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Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

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Margaret J. Wheatley is a renowned writer known for her work on organizational development and leadership. Born on August 17, 1944, her writings are celebrated for their deep insights into complexity and change.

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All People Needs Ifs Organization Leadership Process Thinking Way World Aggression Capacity Leader Order Together Humans Ideas Listening Moving Roles Believe

Famous Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

“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.”

Source: Leadership and the new science: learning about organization from an orderly universe

“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.”

Thinking Needs Humans Wells Heart Together Order Agree Unity Cooperation Human Heart

Book:Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

Source: Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future

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

Needs Stronger

Author:Margaret J. Wheatley

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

Needs Strong Listening Skills Essentials Uniqueness Strong Relationship

Author:Margaret J. Wheatley

“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.”

“In our daily life, we encounter people we are angry, deceitful, intent only on satisfying ere is so their own needs. There is so much anger, distrust, greed, and pettiness that we are losing our capacity to work well together.”

People Needs Wells Together Work Losing Capacity Anger Angry Greed Encounters Daily Life Satisfying Distrust Deceitful Pettiness Trust Issues

Author:Margaret J. Wheatley

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

Needs Moving Leader Hero Host

Author:Margaret J. Wheatley

“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.”

Ifs Needs Mean Problem Together Culture Serious Resolve Aggression

Author:Margaret J. Wheatley

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

Needs Believe I Believe Leadership Needed Capacity Organization

Author:Margaret J. Wheatley

“They have eliminated rigidity, both physical and psychological, in order to support more fluid processes whereby temporary teams are created to deal with specific and ever-changing needs. They have simplified roles into minimal categories; they have knocked down walls and created workplaces where people, ideas, and information circulate freely.”

Source: Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World

“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.”

Needs Process Leader Knowledge Creative Learning Diversity Management These Days Mutual Host Creative Process Viewpoints

Author:Margaret J. Wheatley

“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.”

Needs Different Half Conditions Perspective Insight Acknowledge Attractive Willingness Sincerely

Author:Margaret J. Wheatley

“I think it is quite dangerous for an organisation to think they can predict where they are going to need leadership. It needs to be something that people are willing to assume if it feels relevant, given the context of any situation”

People Ifs Thinking Needs Feels Given Leadership Situation Dangerous Willing Assuming Relevant Organisation

Author:Margaret J. Wheatley

“Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn't change one person at a time. It changes when networks of relationships form among people who share a common cause and vision of what's possible. This is good news for those of us intent on creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don't need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage and commitment that lead to broad-based change.”