EVER SINCE EINSTEIN'S STUDY OF BROWNIAN MOTION, scientists have understood that a little disorder can actually make systems more effective. But most people still shun disorder—or suffer guilt over the mess they can't avoid. No longer!

With a spectacular array of true stories and case studies of the hidden benefits of mess, A Perfect Mess overturns the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, organization, neatness, and consistency are the keys to success. Drawing on examples from business, parenting, cooking, the war on terrorism, retail, and even the meteoric career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, coauthors Abrahamson and Freedman demonstrate that moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, yield better solutions, and are harder to break than neat ones.

Applying this idea on scales both large (government, society) and small (desktops, garages), A Perfect Mess uncovers all the ways messiness can trump neatness for any system. Whether it's your company's management plan or your hallway closet that bedevils you. this audiobook will show why to say yes to mess.

ERIC ABRAHAMSON is a professor of management at Columbia Business School. Columbia University, and is the author of Change Without Pain: How Managers Can Overcome Initiative Overload, Organizational Chaos, and Employee Burnout His groundbreaking work challenging conventional management wisdom has been published in the Harvard Business Review, and he speaks frequently to executive audiences around the world.

DAVID H. FREEDMAN is a contributing editor and the technology columnist at Inc. magazine, and has written for the New York Time. Newsweek, the Atlantic Monthly, Science, the Harvard Business Review, and Wired, among other publications. He is the author of Corps Business: The 30 Management Principles of the U.S. Marines and Brainmakers: How Scientists Are Moving Beyond Computers to Create a Rival to the Human Brain.