Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes
We have created trouble for ourselves in organizations by confusing control with order.
Wheatley, Margaret J. Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006, p. 22.
In the Nez Perce and most other Native American societies, there were Chiefs and occasionally, for special circumstances, War Chiefs, but few if any other officials, thus producing a very flat, egalitarian society. But the whites had many layers of bureaucrats and petty officials. Governors, The President, Members of Congress, State Legislators, Generals, Sheriffs, Indian Agents, tax collectors, and the like. On the Papago Indian reservation, there was great difficulty on a construction project as even the concept of a work foreman was an uncomfortable notion. No Papago wanted to be directed or ordered about by anyone else even on a work gang. And do no one wanted to assume a position of authority or be responsive to a fellow other than the Chief and the tribal elders.
In bureaucracy, as in most other aspects of politics, it is not a serious problem if you are wrong as long as most or many others are. However, if your are alone, you had better be right.
Margaret (Meg) Wheatley (born 1944) is an American writer, teacher, speaker, and management consultant who works to create organizations and communities worthy of human habitation. She draws from many disciplines: organizational behavior, chaos theory, living systems science, ancient spiritual traditions, history, sociology, and anthropology.
