Meg Wheatley Quotes

39 Sourced Quotes

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

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

Meg Wheatley
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.

Meg Wheatley
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

Meg Wheatley
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.

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

Meg Wheatley
One of the easiest human acts is also the most healing. Listening to someone. Simply listening. Not advising or coaching, but silently and fully listening.

Meg Wheatley
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.

Meg Wheatley
Thinking is the place where intelligent actions begin. We pause long enough to look more carefully at a situation, to see more of its character, to think about why it's happening, to notice how it's affecting us and others

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

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

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

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

Meg Wheatley
Surrendering to life offers some wonderful realizations. We learn we're capable of being in this dance, of working with whatever happens. We learn to trust ourselves and then others and, gradually, we learn that life itself can be trusted.

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

Meg Wheatley
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.

Meg Wheatley
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!

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

Meg Wheatley
We've taken disturbances and fluctuations and averaged them together to give us comfortable statistics. Our training has been to look for big numbers, important trends, major variances. Yet it is the slight variations - soft-spoken, even whispered at first - that we need to encourage.

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

Meg Wheatley
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.

Meg Wheatley
Listening is a reciprocal process - we become more attentive to others if they have attended to us.

Meg Wheatley
Most people associate command and control leadership with the military.

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

Meg Wheatley
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.

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

Meg Wheatley
Organizations are now confronted with two sources of change: the traditional type that is initiated and managed; and external changes over which no one has control.

Meg Wheatley
Innovation is fostered by information gathered from new connections; from insights gained by journeys into other disciplines or places; from active, collegial networks and fluid, open boundaries. Innovation arises from ongoing circles of exchange, where information is not just accumulated or stored, but created. Knowledge is generated anew from connections that weren't there before.

Meg Wheatley
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.

Meg Wheatley
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.

Meg Wheatley