Henry Mintzberg Quotes

Well, one time some attractive woman sat next to Charlie and asked him what he owed his success to, and, unfortunately, she insisted on a one word answer. He had a speech prepared that would have gone on for several hours. But when forced to boil it down to one word, he said that was "rational". You know, he comes equipped for rationality, and he applies it in business. He doesn't always apply it elsewhere, but he applies it in business and that has made him a huge business success.

It's not the quantity of your decisions; it's the quality.

I have to take decisions—not back hunches.

I don't make decisions with my heart, I use my brain to think things through.

Logic is a wonderful thing but doesn't always beat actual thought.

If your heart tells you something but your mind tells you something else, which do you believe? Both are just as apt to lie. In fact, they play at deceit all the time. Mostly they balance each other, giving us that crucial reality check. But what happens on the rare occasions when they conspire together?

Learn to use your brain power. Critical thinking is the key to creative problem solving in business.

By disregarding intuition in favor of science, or science in favor of instincts, we limit ourselves.

The greatest commander is he whose intuitions most nearly happen.

First with the head, then with the heart.

Rationality is the master lifehack which distinguishes which other lifehacks to use.

Emotions are the curse of logic.

The final act of business judgment is intuitive.

In this business if you're good, you're right six times out of ten. You're never going to be right nine times out of ten.

Every good mathematician should also be a good chess player and vice versa.

I learned how to order my thoughts, and most important, learned how to develop a plan. I discovered the power of a plan. If you can plan it out, and it seems logical to you, you can do it. And that was the secret to success.

Rationality is not just something you do so that you can make more money, it is a binding principle. Rationality is a really good idea. You must avoid the nonsense that is conventional in one's own time. It requires developing systems of thought that improve your batting average over time.

Intuition is the art, peculiar to the human mind, of working out the correct answer from data that is, in itself, incomplete or even, perhaps, misleading.

Reason is universal because no attempted challenge to its results can avoid appealing to reason in the end-by claiming, for example, that what was presented as an argument is really a rationalization. This can undermine our confidence in the original method or practice only by giving us reasons to believe something else, so that finally we have to think about the arguments to make up our minds.

The 1st question the effective decision-maker asks is: 'Is this a generic situation or an exception?'

We should never listen to our feelings. They lead us astray.

Reason argues the case, but fact may determine the judgment.

The biggest mistakes I've ever made are when I've been rushed. If I'm overwhelmed, I slow down. It's more effective.

Intuition is neither a feeling, an inspiration nor a disorderly sympathy but a fully developed method.

If a leader goes with their gut, it should be after listening first to people they trust.