Margaret J. Wheatley quotes

Margaret J. Wheatley is a renowned author, speaker, and management consultant with expertise in leadership and organizational behavior. With over 40 years of experience, Wheatley has helped numerous businesses and leaders navigate complex challenges. Her insights on systems thinking, chaos theory, and the power of relationships have transformed organizations globally. As a prolific writer, Wheatley has authored several bestselling books, including "Leadership and the New Science" and "Finding Our Way." Through her compelling speeches and workshops, she inspires individuals and teams to embrace adaptive leadership and create positive change. Explore Margaret J. Wheatley's influential work to unlock your organization's potential and thrive in today's rapidly evolving world. Contact her today for transformative guidance and strategies.

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.

- Margaret J. 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.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

I've wanted to see beyond the Western, mechanical view of the world and see what else might appear when the lens was changed.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

Aggression is the most common behavior used by many organizations, a nearly invisible medium that influences all decisions and actions.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

I think a major act of leadership right now, call it a radical act, is to create the places and processes so people can actually learn together, using our experiences.

- 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.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

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

- Margaret J. Wheatley

I believe that our very survival depends upon us becoming better systems thinkers.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

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.

- Margaret J. 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.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

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

- Margaret J. 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.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

Even though worker capacity and motivation are destroyed when leaders choose power over productivity, it appears that bosses would rather be in control than have the organization work well.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

I think we have to notice that the business processes we use right now for thinking and planning and budgeting and strategy are all delivered on very tight agendas.

- Margaret J. 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.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

We have created trouble for ourselves in organizations by confusing control with order.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

In these troubled, uncertain times, we don't need more command and control; we need better means to engage everyone's intelligence in solving challenges and crises as they arise.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

For example, I was discussing the use of email and how impersonal it can be, how people will now email someone across the room rather than go and talk to them. But I don't think this is laziness, I think it is a conscious decision people are making to save time.

- Margaret J. 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.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

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

- Margaret J. Wheatley

When leaders take back power, when they act as heroes and saviors, they end up exhausted, overwhelmed, and deeply stressed.

- 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.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

Hopelessness has surprised me with patience.

- Margaret J. 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!

- Margaret J. Wheatley

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

- Margaret J. Wheatley

Too many problem-solving sessions become battlegrounds where decisions are made based on power rather than intelligence.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

Aggression only moves in one direction - it creates more aggression.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

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.

- Margaret J. Wheatley

Successful organizations, including the Military, have learned that the higher the risk, the more necessary it is to engage everyone's commitment and intelligence.

- Margaret J. Wheatley