the KOAN method
Breakthrough Leadership for a Divided World
Jennifer Lyn Simpson, PhD
It is time to build a better way of leading and organizing. Become the breakthrough leader our world needs by learning how to build environments where creativity and innovation thrive.
About the KOAN method
The KOAN method is part memoir, part social analysis, and part field guide for navigating the conflicts all around us. The central point is that we need to get better at mastering the shift from division (the things that keep us stuck and at odds with one another) to connection (where real innovation and breakthroughs happen). Full of powerful examples and tools to aid in everyday life, this book will inspire you to be the leader our world needs to solve our most complex challenges.
Both a call to action and a beacon of hope, this book is for anyone who finds themselves leading — by profession, by choice, or by accident.
Listen to a preview of the KOAN method below.
Order from your preferred retailer
The standard black and white and hardcover versions of the KOAN method are also available from these retailers.
Order the Audiobook and Kindle/eBook on Amazon.
KOAN Community
the KOAN method is more than a book. It is a way of leading and organizing designed to help you accelerate your impact, based on author Jennifer Simpson’s 25-plus years of experience guiding teams and leaders.
We are excited to offer a variety of related products and services to help bring the benefits of the KOAN method to teams and organizations.
These include:
- Bulk orders for your team
- Q&A with the author
- Keynote or event speaking engagements
- Customized virtual sessions
- Executive coaching
We’d love to talk about your needs and how the KOAN method can support you in being the change you’d like to see in the world. Together we’ll create a tailored package designed to support and empower your team.
About Integrated Work and the KOAN method
Since Integrated Work’s founding in 1998, we have deepened our appreciation for the value of seeking varying viewpoints and diverse ways of thinking as we co-create solutions with mission-driven leaders and organizations. That’s reflected in the KOAN method and in our commitment to consulting with heart.
Meet the Author
Jennifer Lyn Simpson, Ph.D. (she/her) is Integrated Work’s CEO. She developed the KOAN method as an outgrowth of more than 30 years of working in and with organizations across the private, public, corporate, and not-for-profit sectors to create more meaningful and effective ways of living and working together across differences.
In Zen Buddhism, a KOAN is a saying or mantra designed to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning for achieving enlightenment.
The KOAN concept is also a helpful framework for imagining new models for living and organizing in Kind, Open, Adaptive, Networks.
Rooted both in ancient wisdom, and cutting-edge research, the KOAN method gives us an alternative model for evaluating and evolving how we come together as humans to solve the important issues facing our world today.
Be the leader you’ve been waiting for
the KOAN method: Breakthrough Leadership for a Divided World confronts the failure of yesterday’s models of leading and organizing to solve today’s most pressing problems and makes the case for a new and better way.
