When there is genuine vision(as opposed to the all-too-familiar vision statement), people excel and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to.

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.

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

Are you a monster if you kill monsters, especially if those monsters are inside your head?

On Thanksgiving Night, 1942, when I was fifteen years old, white racists burned our house to the ground.

The only thing in this world that gives orders is balls.

If we give people the ability to buy a lot more because they can store a lot more, for a company that creates TV shows and movies, that's fantastic.

Creativity always dies a quick death in rooms that house conference tables.

When I was just five years old, I loved the scary layer and the symbolical power of the red cloak. I made my mom make me that red cloak, and I had to wear it on Halloween, two years in a row.

I still have the same hunger like I did 20 years ago but it's a different sort of reflection when you lose. It doesn't hurt you as much because I feel like I've had a good career.

So watch me strike a match on all my wasted time. As far as I'm concerned you're just another picture to burn.

I download music just like anybody else, but it's a weird relationship when you're a musician.