Schein Quotes & Sayings

Throughout my life, I have always felt torn between my dual contradictory natures. I'm the obedient daughter and devoted friend, but also a self-destructive rebel. I thrive on structure and treasure spontaneity. I am smart, but ignorant. Depressed, but optimistic. Confident but insecure. I have often asked myself which "me" is the true version. — Elyse Schein

In my personal life, especially as I am aging, I find that the biggest mistakes I make and the biggest risks I run all result form mindless hurrying. — Edgar H Schein

I remember telling my classmates when I was 8-years-old that (being a sportscaster) is what I wanted to do. That was the only thing I ever wanted to do with my life. — Adam Schein

I am defining leadership in terms of the role, not the position. — Edgar Schein

we know intuitively and from experience that we work better in a complex interdependent task with someone we know and trust, but we are not prepared to spend the effort, time, and money to ensure that such relationships are built. We value such relationships when they are built as part of the work itself, as in military operations where soldiers form intense personal relationships with their buddies. We admire the loyalty to each other and the heroism that is displayed on behalf of someone with whom one has a relationship, but when we see such deep relationships in a business organization, we consider it unusual. And programs for team building are often the first things cut in the budget when cost issues arise. The — Edgar H Schein

I'm not going to lead my show talking about my kids, but will I perhaps mention my five-year-old swimming? Yeah! I think listeners groove on that because frankly, it's genuine. — Adam Schein

When we get to know someone personally and can work with him or her on a more personal level, this is Level Two, which is essential for real help to occur. Level Two trust implies that we are willing to make promises and will keep them. Level Two openness implies that with respect to our joint task we will share all relevant information and will not lie to one another. — Edgar H Schein

The culture of Do and Tell does not teach us how to change pace, decelerate, take stock of what we are doing, observe ourselves and others, try new behaviors, build new relationships. — Edgar H Schein

Activity proneness in the service of an ideology ... leads the individual into an irreversible series of commitments from which is forged an identity to which the individual inevitably becomes strongly attached psychologically. — Edgar Schein

A pattern of shared basic assumptions invented, discovered, or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that have worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems. — Edgar Schein

The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture. If you do not manage culture, it manages you, and you may not even be aware of the extent to which this is happening. — Edgar Schein

Culture is not a surface phenomenon, it is our very care — Edgar Schein

In building the helping relationship, encouragement - via positive reinforcement - certainly seems appropriate. But if it is not sensitively handled, such encouragement can quickly become patronizing and insulting. My — Edgar H Schein

In most organizational change efforts, it is much easier to draw on the strengths of the culture than to overcome the constraints by changing the culture. — Edgar Schein

C'mon, Mee,' Henry said. 'You're among family.' 'Totally,' Kim said. — Gayle Forman

This may seem like a harsh view of our culture, and there are certainly trends in other directions, but when we deal with culture at the tacit assumption level we have to think clearly about what our assumptions actually are, quite apart from our espoused values. The result of a pragmatic, individualistic, competitive, task-oriented culture is that humility is low on the value scale. — Edgar H Schein

The company ... has no rights to survive. But value systems and philosophies survive. People take them with them — Edgar Schein

Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously and define in a basic 'taken for granted' fashion an organization's view of its self and its environment. — Edgar Schein

We know that negative reinforcement or punishment works well for behavior that should be eliminated. And we know from feedback theory that the best kind of feedback is descriptive because the client can then make the evaluation. These are valid guidelines but they don't solve some of the subtle issues that can arise in the relationship. — Edgar H Schein

a soul is far too large to hide. — Maggie Schein

When we don't get acknowledgment or feel that we are giving more than we are getting out of conversations or feel talked down to, we become anxious, disrespected, and humiliated. Humble — Edgar H Schein

People always ask you, 'What's your dream job?' This is my dream job. It really is a dream opportunity to have your own nationwide daily sports talk show for an hour. — Adam Schein

Most of my important lessons about life have come from recognizing how others from a different culture view things. — Edgar H Schein

One of the best teaching experiences Ed Schein and I had when we were teaching at MIT in the 1960s was inventing a course on leadership through film. — Warren Bennis

Minimize inappropriate encouragement. — Edgar H Schein

We do not think and talk about what we see; we see what we are able to think and talk about. — Edgar Schein