#w

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

#just #me #nice #only #reflection

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

#advise #anything #coach #else #just

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

#come #competing #defeat #experience #forces

For eons, humans have struggled to find less destructive ways of living together. ↗

— Margaret J. Wheatley

#find #humans #less #living #struggled

For us, someone who is willing to step forward and help is much more courageous than someone who is merely fulfilling the role. ↗

— Margaret J. Wheatley

#forward #fulfilling #help #merely #more

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

#budgeting #business #delivered #i #i think

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

#closer #creates #fragmentation #healthy #helps

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

#action #blame #cause #created #effect

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

#conscious #conscious decision #decision #discussing #email

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

#contribute #decisions #familiar #good #good work