Margaret J. Wheatley is an American writer and management consultant. She is best known for her work on organizational behavior, leadership and change, and her books include Leadership and the New Science and Turning to One Another. She has a PhD in Organizational Behavior and is a founding member of the Berkana Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a more just, sustainable, and healthy world.
What is the most famous quote by Margaret J. Wheatley ?
Without reflection, we go blindly on our way.
— Margaret J. Wheatley
What can you learn from Margaret J. Wheatley (Life Lessons)
- Margaret J. Wheatley teaches us to embrace change and uncertainty, as it is an essential part of life. She encourages us to take risks and trust our intuition, as it can lead to meaningful growth and development. Lastly, she reminds us to stay connected to our sense of purpose and to be mindful of the impact of our actions on the world around us.
The most tempting Margaret J. Wheatley quotes that are free to learn and impress others
Following is a list of the best quotes, including various Margaret J. Wheatley inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by Margaret J. Wheatley.
Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone
There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness.
Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.
Very great change starts from very small conversations, held among people who care.
we can't be creative if we refuse to be confused.
Change always starts with confusion; cherished interpretations must dissolve to make way for what's new. Great ideas and inventions miraculously appear in the space of not knowing.
Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.
In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships.
The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions.
Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes.
Inspiring quotes by Margaret J. Wheatley
It's not differences that divide us. It's our judgments about each other that do.
Determination, energy, and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply about something. We take risks that are unimaginable in any other context.
We can no longer stand at the end of something we visualized in detail and plan backwards from that future. Instead we must stand at the beginning, clear in our mind, with a willingness to be involved in discovery... it asks that we participate rather than plan.
It is time to stop waiting for someone to save us.
It is time to face the truth of our situation - that we're all in this together, that we all have a voice - and figure out how to mobilize the hearts and minds of everyone in our workplaces and communities.
The nature of the global business environment guarantees that no matter how hard we work to create a stable and healthy organisation, our organisation will continue to experience dramatic changes far beyond our control.
Probably the most visible example of unintended consequences, is what happens every time humans try to change the natural ecology of a place.
Change always involves a dark night when everything falls apart.
Yet if this period of dissolution is used to create new meaning, then chaos ends and new order emerges.
All of us need better skills in listening, conversing, respecting one another's uniqueness, because these are essential for strong relationships.
Quotations by Margaret J. Wheatley that are transformative and visionary
I believe that our very survival depends upon us becoming better systems thinkers.
Disorder can play a critical role in giving birth to new, higher forms of order.
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.
Circles create soothing space, where even reticent people can realize that their voice is welcome.
For us, someone who is willing to step forward and help is much more courageous than someone who is merely fulfilling the role.
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.
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.
Circles create soothing space.
When leaders take back power, when they act as heroes and saviors, they end up exhausted, overwhelmed, and deeply stressed.
A leader these days needs to be a host - one who convenes diversity;
who convenes all viewpoints in creative processes where our mutual intelligence can come forth.
All social change begins with a conversation.
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.
In fact, Western culture has spent decades drawing lines and boxes around interconnected phenomena. We've chunked the world into pieces rather than explored its webby nature.
Hopelessness has surprised me with patience.
We know from science that nothing in the universe exists as an isolated or independent entity.
I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control.
Listening moves us closer, it helps us become more whole, more healthy, more holy. Not listening creates fragmentation, and fragmentation is the root of all suffering.
Without aggression, it becomes possible to think well, to be curious about differences, and to enjoy each other's company.
Aggression is the most common behavior used by many organizations, a nearly invisible medium that influences all decisions and actions.
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.
Destroying is a necessary function in life. Everything has its season, and all things eventually lose their effectiveness and die.
Perseverance is a choice. It's not a simple, one-time choice, it's a daily one. There's never a final decision.
Most people associate command and control leadership with the military.
Aggression only moves in one direction - it creates more aggression.
In virtually every organization, regardless of mission and function, people are frustrated by problems that seem unsolvable.
In this present culture, we need to find the means to work and live together with less aggression if we are to resolve the serious problems that afflict and impede us.
We have created trouble for ourselves in organizations by confusing control with order.
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 experience problem-solving sessions as war zones, we view competing ideas as enemies, and we use problems as weapons to blame and defeat opposition forces. No wonder we can't come up with real lasting solutions!
These days, our senses are bombarded with aggression. We are constantly confronted with global images of unending, escalating war and violence.
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.
The search for the lessons of the new science is still in progress, really in its infancy. In this realm, three is a new kind of freedom, where it is more rewarding to explore than to reach conclusions, more satisfying to wonder than to know, and more exciting to search than to stay put. Curiosity, not certainty, becomes the saving grace.
Too many problem-solving sessions become battlegrounds where decisions are made based on power rather than intelligence.