The most effective people are those who can "hold" their vision while remaining committed to seeing current reality clearly

A learning organization is an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future.

You cannot force commitment, what you can do…You nudge a little here, inspire a little there, and provide a role model. Your primary influence is the environment you create.

All great things have small beginnings.

The organizations that will truly excel in the future will be the organizations that discover how to tap people's commitment and capacity to learn at all levels in an organization.

The world is made of Circles And we think in straight Lines

Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing ‘patterns of change’ rather than static ‘snapshots.’

The key to success isn't just thinking about what we are doing but doing something about what we are thinking.

The gap between vision and current reality is also a source of energy. If there were no gap, there would be no need for any action to move towards the vision. We call this gap creative tension.

A shared vision is not an idea...it is rather, a force in people's hearts...at its simplest level, a shared vision is the answer to the question 'What do we want to create?

Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures of images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bedAnd sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.(I think I made you up inside my head.)

Maybe it's time to stop being a soldier and go home to be a father. And a husband for Deanna. I'm not sure how.

Reduce the light, increase the concentration!

Hunting hawks did not belong in cages, no matter how much a man coveted their grace, no matter how golden the bars. They were far more beautiful soaring free. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease.

Leather and lace is such a sexy combination.

When I look back on my knee-jerk reactions now, I realize I should have just taken a breath.

Each of us has some unique capability waiting for realization. Every person is valuable in his own existence, for himself alone... each of us can bring to fruition these innate, God-given abilities.

The one who actually decided that I should keep my name was my manager, Erv Woolsey.

Let me sit in a flowerpot, The spiders won't notice. My heart is a stopped geranium.