There are many wonderful "how-to" books about systems thinking, leadership, and surfing change through paradigm turbulence. Nonfiction writers have one-thousand-and-one helpful suggestions on how to be more effective, more learned, and more productive. Information goes a long way to teach people concepts, but it is the power of a good story that helps people truly know what the information means.

Colson Whitehead offers a story that beautifully illustrates the complexity of systems thinking and paradigm shifts in a provocative and entertaining way. His first novel, The Intuitionist, is both a joy to read and a school for learning leaders. Lila Mae Watson, the protagonist of the story, is the first African-American elevator inspector in New York City in the 1950's. Breaking through all the barriers of race and gender would be story enough, but Lila Mae is an Intuitionist -- she inspects not by examining nuts and gears and circuits, but by "feeling" the rhythm and vibration of the elevator. She inspects with heart not head, and she poses a threat to the Empiricists -- the bastion of good old boys who preserve "the way it has always been done" -- i.e., "the right way." Whitehead creates a whole mythology of elevators and the people who love them, even creating the Institute for Vertical Transport, of which Lila Mae is a graduate.

The novel takes the twists and turns of a detective pot-boiler of the 40's with intrigues and conspiracies and cover-ups and wild inventions and theories. As a novel, The Intuitionist is fine entertainment. Smartly written and clever at every turn, it never releases the reader's attention. As a parable for how people embrace and resist change, it is powerful. It also works as a story of how vision can motivate people to higher and higher levels of achievement and performance. It offers deep insights into the systemic nature of life and how seemingly insignificant occurrences can change the whole course of people's lives.

As a small-group study, this book will provide hours of rich discussion and reflection. I highly recommend Whitehead's The Intuitionist. Even if you don't find the change and systems thinking metaphors compelling, you will still enjoy the experience.

Dan R. Dick is a former staff member of the General Board of Discipleship.

(originally posted May 20, 1999)

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