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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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Margaret J. Wheatley
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: January 1
Business Theorist
Writer
Change
Confusion
Miraculously
Ideas
Starts
Interpretations
Must
Invention
Dissolve
Great
Appear
Inventions
Way
Refuse
Cherished
Make
Knowing
Interpretation
Always
Creative
Uncertainty
Space
Confused

More quotes by Margaret J. Wheatley

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When error holds so much power, play disappears. Creativity ceases.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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There are many benefits to this process of listening. The first is that good listeners are created as people feel listened to. Listening is a reciprocal process - we become more attentive to others if they have attended to us.
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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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.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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
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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
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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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Most people associate command and control leadership with the military.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Probably the most visible example of unintended consequences, is what happens every time humans try to change the natural ecology of a place.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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?'
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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
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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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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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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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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.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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You can’t hate someone whose story you know.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Power in organizations is the capacity generated by relationships. It is an energy that comes into existence through relationships.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Listening is a reciprocal process - we become more attentive to others if they have attended to us.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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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.
Margaret J. Wheatley
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Power is the capacity to generate relationships.
Margaret J. Wheatley