Quotes from Margaret J. Wheatley

The future cannot be determined. It can only be experienced as it occurring. Life doesn't know what it will be until it notices what it has become.

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.

Life doesn't move in straight lines, and neither does a good conversation.

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

For me, this is a familiar image - people in the organization ready and willing to do good work, wanting to contribute their ideas, ready to take responsibility, and leaders holding them back, insisting that they wait for decisions or instructions.

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.

Our willingness to acknowledge that we only see half the picture creates the conditions that make us more attractive to others. The more sincerely we acknowledge our need for their different insights and perspectives, the more they will be magnetized to join us.

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.

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

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

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

Life is creative. It makes it up as it goes along.

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.

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

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.

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.

Aggression is inherently destructive of relationships. People and ideologies are pitted against each other, believing that in order to survive, they must destroy the opposition.

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.

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

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.

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.

In the past, it was easier to believe in my own effectiveness. If I worked hard, with good colleagues and good ideas, we could make a difference. But now, I sincerely doubt that.

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