COVER -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- CONTENTS -- EDITORS' FOREWORD -- FOREWORD -- FOREWORD -- Introduction -- Our purpose -- Where we are coming from -- "Change Without Chaos?" -- The case material -- CHAPTER ONE: Going round in circles -- A "difficult" individual -- When is a team not a team? -- Systems thinking -- linear and circular processes -- Organizations -- Organizations as systems -- Conflict and collaboration -- CHAPTER TWO: What's the problem? -- Snares -- Hard and soft problems -- Malfunctions -- Problems are made and not born -- Dynamic complexity -- Unmaking problems -- Beginning -- The tension between listening and intervening -- CHAPTER THREE: Asking the right questions -- Listening and clarifying -- Systemic questioning -- Establishing circuitry -- Establishing patterns -- Exploring meaning -- Exploring covert rules -- Exploring the time dimension -- Types of questioning -- Pig in the middle -- CHAPTER FOUR: Constructing hypotheses -- Introduction -- What is a hypothesis? -- Hypothesizing and curiosity -- Linear and circular hypotheses -- Positive feedback and schismogenesis -- Negative feedback -- More complex feedback patterns -- Articulating rules -- New stories for old -- Refraining -- Positive connotation -- Working with hypotheses -- CHAPTER FIVE: Finding a new course -- Paradox -- Addressing the covert logic -- Straight interventions -- Paradoxical interventions -- Looking for leverage -- Including the complainant -- CHAPTER SIX: Theoretical postscript -- Identity and organizational change -- Paradox -- Unconscious processes in organizational life -- Systems archetypes -- Mapping dilemmas -- APPENDIX: How we introduce course participants to systems practice -- Participants -- The consultation exercise -- Introductory sessions -- Theory sessions -- Other learning methods.

Testing what has been learned -- Ending -- REFERENCES -- INDEX.