Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

Without reflection, we go blindly on our way.

There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.

When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.

Very great change starts from very small conversations, held among people who care.

Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.

I think a major act of leadership right now, call it a radical act, is to create the places and processes so people can actually learn together, using our experiences

I think we have to notice that the business processes we use right now for thinking and planning and budgeting and strategy are all delivered on very tight agendas.

[A]ll change, even very large and powerful change, begins when a few people start talking with one another about something they care about.

It's not differences that divide us. It's our judgments about each other that do.

Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.

A leader is one who... Has more faith in people than they do, and . . . who holds opportunities open long enough for their competence to re-emerge.

Determination, energy, and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply about something. We take risks that are unimaginable in any other context.

You can’t hate someone whose story you know.

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

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

Change always involves a dark night when everything falls apart. Yet if this period of dissolution is used to create new meaning, then chaos ends and new order emerges.

we don't have to agree with each other in order to think well together. There is no need for us to be joined at the head. We are joined by our human hearts.

All of us need better skills in listening, conversing, respecting one another's uniqueness, because these are essential for strong relationships.

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

We are, always, poets, exploring possibilities of meaning in a world which is also all the time exploring possibilities.

Disorder can play a critical role in giving birth to new, higher forms of order.

When we can lay down our fear and anger and choose responses other than aggression, we create the conditions for bringing out the best in us humans.

Circles create soothing space, where even reticent people can realize that their voice is welcome.

Everyone in a complex system has a slightly different interpretation. The more interpretations we gather, the easier it becomes to gain a sense of the whole.

We each create our world by what we choose to notice, creating a world of distinction that makes sense to us. We then 'see' the world through the self we have created.

Circles create soothing space.

A leader these days needs to be a host - one who convenes diversity; who convenes all viewpoints in creative processes where our mutual intelligence can come forth.

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

Hopelessness has surprised me with patience.

All social change begins with a conversation.

In fact, Western culture has spent decades drawing lines and boxes around interconnected phenomena. We've chunked the world into pieces rather than explored its webby nature.

We would do well to ponder the realization that love is the most potent source of power.

We know from science that nothing in the universe exists as an isolated or independent entity.

Listening moves us closer, it helps us become more whole, more healthy, more holy. Not listening creates fragmentation, and fragmentation is the root of all suffering.

Who you are depends on who you meet.

Independence is a political concept, not a biological concept.

Whatever life we have experienced, if we can tell our story to someone who listens, we find it easier to deal with our circumstances.

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

I've wanted to see beyond the Western, mechanical view of the world and see what else might appear when the lens was changed

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

Ask what's possible, not what's wrong. Keep asking.

We need to move from the leader as hero, to the leader as host.

One of the easiest human acts is also the most healing. Listening to someone. Simply listening. Not advising or coaching, but silently and fully listening.

Perseverance is a choice. It's not a simple, one-time choice, it's a daily one. There's never a final decision.

Aggression only moves in one direction - it creates more aggression.

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

Destroying is a necessary function in life. Everything has its season, and all things eventually lose their effectiveness and die.

Most people associate command and control leadership with the military.

A world based on machine images is a world filled with boundaries. In a machine, every piece knows its place.

Passion mutates into procedures, into rules and roles. Instead of purpose, we focus on policies. Instead of being free to create, we impose constraints that squeeze the life out of us.