Optimist>The Optimist

About this course

Twenty years ago, management consultant Margaret Wheatley wrote a book with an optimistic message. That was when she still believed she could change the world by showing people that “there is another way.” Now, she doesn’t believe that anymore. Her message today is: To change, you need to start over, become a “warrior of the human spirit” and learn to persevere. During this online course, Wheatley will teach you how. 

About Warriors of the Human Spirit

“Let’s see ourselves as ‘warriors of the human spirit,’” says Margaret Wheatley in an interview with The Intelligent Optimist. Wheatley has just published So Far From Home, a book about “how we ended up in a world that nobody wants.” She sees perseverance as the way that these warriors get through.

“I want us to persevere. I want us to be the few people who live by the values that we cherish, who do work that feels right for us to do even if it doesn’t create enormous positive change. I want us to get out of this really destructive belief that if we just work harder, we just network a bit better, we just communicate more, that we are going to shift the direction in which things are trending right now. I don’t for a moment longer believe that we can change this very large, destructive cycle of the systems of politics, business and finance that are quite life-destroying.”

Twenty years ago, management consultant Margaret Wheatley wrote a book with an optimistic message. If only leaders in government and business had a better understanding of the new discoveries in quantum physics, chaos theory and biology, they would lead their organizations in a different—and more successful—way.Leadership and the New Science became a bestseller. “I thought that all you had to do was to show people that there was another, more effective way and that they then would choose the better idea,” Wheatley recalls. “Well, I have since learned that good ideas don’t change people’s minds.”

 From the same scientific perspectives, she now sees the dominant global culture of greed and injustice as an “emerging phenomenon.” The world we live in was not anyone’s plan. It is a self-organizing result of the interactions of many decisions and initiatives, according to Wheatley. “You can never change emerging phenomena by working within them. You change by starting over.” Hence her call for persevering warriors. 

Who should attend?

• - Everyone fascinated by the concept of perseverance, and what that could mean in your life.
• - All of you looking for ways to become a changemaker in this world
• - Everyone curious about the concept “warrior of the human spirit”
• - Readers of The Intelligent Optimist!