Why this book:  I met David Winkelman, a fascinating man who is  a ‘Visual Problem Solver’ at a recent networking event. During our discussion, I mentioned that I had just read The Alchemist.  He told me that if I liked The Alchemist, I’d like Synchronicity.  It is almost a business leader’s handbook to The Alchemist. So I ordered it that day and began to read it.

My Impressions: Synchronicity is an autobiographical account of the evolution of Joe Jaworski’s beliefs about himself and the world we live in.  He began life as the son of world renowned Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski, then became a successful attorney and partner in a very successful law firm,.  Then his life fell apart, and in his recovery, he evolved into something of a guru and change-agent in the world of leadership, and business.

I can imagine that some people, especially pragmatic business people, will find Jaworski’s Synchronicity a bit too ‘woo-woo’ for their tastes.  Jaworski describes for us a metaphysics which says that with our attitude and openness, we shape the world we live in and create our own lives and opportunities. He gives numerous examples from his own life and regularly calls on insights from his discussions with David Bohm, renowned Quantum theory physicist and colleague of Einstein’s.  Bohm’s research and theories point to an inter-dependence of all of us as thinking beings. Bohm argued that our thoughts do not occur independently from others. Rather, our thoughts are connected to other people’s thoughts, influence and are influenced by others people’s thoughts, influence our reality and are part of a ‘system’ of thoughts and thinking.  In other words, we are not independent conscious beings, but our consciousnesses are inter-dependent and connected in ways most of us don’t realize.   Jaworski then seems to argue not only that we have a destiny, but also that we create our own destiny – there is a path we are on, but we can shape or create our path.  There is almost a freedom vs determinism tension in this view, similar to what one finds in Stoicism and other philosophies.

Jaworski says that life is really all about our ‘relationships.’  Our lives are defined by our relationships to people, things, our environment, and our society.   He takes this idea and expands on its implications for how we live and how we should lead – ourselves, our colleagues, our organizations, and our society.  It is an expansion on the theme of The Alchemist –that whatever our heart truly desires and believes in fully, the whole universe conspires to help us achieve it.  He makes the case that we attract the events that affect our lives, by ‘tuning in’ to our environment, paying attention to ourselves and what is happening around us,  and consciously or unconsciously, sending out the right signals.  Many will argue with this, and I could argue against this as well, but I find that in fact, I believe in his views  – they seem to fit with my own experience.

The title “Synchronicity” he takes from an essay of the same name written by Carl Jung to explain seeming coincidences.  Jung, like Bohm and Jaworski  didn’t believe in coincidences but rather that seeming coincidences reflect an ‘unseen order of things.’   Jaworki  was also heavily influenced by Joseph Campbell’s work on the Hero’s Journey, and by one of his mentors, Peter Senge author of the ground breaking ‘The Fifth Discipline’ and the writer of the introduction to Synchronicity.  The introduction is excellent and actually provides a nice summary of Jaworski’s philosophy.

I will want to re-read this book in about a year to revisit the concepts he describes.