Wheatley Quotes & Sayings

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

The only antidote to the unnerving effects of such incoherence is integrity. People and organizations with integrity are wholly themselves. No aspect of self stands different or apart. At their center is clarity, not conflict. When they go inside to find themselves, there is only one self there. — Margaret Wheatley

Why within limits? You apparently consider levitation impossible, but wouldn't you have considered wireless impossible if you had been living fifty years ago and somebody had endeavoured to convince you of it? — Dennis Wheatley

Leadership is a series of behaviors rather than a role for heroes. — Margaret J. Wheatley

[A]ll change, even very large and powerful change, begins when a few people start talking with one another about something they care about. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Innovation is fostered by information gathered from new connections; from insights gained by journeys into other disciplines or places; from active, collegial networks and fluid, open boundaries. Innovation arises from ongoing circles of exchange, where information is not just accumulated or stored, but created. Knowledge is generated anew from connections that weren't there before. — Margaret J. Wheatley

There's no way you can shoot low-budget stuff on lots of locations. It's just a practicality thing because every time you move, it costs time and money. — Ben Wheatley

Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy sideThy every action let the goddess guide. — Phillis Wheatley

Aggression is the most common behavior used by many organizations, a nearly invisible medium that influences all decisions and actions. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Good grief. They're like the freaking poster family for the NRA. — Elisabeth Wheatley

Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Aggression only moves in one direction - it creates more aggression. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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

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

Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don't have to do anything else. We don't have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen. — Margaret J. Wheatley

We experience problem-solving sessions as war zones, we view competing ideas as enemies, and we use problems as weapons to blame and defeat opposition forces. No wonder we can't come up with real lasting solutions! — Margaret J. Wheatley

Power is the capacity to generate relationships. — Margaret J. Wheatley

In the past, it was easier to believe in my own effectiveness. If I worked hard, with good colleagues and good ideas, we could make a difference. But now, I sincerely doubt that. — Margaret J. Wheatley

To name is to make visible. — Margaret J. Wheatley

He settled in his beautiful Georgian house in Lymington surrounded by beautiful things. He knew how to live well, perhaps without regard for his health. He hated exercise, smoked, drank and wrote. Today he would have been bullied by wife and children and friends into giving up these habits and changing his lifestyle, but I'm not sure he would have given in. Maybe like me, he would simply find a quiet place. Dominic Wheatley, 2013 — Dennis Wheatley

We have created trouble for ourselves in organizations by confusing control with order. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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

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

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

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

Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, /May be refin'd and join th' angelic train. — Phillis Wheatley

You can't hate someone whose story you know. — Margaret J. Wheatley

In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Without aggression, it becomes possible to think well, to be curious about differences, and to enjoy each other's company. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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

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

I think CGI is interesting, but it's too expensive and limiting in terms of what you can do shot-by-shot. — Ben Wheatley

You really have to be careful with the clues you lay into the film - if they're too heavy-handed, or you've pandered to a slightly stupider audience, then you've spoiled it for the people who are even slightly smart. — Ben Wheatley

Very great change starts from very small conversations, held among people who care. — Margaret J. Wheatley

It's obviously not impossible, because it's happening... — Elisabeth Wheatley

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

War, Plague, Famine and Death. We all know what happened the last time those four terrible entities were unleashed to cloud the brains of statesmen and rulers.' 'You're referring to the Great War I take it.' Rex said soberly. 'Of course, and every adept knows that it started because one of the most terrible Satanists who ever lived found one of the secret gateways through which to release the four horsemen. — Dennis Wheatley

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. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Perseverance is a choice. It's not a simple, one-time choice, it's a daily one. There's never a final decision. — Margaret J. Wheatley

You can muscle your way to the top as long as you're part of the production, which I am. I'm knitted into the money, so it's very hard to extricate me from the decision-making dynamic. — Ben Wheatley

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

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

Take that absurd fool Elipas Levi who was supposed to be the Grand High Whatnot in Victorian times. Did you ever read his book, The Doctrine and Ritual of Magic? In his introduction he professes that he is going to tell you all about the game and that he's written a really practical book, by the aid of which anybody who likes can raise the devil, and perform all sorts of monkey tricks. He drools on for hundreds of pages about fiery swords and tetragrams and the terrible aqua poffana, but does he tell you anything? Not a blessed thing. Once it comes to a showdown he hedges like the crook he was and tells you that such mysteries are far too terrible and dangerous to be entrusted to the profane. Mysterious balderdash my friend. I'm going to have a good strong nightcap and go to bed. — Dennis Wheatley

The things we fear most in organizations - fluctuations, disturbances,
imbalances - are the primary sources of creativity. — Margaret J. Wheatley

When error holds so much power, play disappears. Creativity ceases. — Margaret J. Wheatley

He found Satan on his throne in the cavern of lava, reading a large-print edition of Wheatley's The Satanist. 'It's a rum way to warn people off from worshiping me,' Satan commented, indicating the book. 'It seems to be lots of fun, according to this. Still, I bet they all die horribly at the end. Oh well. Who wants to live forever? — Jonathan L. Howard

Life now insists that we encounter groundlessness. Systems and ideas that seemed reliable and solid dissolve at an increasing rate. People who asked for our trust betray or abandon us. Strategies that worked suddenly don't. Groundlessness is a frightening place, at least at first, but as the old culture turns to mush, we would feel stronger if we stopped searching for ground, if we sought only to locate ourselves in the present and do our work from here. — Margaret J. Wheatley

To make a system stronger, we need to make stronger relationships. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Through thickest gloom look back, immortal shade,
On that confusion which thy death has made. — Phillis Wheatley

In every human Beast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance. — Phillis Wheatley

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

A world based on machine images is a world filled with boundaries. In a machine, every piece knows its place. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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

If wishes were horses, what the heck would I need wishes for? — Elisabeth Wheatley

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

We need to move from the leader as hero, to the leader as host. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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

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. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Destroying is a necessary function in life. Everything has its season, and all things eventually lose their effectiveness and die. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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. — Margaret J. Wheatley

I've wanted to see beyond the Western, mechanical view of the world and see what else might appear when the lens was changed. — Margaret J. Wheatley

We do as much harm holding onto programs and people past their natural life span as we do when we employ massive organizational air strikes. However, destroying comes at the end of life's cycle, not as a first response. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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

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

Position, - for the Negro to realize more deeply than he does at present the need of uplifting the masses of his people, for the white people to realize more vividly than they have yet done the deadening and disastrous effect of a color-prejudice that classes Phillis Wheatley — W.E.B. Du Bois

Ah, yes, pink camo," I murmur, gesturing my chin at her tank top and hoodie. "Because you never know when you'll have to hide in a bubblegum factory. — Elisabeth Wheatley

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

Our growing addiction to the Internet is impairing precious human capacities such as memory, concentration, pattern recognition, meaning-making, and intimacy. We are becoming more restless, more impatient, more demanding, and more insatiable, even as we become more connected and creative. We are rapidly losing the ability to think long about any- thing, even those issues we care about. We flit, moving restlessly from one link to another. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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

The nature of the global business environment guarantees that no matter how hard we work to create a stable and healthy organisation, our organisation will continue to experience dramatic changes far beyond our control. — Margaret J. Wheatley

May be refined, and join the angelic train. — Phillis Wheatley

The laws of man are made only to be broken, because they are stupid and unjust. — Dennis Wheatley

Aggression is inherently destructive of relationships. People and ideologies are pitted against each other, believing that in order to survive, they must destroy the opposition. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Disorder can play a critical role in giving birth to new, higher forms of order. — Margaret J. Wheatley

There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about. — Margaret J. Wheatley

We can no longer stand at the end of something we visualized in detail and plan backwards from that future. Instead we must stand at the beginning, clear in our mind, with a willingness to be involved in discovery ... it asks that we participate rather than plan. — Margaret J. Wheatley

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. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Most people associate command and control leadership with the military. — Margaret J. Wheatley

'Doctor Who' is pretty dark, I think. Generally it's dark; it's always been dark. — Ben Wheatley

One of the great errors organizations make is shutting down what is a natural, life-enhancing process-chaos. We are terrified of chaos. As a manager, it signals failure. But if you move out of control and into an appreciation of natural order, you understand that the only way a system changes is when it is far from equilibrium, when it moves from the 'quiet' we treasure and is confronted with the choice to die or reorganize. And you can't reorganize to a higher level unless you risk the perils of the path through chaos. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Life doesn't move in straight lines, and neither does a good conversation. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Our willingness to acknowledge that we only see half the picture creates the conditions that make us more attractive to others. The more sincerely we acknowledge our need for their different insights and perspectives, the more they will be magnetized to join us. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn't change one person at a time. It changes when networks of relationships form among people who share a common cause and vision of what's possible. This is good news for those of us intent on creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don't need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage and commitment that lead to broad-based change. — Margaret J. Wheatley

A leader these days needs to be a host - one who convenes diversity; who convenes all viewpoints in creative processes where our mutual intelligence can come forth. — Margaret J. Wheatley

The only genre I have any problem with is musicals, but that's just my own tastes it's nothing to do with the films. — Ben Wheatley

We are all, as ever, the playthings of the Gods, and none of us can say what our tomorrows may bring; — Dennis Wheatley

Are you sure of that? Baptism into the Christian Faith doesn't ensure one going to Heaven, why should this other sprinkling be a guarantee of anyone going to Hell?' 'It's such a big question, Rex, but briefly it is like this. Heaven and Hell are only symbolical of growth to Light or disintegration to Darkness. By Christian, or any other true religious baptism, we renounce the Devil and all his Works, thereby erecting a barrier which it is difficult for Evil forces to surmount, but anyone who accepts Satanic baptism does exactly the reverse. They wilfully destroy the barrier of Astral Light which is our natural protection and offer themselves as a medium through which the powers of Darkness may operate on mankind. — Dennis Wheatley

...age-old evil, tireless and vigilant, cloaked from the masses by modern skepticism, yet still a potent force stalking the dark ways of the night. — Dennis Wheatley

In this present culture, we need to find the means to work and live together with less aggression if we are to resolve the serious problems that afflict and impede us. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Aggression only breeds more aggression. It only creates more fear and anger. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Yet we act as if simple cause and effect is at work. We push to find the one simple reason things have gone wrong. We look for the one action, or the one person, that created this mess. As soon as we find someone to blame, we act as if we've solved the problem. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Is it possible that my people live in such awful conditions? I tell you, Mr Wheatley, that if I had to live in conditions like that I would be a revolutionary myself. — King George V

Who you are depends on who you meet. — Margaret J. Wheatley

The gods are being kind to me in my old age. Most beautiful women are either good, stupid or vicious. And you are the marvellous exception. Lovely as a goddess, clever as an Athenian and a bad hat like myself, yet one who still has decent feelings. I'm going to kiss the lips off you once we land in France. — Dennis Wheatley

Ask what's possible, not what's wrong. Keep asking. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Life is creative. It makes it up as it goes along. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Thinking is always dangerous to the status quo. [ ... ] The moment you start thinking, you'll want to change something. — Margaret J. Wheatley

Listening moves us closer, it helps us become more whole, more healthy, more holy. Not listening creates fragmentation, and fragmentation is the root of all suffering. — Margaret J. Wheatley