Margaret J. Wheatley
Margaret J. Wheatley
Margaret J. Wheatleyis an American writer and management consultant who studies organizational behavior. Her approach includes systems thinking, theories of change, chaos theory, leadership and the learning organization: particularly its capacity to self-organize. Her work is often compared to that of Donella Meadows and Dee Hock. She describes her work as opposing "highly controlled mechanistic systems that only create robotic behaviors."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
Margaret J. Wheatley quotes about
determined knows
The future cannot be determined. It can only be experienced as it occurring. Life doesn't know what it will be until it notices what it has become.
focus effort discovering
We could focus our efforts on discovering solutions that work uniquely for us.
integrity learning self
Self-production: the characteristic of living systems to continuously renew themselves and to regulate this process in such a way that the integrity of their structure is maintained. It is a natural process which supports the quest for structure, process renewal and integrity.
nice reflection survival
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.
leadership military command-and-control
Most people associate command and control leadership with the military.
leadership wall team
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.
leadership taken past
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 process good-listener
Listening is a reciprocal process - we become more attentive to others if they have attended to us.
world process
This is a world of process, not a world of things.
character intelligent thinking
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
guarantees-that healthy matter
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.
connections asking strengthening
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?'
cause created effect gone push reason solved soon
Yet we act as if simple cause and effect is at work. We push to find the one simple reason things have gone wrong. We look for the one action, or the one person, that created this mess. As soon as we find someone to blame, we act as if we've solved the problem.
confronted external sources type
Organisations 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.