ABSTRACT
Serendipity, the unexpected insight, coincidence, or chance opportunity seems to have played a significant role in the journey so far. Perhaps the most important instance occurred in the choice of PhD program itself. I had been accepted into the Social Sciences PhD program at Michigan University with a full scholarship when I heard of a new program at the Wharton Graduate School of Business. From the previous chapter the reader will be aware that I had become familiar with the work of Russell Ackoff, Eric Trist, and Hasan Ozbekhan. I knew of their work independently but then learned to my astonishment that not only were they in the same area of the country, they were in the same university, and in the same department, Social Systems Sciences. I had no choice; I joined the program. My application there was accepted and I chose to go even though I received no financial aid. With three children in high school and college coming up, this was no small decision. I knew I would have a tough job supporting them while working on the PhD, but even here serendipity was to play a role again. It was one of the consulting assignments I took to support my family that ended up producing the insights that would finally answer my questions from Rome. Clearly, experience was giving me a message, any system looking for exceptional performance has to be open to receive such serendipitous inputs.
