Margaret Heffernan Quotes

If you have never failed at anything, then you haven't been trying hard enough, aren't very imaginative, or have had such extraordinarily good luck that you have come to believe you are invincible.

For good ideas and true innovation, you need human interaction, conflict, argument, debate.

Companies don't have ideas. Only people do. And what motivates people are the bonds of loyalty and trust they develop around each other.

I don't think you ever know anyone until you see them in action.

A fantastic model of collaboration: thinking partners who aren't echo chambers.

Bosses and leaders everywhere should cherish the people who bring them bad news, disappointing data or hard problems.

Huge open source organizations like Red Hat and Mozilla manage the collaboration of hundreds of people who don't know one another and have spent no time hanging around the water cooler.

As long as they are well-intentioned, mistakes are not a matter for shame but for learning

Openness isn't the end. It's the beginning.

The cell phone has become the adult's transitional object, replacing the toddler's teddy bear for comfort and a sense of belonging.

[For constructive conflict,] we have to resist the neurobiological drive which means that we really prefer people mostly like ourselves.

Making those around you feel invisible is the opposite of leadership.

The healthiest companies are always characterized by organic talent development.

We have to see conflict as thinking and then get really good at it.

As long as it (an issue) remains invisible, it is guaranteed to remain insoluble.

The truth won't set us free until we develop the skills and the habit and the talent and the moral courage to use it.

A thinking partner who isn't an echo chamber... How many of us dare to have such collaborators?

Making a company fit to sell may be the only way to ensure you never need a buyer.

If the company depends entirely on you - your creativity, ingenuity, inspiration, salesmanship or charisma - nobody will want to buy it. The risk and the dependency are too great.

Words are how people think. When you misuse words, you diminish your ability to think clearly and truthfully.

Those in powerless positions aren't about to complain about bullying bosses, abusive supervisors or corrupt co-workers. There is no safe way to do so and no process that promises redress.

Customers who have to come back and spend, or customers who just don't want the hassle of leaving - those are the ones who are most worth attracting.

You cannot fix a problem that you refuse to acknowledge.

All businesses and jobs depend on a vast number of people, often unnoticed and unthanked, without which nothing really gets done. They are all human and deserve respect and gratitude.

Certainty is no guarantor of correctness.

One of the sad truths about leadership is that, the higher up the ladder you travel, the less you know.

Britain is famous for being great at inventing and poor at commercializing.

When we care about people, we care less about money, and when we care about money, we care less about people.

What do you want your business to do? Make money, of course. To pay for people and supplies, to be able to grow.

Noise is a buffer, more effective than cubicles or booth walls.

When we confront facts and fears, we achieve real power and unleash our capacity for change.

In our house, mother’s day is every day. Father’s day, too. In our house, parents count. They do important work and that work matters. One day just doesn’t cut for us.

We treasure what we can measure.

British innovation in design, in the creative arts, in engineering and manufacturing is world class.

Building businesses takes tremendous stamina, and success isn't achieved without it.

Phones and soundtracks and Muzak and fountains replace genuine and unpredictable human contact with a seamless soundtrack from a bad movie and a cliche that makes us believe we must all be happy.

Once you have power, you are inevitably surrounded by people who have their own agendas and will tell you whatever advances them.

The best remote companies I've seen do almost everything online, via email and telephone. But they also get together face to face on a regular basis.

As a mother, I work hard every day and I expect that work to be recognized and appreciated. Because I work for and with human beings, sometimes they're grateful and sometimes they aren't.

In business, staying focused requires that you turn most opportunities down.

If we aren't going to be afraid of conflict, we have to see it as thinking.

I don't think a true company - one that builds sustainable value - can ever only exist online or remotely.

Everyone I know feels harassed by email which has invaded their waking and sleeping hours.

It is nobody's right to be waited on and nobody's fate to do the waiting.

Companies don't have ideas; only people do. And what motivates people are the bonds and loyalty and trust they develop between each other. What matters is the mortar, not just the bricks.

Most people have their best ideas when they take their minds away from problems they're trying to solve.

Silence is the language of inertia.

There is no more powerful weapon for change than honesty.

Most executives I know are so action-oriented, or action-addicted, that time for reflection is the first casualty of their success.

Every organization has issues and concerns which are known about by many people who choose to remain silent.