Category: Quotes

  • Both/and thinking

    “Sociocracy is about the power of self-organizing environments that relish both/and thinking. … To foster collaboration in a small organization or on a massive scale, we must find fundamentally smarter ways to challenge what we think we know and how we communicate. The journey is to learn to self-organize in a way that we all win.…

  • Enjoy life

    I found this anonymous unattributed quote about enjoying life even when there are hardships to overcome in a shop window in Umeå, Sweden. “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

  • Dee Hock in his own words

    Dee Hock, the founder and former CEO of VISA, was way ahead of his time in contemplating what biology, chaos and complexity theory could teach those in business. My good friend Simon Robinson—who is co-author of Holonomics: Business Where People and Planter Matter—has compiled a post with Dee Hock in his own words based on my…

  • Konsten att leva innerligt

    Ted Harris och Ann Lagerström har tillsammans skrivit en bok om Konsten att leva innerligt. Boken handlar om meningen med livet. Varken mer eller mindre. Guide ut på de existentiella djupen är Søren Kierkegaard. Boken är uppbyggd som ett samtal mellan Ann och Søren. Ur Søren Kierkegaards egen brottningskamp med de existentiella frågorna växte tre…

  • Seven STEPS to become a despot

    Mark Van Vugt lists seven steps to become a despot: Nepotism and corruption Provide public goods Monopoly on use of force Exterminate rivals Defeat a common enemy Manipulate the hearts and minds of followers Create an ideology to justify your position Reference: Vugt, Why Some People Lead, Why Others Follow and Why it Matters, p.…

  • STOP strategies to overcome the powerful

    Mark Van Vugt lists a number of STOP strategies to overcome the powerful: Gossip and ridicule Public meetings Replacing leaders Disobedience or rebellion Desertion Assassination Reference: Mark Van Vugt, Why Some People Lead, Why Others Follow and Why it Matters, p. 19.

  • Don’t empower me – release me

    “Don’t empower me. Release me. I’ll find my own power, and it will be far greater than anything you can bestow on me.” Tweet by Tobias Mayer 2013-02-28 Tobias Mayer has a blog about Business Craftsmanship which is well worth a visit. Tobias has a human-centric perspective in his guidance of organizations towards new ways…

  • Reflection always finds us

    “Reflection always finds us … It is like a voice that calls to us. The difficult task is to welcome it when it arrives. We tend to expect quick solutions when reflection arrives as depression; we might ignore it at first and might use more activity to paint over it.” – Petra Kuenkel, Mind and…

  • Stop treating organizations as machines

    “Stop treating teams and organizations as machines. Start treating them as complex (living) systems.” – Jurgen Appelo

  • A matter of life and death

    John Wenger asks in his post A Matter of Life and Death “Why would the whole of the Universe be a complex, self-organising and interdependent system, and a business be a top-down, controlled machine?” Yes indeed why? He continues saying that “Even if we continue to “KNOW” that our business is a machine, it does…