Clay Shirky Quotes

As an owner, you have a choice. Do you want to adopt a vision that you think is real sharp and real cutting edge and could get you from good to great - has a chance - or do you want to just say the organization is not about that, and we're not going to try to adopt a new coaching philosophy and vision.

I'm fascinated by management and organizations: how organizations get things done and how successful organizations are built and maintained, how they evolve as they grow from start-ups to small companies to medium companies to big companies.

Organizational changes to fix the problems usually create new vulnerabilities in the process of fixing the old ones.

The quality revolution that swept American business somehow bypassed the Federal government.

Its true that contemporary technology permits decentralization, it also permits centralization. It depends on how you use the technology.

I don't think I was talking specifically about Steve Jobs. It was just a general philosophy about one person grows up and he's kind of managing companies and every day he's working making sure this is in place and that's in place.

The machine is a tool. But it is not a neutral tool. We are deeply influenced by the machine while using it.

The only weapon we have to oppose the bad effects of technology is technology itself. There is no other. We can't retreat into a nontechnological Eden which never existed...It is only by the rational use of technology to control and guide what technology is doing that we can keep any hopes of a social life more desireable than our own: or in fact of a social life which is not appalling to imagine.

Information is the manager's main tool, indeed the manager's capital, and it is he who must decide what information he needs and how to use it.

Ferguson, as a manager, and Ken, as a director, are very similar. One's a great manager, the other a great director, but both have a lot of humanity and a lot of humility. They always give you the energy... with Ferguson when we played a game it was like it was his first game - he's so passionate and gives you ambition every time. And Ken works the same way - they're very similar.

God's existence is either true or not. But calling it a scientific question implies that the tools of science can provide the answer.

Improving quality requires a culture change, not just a new diet.

Peter Drucker being one of the most important influences because he has helped to think differently about organizational leadership and management. Frankly, I learn something of value from everyone I meet. My Harvard colleagues. My students. The executives I work with. For an eager student, which is what I am, there is so much to be learned from everyday experiences. I'm a sponge. Always will be.

No philosophy based on an incorrect view of the nature of man is likely to produce social good.

Management's job is to optimize the whole system.

To bring the tools of science and to recognize that the flaw in the Cartesian Duality and to bring the tools of science to look at this question of mind and consciousness and to explore it using the tools of science â€" instead of saying, as has been the tradition for 400 years, that consciousness is not a proper subject for science to look at.

Industry is not a collection of machines and tools and buildings. It is a social entity that has the responsibility of realizing the happiness of those who work in it.

The decisions of the courts on economic and social questions depend on their economic and social philosophy.

Management is clearly different from leadership. Leadership is primarily a high-powered, right-brain activity. It's more of an art it's based on a philosophy. You have to ask the ultimate questions of life when you're dealing with personal leadership issues.

Management is a far more homely business than its would be scientists suggest, more closely allied to cookery than any other human activity. Like cooking, it rests on a degree of organisation and on adequate resources. But just as no two chefs run their kitchens the same way, so no two managements are the same.

Quality management is needed because nothing is simple anymore, if indeed it ever was.

And though the philosopher may live remote from business, the genius of philosophy, if carefully cultivated by several, must gradually diffuse itself throughout the whole society, and bestow a similar correctness on every art and calling.

This is a moment in our history - that we can thank neoliberalism for - that has really destroyed what Hannah Arendt called "the virtue of thoughtfulness."

I don't believe in just ordering people to do things. You have to sort of grab an oar and row with them. My philosophy is to stay as close as possible to what's happening. If I can't solve something, how the hell can I expect my managers to.

Our social tools are not an improvement to modern society, they are a challenge to it.