156 Quotes by Margaret J. Wheatley

Life doesn't move in straight lines, and neither does a good conversation.

Many of us have created lives that give very little support for experimentation. We believe that answers already exist out there, independent of us. What if we invested more time and attention to our own experimentation? We could focus our efforts on discovering solutions that work uniquely for us.

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

Who you are depends on who you meet.

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

Without reflection, we go blindly on our way..

Nothing has given me more hope recently than to observe how simple conversations give birth to actions that can change lives and restore our faith in the future. There is no more powerful way to initiate significant social change than to start a conversation. When a group of people discover that they share a common concern, that's when the process of change begins.

One of the great errors organizations make is shutting down what is a natural, life-enhancing process-chaos. We are terrified of chaos. As a manager, it signals failure. But if you move out of control and into an appreciation of natural order, you understand that the only way a system changes is when it is far from equilibrium, when it moves from the 'quiet' we treasure and is confronted with the choice to die or reorganize. And you can't reorganize to a higher level unless you risk the perils of the path through chaos.

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