Meg Wheatley - Finding Our Way (2005)

20 Sourced Quotes

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

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

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

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

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
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
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
Independence is a political concept, not a biological concept.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meg Wheatley