About Us
Triarchy Press is a small, independent publisher, founded in 2005. Our focus is on systems thinking, publishing books and ideas that challenge the way we think about and view the world, broadly as follows:
- Improving the way that we run certain kinds of organisations (schools, local government, public services – including police and health services)
- Improving the way that leadership, innovation and teamwork happen in all organisations
- Improving the way that we think about the future (whether it’s scenario planning in a company, saving the planet from genocide, ecological disaster or societal collapse, or preparing for crisis)
- Improving the way that we structure economies, banking and financial systems
Our ethos |
These themes of Triarchy's books invite us to think differently about the way people live together in families and in society, and to think again about a whole host of activities from movement and somatics to theatre and performance; forms of body and psychotherapy to ways of walking, and ways in which we understand ourselves and the problems we face. So we have published a great many ideas, booklets and books that explore all those fields.
The single thread that holds all these ideas and books together is Systems thinking – the notion that we can never realistically address any problem or opportunity, consider any individual or organisation, without looking at the widest possible picture, at the biological, social, cultural, organisational and ecological networks in which they participate. We have been privileged to work with authors who are at the forefront of systems thinking in their respective fields. |
And our name? |
Triarchy’s first book was called The Three Ways of Getting Things Done. Written by Gerard Fairtlough, who had been CEO of Shell Chemicals and of Celltech. This book set out his ‘Triarchy Theory’ which proposed that the three ways of getting anything done in an organization are Hierarchy, Heterarchy and Responsible Autonomy. Hierarchy we all know. Heterarchy is a flatter, more collegiate, collective and more co-operative structure. Responsible Autonomy relies on authority being devolved to individuals or very small departments.
Triarchy Theory drew on complexity theory, systems thinking and cultural theory to develop a sophisticated way of organising people that would acknowledge the broader context in which they were living and working, their individual needs and desires and the capabilities that they could manifest collectively. It suggested a flexible, humane, resilient, hopeful and wise structure within which people could contribute as fully as possible to the life of the organisation and develop their own lives within and outside work. And so, Triarchy Press has become a systems thinking publisher, staying true to the roots that inspired its creation. |