Restoring Sanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness in Ourselves and Our Organizations

  • 1h 22m
  • Margaret Wheatley
  • Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  • 2024

What Would It Be Like to Restore Sanity? What would it be like to work together again in creative and generous ways? What would it be like to be curious about who you're with rather than judging or fearing them? What would it be like to engage together in exploring possibilities rather than withdrawing in conflict or disagreement? What would it be like to be working well together?

From 50 years working with leaders globally, I state with full confidence that leadership has never been more difficult. And it's not our fault. We've been good and caring leaders, we've led people in empowering, engaging ways to create meaningful, productive work. But now we face external conditions far beyond our control to change, dynamics intensifying at shocking speed. The perfect storm is here, created by the coalescence of climate and human-created catastrophes. As leaders dedicated to serving the causes and people we treasure, confronted by this unrelenting tsunami, what are we to do? I state my answer to this also with full confidence:

We need to restore sanity by awakening the human spirit. We can achieve this only if we undertake the most challenging and meaningful work of our leader lives: Creating Islands of Sanity.

An Island of Sanity is a gift of possibility and refuge created by people's commitment to form healthy community to do meaningful work. It requires sane leaders with unshakable faith in people's innate generosity, creativity, and kindness. It sets itself apart as an island to protect itself from the life-destroying dynamics, policies, and behaviors that oppress and deny the human spirit. No matter what is happening around us, we can discover practices that enliven our human spirits and produce meaningful contributions for this time.

About the Author

Approaching 80, I look back and see what a rich and blessed life I’ve had. I’ve been able to give my curiosity free rein and to be with extraordinary teachers and companions. I’ve been able to explore a wide range of disciplines, lived in several different cultures, and raised a large family.

I’ve learned from an incredible diversity of people, from Indigenous peoples to the Dalai Lama, from small town ministers to senior government ministers, from leading scientists to National Park rangers, from engaged activists to solitary monastics. This access to so many sources of experience and wisdom, held in the container of friendship, continues to deepen my resolve to bring whatever I’m learning into my books and teachings.

I had an excellent liberal arts education at the University of Rochester and University College London. I served in the Peace Corps in Korea, 1966–1968, learning to thrive in a post-war, traditional culture where everything was different, teaching junior and senior high school English (minimum class size was 65). My M.A. is from New York University in Media Ecology with Neil Postman. My doctorate is from Harvard’s program in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, focused on organizational behavior and change.

I have been a consultant and speaker since 1973, working with all types of organizations and peoples, on all continents (except Antarctica). Working in so many different places, it’s been easy to recognize patterns of behavior common across cultural and institutional differences, and to also note behaviors and worldviews specific to different cultures. It also has kept me alert to changing trends in leadership.

I was full-time faculty in two graduate management programs, Cambridge College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and The Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. I’ve been a formal adviser for leadership programs in England, Croatia, Denmark, Australia, the United States and, in Berkana, with leadership initiatives in India, Senegal, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Canada, and Europe. I was a formal adviser to the Director of the National Park System for ten years, a highlight in my career.

I am co-founder and president of The Berkana Institute, a global nonprofit founded in 1991. I am very proud of our decades of experimentation and support of life-affirming leaders everywhere. Explore our rich and varied history at www.berkana.org

My most creative work is The Warrior’s Songline, A Journey Guided by Voice and Sound (2020). This is a collaboration with Jerry Granelli. Jerry and I began training Warriors for the Human Spirit in 2015. He was a famous jazz drummer and composer as well as superb teacher of warriorship--he died in 2021, and the Songline is our legacy work. This is a new form melding voice and sound to create an evocative and transcendent experience introducing listeners to the Warrior’s Path. https://margaretwheatley.com/the-warriors-songline/

I’ve published twelve books and written dozens of articles (free on my website). My writings have been an invitation to explore new ways of leading based on wisdom drawn from new science, history, archeology, cosmology, and many spiritual traditions. I’ve sought to apply this rich and crucial wisdom to the challenges of leadership and how people can live well together as community, no matter what’s happening in external circumstances.

I was raised in New York City area and then lived in the Boston area. Since 1989, I’ve lived happily in Utah. I have two adult sons and five stepchildren, all seven from the same father. I have dozens of grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, most of whom live in Utah. I am held by the guardian mountains of Utah and frequently seek ground in red rock canyons just a few hours away. My peaceful mountain home supports me to do my work and to take frequent brief spiritual retreats. My spiritual teachers’ guidance keeps deepening my spiritual practice, and I delight in the close proximity of beloved family.

To keep current with my work, https://margaretwheatley.com/library/current-thinking/

In this Book

  • My Gift to You
  • What Would It Be Like?
  • What is the Human Spirit?
  • To Restore and Awaken
  • Islands of Sanity
  • What is Sanity?
  • Sane Leadership
  • Unshakable Confidence
  • How Do We Humans Change?
  • Awakening Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness
  • What Does It Mean to Be Human?
  • Practice: Know Thyself
  • Practice: Suffering Strangers
  • Warriors for the Human Spirit
  • Discovering Your Leadership
  • Why These Practices?
  • Leading an Island of Sanity
  • Practice: How Have You Been Changed as a Leader?
  • Practice: Surprised by the Human Spirit
  • Becoming an Island of Sanity
  • Practice: Do We Need to Be an Island?
  • Practice: Do We Share a Faith in People?
  • Practice: Keeping Identity Alive and Well
  • A Pattern Language to Awaken Generosity, Creativity, and Kindness
  • From Reactivity to Responsiveness
  • Practice: Seeing the Familiar with New Eyes
  • Practice: The Pause That Refreshes
  • Practice: When You Can’t Let Go
  • What Do We Do When Something Goes Wrong?
  • Practice: Community Councils
  • Practice: When Stories Take Hold
  • Practice: After Action Reviews
  • Practice: Relying on Diversity and Inclusion to Solve Complex Problems
  • When the Road Gets Hard
  • Practice: Faith as an Antidote to Fear
  • Practice: Just Like Me: Using Personal Difficulty to Connect with the Human Experience (Tonglen)
  • Practice: How to Contemplate
  • Gifts Given and Gifts Received
  • Ancient Thera, Present Teacher
  • Photo Credits
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