Zero Distance

This open access book offers a new management meta-theory to replace Taylorism. It presents a new paradigm in management thinking and a new, practical organizational model for implementing it in our personal and working lives, in our companies, in our communities and nations, and in a sustainable global order. It will offer an understanding of why and how “thinking-as-usual” is failing both business and political leaders in these new times, and it will advocate new thinking and new management practices that are so radically new that they turn everything we have taken for granted inside out and upside down. This new management model is called “Quantum Management Theory”, because it is rooted in the new paradigm bequeathed to us by quantum physics and its younger sibling, complexity science.

“When Danah Zohar first published the early ideas of her Quantum Management Theory in the late 1990’s, she articulated a new paradigm, inspired by quantum physics, and began a major contribution to our search for a new management theory that can replace outdated Taylorism. Now, in ZERO DISTANCE, the most comprehensive account of her project, she outlines how the theory has been implemented through the revolutionary RenDanHeyi business model of China’s Haier Group, and subsequently several other large companies. Zohar’s suggestion that the Haier model also offers a new social and political model is thought provoking. This book is a significant addition to our continuing conversation about the best way to manage companies and other human social systems. I recommend it highly.” (Gary Hamel, London Business School, Author of Humanocracy)

“We live in times when healing is required. In business, we must heal the distance between management and employees. In our globalised world, we need to heal the distance between East and West. And for the sake of both our leadership and our souls, we must find a way for science and spirituality to work together. With Zero Distance, Danah Zohar has produced a book that demonstrates how we can rid ourselves of corrosive fragmentation and misunderstanding. She shows that an inclusive, enlightened business can flourish while bringing benefit to all, and that quantum physics and the Tao offer a path for common understanding between East and West.” (Lord Andrew Stone, Former Global Managing Director, Marks & Spencer Plc)

“I have benefited greatly from the quantum management theory developed by Professor Danah Zohar, which has accelerated our departure from classical linear management models and creation of the non-linear business model that is known as Rendanheyi. In her newest book, Zero Distance, Professor Zohar explains with both theoretical depth and practical breadth how to cope with aVUCA world in this networked era.” (Zhang Ruimin, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Haier Group)

“Zero Distance brilliantly describes the revolutionary scope and depth of the management transformation process in which I took part at Roche India. I will be an ambassador for Quantum Leadership for the rest of my life, as I have tried it and there is no single doubt that it works!!! Quantum physics explains the universe, including us, so why should it not work in companies? I thank Danah Zohar for changing my professional and private life, and for giving me things to get better at in both.” (Daniel Pluss, Finance Department Head Africa and Global Market Development & Operations Lead, Roche Pharmaceutical)

“This is a terrific book. It leaps from quantum physics to management to some of the most profound issues of our day including COVID-19. It is a stark reminder that connectivity and uncertainty go hand-in-hand, and that the best managers will nurture small self-organized teams and challenge them to produce extraordinary results rather than commanding top-down. The exemplars of quantum management are extraordinary, from the U.S. military to Roche India to the China-based Haier Group. I found the text very stimulating. It made me think.” (Marshall Meyer, Tsai Wan-Tsai Professor Emeritus of Management and Sociology, Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania)

“Danah Zohar' Zero Distance is a tour de force exposition of the 21st century quantum organization as a complex adaptive system—an inevitable evolution of the rigid, non-adaptive bureaucratic structures of the 20th century. These new organizations, including Haier Corporation and GEA, Roche India and the U.S. Army, resemble not so much a single ship but a fleet with many ships, each with its own captain and crew and its own local mission to accomplish. The overall leader is the “admiral of the fleet” who provides strategic vision, guiding spirit, a central operational system. services and resources for the many ships in the fleet, working not on people but, rather, through people. “ (Stephen Denning, author of The Age of Agile.)

Danah Zohar is a physicist, philosopher, and management thought leader. She is a  Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management and a Visiting Professor at the China Academy of Art.