Quotes from Rosabeth Moss Kanter

I've been looking at companies that are on a positive path vs. a negative path and I've come to use the language of sports, winning streaks and losing streaks.

To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.

To stay ahead, always have your next idea waiting in the wings.

Change is disturbing when it is done to us, exhilarating when it is done by us.

And the city isn't only city hall or even the avenues of fixed buildings with fixed activities. It is also the life and culture of the people as seen in pop-up stores, food trucks, events, festivals, sidewalk chalk artists, and outdoor mural painters.

The world is not getting better by itself. Making the world a better place demands more and better leaders.

Given such strong defenses against change, fresh ideas come from those who do more than think outside the box. They think outside the building.

Confidence isn't optimism or pessimism, and it's not a character attribute. It's the expectation of a positive outcome.

A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.

A great idea is not enough.

Winning becomes easier over time as the cornerstones of confidence become habits.

Too many people let others stand in their way and don't go back for one more try.

I was determined to achieve the total freedom that our history lessons taught us we were entitled to, no matter what the sacrifice.

Leaders must pick causes they won't abandon easily, remain committed despite setbacks, and communicate their big ideas over and over again in every encounter.

Confidence is contagious, but so is failure. Even the Yankees will lose if you persuade them that they will.

Throughout human history, people have developed strong loyalties to traditions, rituals, and symbols. In the most effective organizations, they are not only respected but celebrated. It is no coincidence that the most highly admired corporations are also among the most profitable.

Cheap labor is not going to be the way we compete in the United States. It's going to be brain power.

Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation.

One of the symptoms of a losing streak is a turnover of top executives. It's a revolving door.

I see the level of sophistication and knowledge about business growing dramatically. Several decades ago, only a few companies thought about international business.

The Martha Stewart trial makes clear how far women have risen in the business world. America can be proud of our equal-opportunity prosecution and conviction.

Corporate men and women, once divided by striking differences in opportunity for career growth, have come to share career chaos.

Some social scientists say that in-group/out-group biases are hard-wired into the human brain. Even without overt prejudice, it is cognitively convenient for people to sort items into categories and respond based on what is usually associated with those categories: a form of statistical discrimination, playing the odds.

Companies used to be able to function with autocratic bosses. We don't live in that world anymore.