Margaret J. Wheatley Quotes

As such people achieve influence within the organization, whenever there is a conflict between their own interest and the interest of the organization, their interests will win out.

Politics exist in the boardroom, as well.

I grew up in an environment where being polite was taken as a weakness. So I just fought everybody.

When men organize themselves into groups, and they make rules based on common or self-interest, it's always tangled and political.

I worked with a group of people who argued day and night - professors, officials, the Minister of Finance - but there were decisions that I had to make.

In principle, every social situation involves strategic interaction among the participants.

I wasn't a bad kid. I was a good kid. But I had gotten in a lot of fights 'cause in the neighborhood I grew up in, that wasn't equated with bad behavior almost. I mean, we'd fought like it was another game. 'You wanna play stick ball today?' 'Nah, let's go fight.'

Every combination of two or more human beings has both a useful aspect and a political aspect.

As anyone who has covered the company for any length of time knows, Yahoo's record on major decision-making has been akin to a hippie commune - a lot of wrangling internally in a culture where everyone seems to have a voice and a reticence to push the button to launch.

Because of the term ‘whip’, it is assumed that members can be beaten into submission, but I’ve seldom seen that be successful. It’s getting to know the individual, what they think, how they feel, what’s going on in their personal life, are they agonizers or quick deciders, what kind of leverage can be used with them or on them.

I like dealing with a peer so I can bully them. Because then, it's not bullying. It's just warfare.

My experience is that aggression is a universal trait in human beings - girls feel it in any sort of environment, same-sex or co-ed.

Three people marooned on a desert island would soon reinvent politics.

Don’t you bully me with your politeness!

Management is the set of skills that can help get things done. Unfortunately, its practice is too often a bag of manipulative tricks to advance someone's own interests, which creates cynicism.

Taking power is fine. But what do you do when you are in power?

For me, it was always survival. Learn where not to be at so you don't get shot. Learn where not to walk at so you don't get jumped. Learn who to stand up to, who not to stand up to. And then, when I got old enough to get a chip on my shoulder, I wanted to be the dog. I wanted to be the alpha.

I grew up thinking a bit of pushing and shoving was completely normal. Then I suddenly learned that if you kick another player, you get in trouble. Nobody had ever reprimanded me for that before.

There is a lot of energy between Lars and James, and sometimes that energy can erupt. I know that before I was in the band, Kirk was the guy who was often in the middle, and it was important at that time. And now I feel like sometimes I'm the guy that's in the middle between not just James and Lars, but even Kirk.

When I'm aggressive, all the other guys are aggressive, and somehow that's how we win games.

Closing one's eyes is not a recipe for peace. It is a simple way to embolden aggressive personalities.

I ended up moving downtown with these three dudes that I didn't really know. I came into the house, and I didn't realize how things worked. From, like, 15-18, I was just fighting them. I fought, like, every day, and these were, like, older dudes. It was every man for himself.

I try to understand people who do violence. I try to understand what they are feeling and experiencing.

I had people come up from NXT and say to me, 'one thing we know is that we hear you're a bully,' I say that I am because I know that I am going to be bullied back at some point so I might as well start it.

I understand that bureaucracy, hierarchy and managing politics is not easy.