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It's not differences that divide us. It's our judgments about each other that do.

Margaret J. Wheatley

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Margaret J. Wheatley
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: January 1
Business Theorist
Writer
Judgments
Divide
Divides
Motivation
Judgment
Leadership
Differences

More quotes by Margaret J. Wheatley

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A world based on machine images is a world filled with boundaries. In a machine, every piece knows its place.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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we can't be creative if we refuse to be confused. Change always starts with confusion cherished interpretations must dissolve to make way for what's new. Great ideas and inventions miraculously appear in the space of not knowing.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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
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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.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Everyone in a complex system has a slightly different interpretation. The more interpretations we gather, the easier it becomes to gain a sense of the whole.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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We each create our world by what we choose to notice, creating a world of distinction that makes sense to us. We then 'see' the world through the self we have created.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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
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Circles create soothing space, where even reticent people can realize that their voice is welcome.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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In this new world, you and I make it up as we go along, not because we lack expertise or planning skills, but because that is the nature of reality. Reality changes shape and meaning because of our activity. And it is constantly new. We are required to be there, as active participants. It can't happen without us and nobody can do it for us.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Passion mutates into procedures, into rules and roles. Instead of purpose, we focus on policies. Instead of being free to create, we impose constraints that squeeze the life out of us.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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No longer in a relational universe, can we study anything as separate from ourselves. Our acts of observation are part of the process that brings forth the manifestation of what we are observing.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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A leader is one who... Has more faith in people than they do, and . . . who holds opportunities open long enough for their competence to re-emerge.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Hopelessness has surprised me with patience.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Without aggression, it becomes possible to think well, to be curious about differences, and to enjoy each other's company.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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
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Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone
Margaret J. Wheatley
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For eons, humans have struggled to find less destructive ways of living together.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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