Margaret J. Wheatley

The future cannot be determined. I can only be experienced as it is occurring. Life doesn't know what it will be until it notices what it has become.

We are, always, poets, exploring possibilities of meaning in a world which is also all the time exploring possibilities.

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.

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

Most people associate command and control leadership with the military.

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.

I'm sad to report that in the past few years, ever since uncertainty became our insistent 21st century companion, leadership has taken a great leap backwards to the familiar territory of command and control.

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.

Determination, energy, and courage appear spontaneously when we care deeply about something. We take risks that are unimaginable in any other context.

And time for reflection with colleagues is for me a lifesaver it is not just a nice thing to do if you have the time. It is the only way you can survive.

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

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

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.

Hopelessness has surprised me with patience.

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

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.

In our daily life, we encounter people who are angry, deceitful, intent only on satisfying their own needs. There is so much anger, distrust, greed, and pettiness that we are losing our capacity to work well together.

Circles create soothing space, where even reticent people can realize that their voice is welcome.