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

Margaret J. Wheatley

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Margaret J. Wheatley
Age: 84
Born: 1941
Born: January 1
Business Theorist
Writer
Created
Control
Trouble
Order
Confusing
Organizations
Organized
Organization

More quotes by 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.
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I've found that I can only change how I act if I stay aware of my beliefs and assumptions. Thoughts always reveal themselves in behavior.
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Life doesn't move in straight lines, and neither does a good conversation.
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We could focus our efforts on discovering solutions that work uniquely for us.
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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.
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As we let go of the machine model of work, we begin to step back and see ourselves in new ways, to appreciate wholeness, and to design organizations that honor and make use of the totality of who we are.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
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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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Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Hopelessness has surprised me with patience.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Most people associate command and control leadership with the military.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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You can’t hate someone whose story you know.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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
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Disorder can play a critical role in giving birth to new, higher forms of order.
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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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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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Surrendering to life offers some wonderful realizations. We learn we're capable of being in this dance, of working with whatever happens. We learn to trust ourselves and then others and, gradually, we learn that life itself can be trusted.
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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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
Margaret J. Wheatley