people with ideas, rather than as interchangeable parts -- companies that know how to listen, that don't punish experimentation -- will win. That's where the "soul" of the book's title comes in: Such organizations enjoy a deeper connection to their employees than traditional firms do. "The collective soul at work is a journey of aligning individual abilities and values with the collective, shared purpose, an unfolding identity that is constructed and reconstructed continually by the people who are part of the system," Lewin and Regine write.

Like Wacker and his colleagues, Lewin and Regine recommend embracing chaos and anticipating surprise. Any other stance, they believe, requires too much effort and is ultimately futile. Chaotic times, after all, are often preludes to reinvention. And surprise, the authors contend, "is the currency of adaptable change, as the business environment constantly shifts and predictability is difficult."

Later chapters of "The Soul at Work" focus on the leadership tactics that work best in this new environment. One such tactic requires leaders to display "the three As": They must be allowing, accessible, and attuned. They must allow for contradictions, uncertainty, and ambiguity, and they must allow new things to emerge -- even when those things are unexpected or unpleasant. They must be able to "shut up and listen," and they must often be willing to take huge leaps of faith in the abilities of their people. Sometimes they must even create chaos deliberately, as when the people who formed St. Luke's (the London-based ad agency that is one of the book's nine primary case studies) decided to abandon their old ways of working so that they could create the ideal organization. Chaos forces everyone in an organization to ask, "Who are we, what do we stand for, and where are we going?"

And those questions are never outdated.

FC Recommends

Fast Company readers are deeply familiar with the eye-opening insights of Harriet Rubin. As a contributing editor, she's traveled the world to report on her encounters with remarkable thinkers and leaders, from filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola to social scientist Helena Cronin. As an FC columnist ("Living Dangerously"), Rubin has captured lessons from a wonderfully diverse group of people, including acting coach Harold Guskin and technowizard Dan Mapes.

Now, in a new book, she sets her sights on one of her most fascinating subjects yet -- herself. "Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition" (HarperBusiness, $23) is a smart, funny, and touching account of Rubin's personal journey -- from her lofty position at Doubleday/Currency, the book imprint that she created, to her self-reinvention as a writer, thinker, and Web innovator. But the real power of her book lies in the lessons that it offers to anyone who's on a journey of professional growth and self-discovery. If you're traveling down your own road to the future, let this book be your guide.

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