Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

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

I've found that I can only change how I act if I stay aware of my beliefs and assumptions. Thoughts always reveal themselves in behavior.

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

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

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

For eons, humans have struggled to find less destructive ways of living together.

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

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

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

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

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

Aggression only breeds more aggression. It only creates more fear and anger.

When error holds so much power, play disappears. Creativity ceases.

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

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

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

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

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

Who you are depends on who you meet.

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

Most people associate command and control leadership with the military.

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

These days, our senses are bombarded with aggression. We are constantly confronted with global images of unending, escalating war and violence.

To make a system stronger, we need to make stronger relationships.

In virtually every organization, regardless of mission and function, people are frustrated by problems that seem unsolvable.

Power is the capacity to generate relationships.

You can't hate someone whose story you know.

To name is to make visible.

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

Thinking is always dangerous to the status quo. [ ... ] The moment you start thinking, you'll want to change something.

Hopelessness has surprised me with patience.

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.

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

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

Space is the basic ingredient of the universe; there is more of it than anything else.

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

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

All social change begins with a conversation.

Power in organizations is the capacity generated by relationships. It is an energy that comes into existence through relationships.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is a world of process, not a world of things.

Let's just keep asking ourselves this question: 'Is what I'm about to do strengthening the web of connections, or is it weakening it?'

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

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

Independence is a political concept, not a biological concept.

Too many problem-solving sessions become battlegrounds where decisions are made based on power rather than intelligence.

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

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.

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