Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

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  When leaders take back power, when they act as heroes and saviors, they end up exhausted, overwhelmed, and deeply stressed.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Leadership, Power

  Tags in Hero, Exhausted

• The things we fear most in organizations — fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances — are the primary sources of creativity.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Organize, Creativity

• For us, someone who is willing to step forward and help is much more courageous than someone who is merely fulfilling the role.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Courage

• We have created trouble for ourselves in organizations by confusing control with order.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Order

• Without aggression, it becomes possible to think well, to be curious about differences, and to enjoy each other’s company.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Company

• Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don’t have to do anything else. We don’t have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Listening

• There are many benefits to this process of listening. The first is that good listeners are created as people feel listened to. Listening is a reciprocal process – we become more attentive to others if they have attended to us.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Listen

• Probably the most visible example of unintended consequences, is what happens every time humans try to change the natural ecology of a place.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Place

• I believe that our very survival depends upon us becoming better systems thinkers.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Believe

• Relationships are all there is.
  Everything in the universe only exists because it is
  in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation.
  We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Integrity/Individuality, Illusions, Interdependence, Relationships

• I believe that the capacity that any organisation needs is for leadership to appear anywhere it is needed, when it is needed.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Need

• I think it is quite dangerous for an organisation to think they can predict where they are going to need leadership. It needs to be something that people are willing to assume if it feels relevant, given the context of any situation.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Think, Need

• Aggression is the most common behavior used by many organizations, a nearly invisible medium that influences all decisions and actions.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Behavior

• In this present culture, we need to find the means to work and live together with less aggression if we are to resolve the serious problems that afflict and impede us.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Problems

• We experience problem-solving sessions as war zones, we view competing ideas as enemies, and we use problems as weapons to blame and defeat opposition forces. No wonder we can’t come up with real lasting solutions!

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Problem

• In virtually every organization, regardless of mission and function, people are frustrated by problems that seem unsolvable.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Problem

• Too many problem-solving sessions become battlegrounds where decisions are made based on power rather than intelligence.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Problem

• Yet we act as if simple cause and effect is at work. We push to find the one simple reason things have gone wrong. We look for the one action, or the one person, that created this mess. As soon as we find someone to blame, we act as if we’ve solved the problem.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Problem

• And time for reflection with colleagues is for me a lifesaver; it is not just a nice thing to do if you have the time. It is the only way you can survive.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Time

• For example, I was discussing the use of email and how impersonal it can be, how people will now email someone across the room rather than go and talk to them. But I don’t think this is laziness, I think it is a conscious decision people are making to save time.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Think

Margaret J. Wheatley (50)

Nationality:	American
Profession:	Writer, Consultant

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Births

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• 1873 - Max Reger
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Deaths

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