Courage, Conversation And Changing The World with Margaret J. Wheatley

Program Description

Never before in human history, have we been exposed to so much data from so many sources, a veritable deluge. Is it any wonder that people are anxious, cynical, worried, unhappy in their work, and seeking ways to escape? Is there a way out beyond drugs, legal and illegal, or losing ourselves in television, which doesn’t tell visions ever? According to Wheatley, “We have to slow down. Nothing will change for the better until we do. We need time to think, to learn, to get to know each other. We are losing these great human capacities in the speed-up of modern life, and it is killing us.” For years, Margaret Wheatley has written eloquently about humanizing our organization and helping people work together more effectively and compassionately. In this engaging and provocative dialogue, she shows how organizations can function more like responsive self-organizing, living systems, rather than cold mechanisms of control. Wheatley also expands her ideas into the wider arena of human society.

Margaret Wheatley writes, teaches, and speaks about radically new practices and ideas for organizing in chaotic times. She is president emeritus of the Berkana Institute, a charitable global foundation serving life-affirming leaders around the world. She has been an organizational consultant and researcher since 1973, and has been associate professor of management at the Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University, and Cambridge College, Massachusetts. She is the author of Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order In A Chaotic World, A Simpler Way, Turning To One Another: Simple Conversations To Restore Hope to the Future and Finding Our Way: Leadership For An Uncertain Time.

Topics Explored in this Dialogue:

• What is radical thinking
• How to start conversations to make a difference
• How being centered can manifest real change
• How your languaging may be unconsciously aggressive
• Why you need to pay attention to what’s in front of you

Program Number: 3082             Host: Michael Toms             Interview Date: 3/5/2005