Peter Block Quotes

Dissent is the cousin of diversity; the respect for a wide range of beliefs. This begins by allowing people the space to say "no". If we cannot say "no" then our "yes" has no meaning. Each needs the chance to express their doubts and reservations, without having to justify them, or move quickly into problem solving. No is the beginning of the conversation for commitment.

The choice to worry about why we are doing something more than how we do something is risky business.

To be committed means you are willing to make a promise with no exception of return.

The essential challenge is to transform the isolation and self-interest within our communities into connectedness and caring for the whole.

I discovered that resolution of conflict comes from people being able to express their own feelings and their own needs in the face of another. Making agreements and setting goals without building upon the feelings of the parties involved is empty, because it does not consider the vulnerabilities of our own humanity.

We have banished our artists to the fringe of society and tell them to eat cake. It is our artists who choose freedom over safety and use their talents to question and confront the culture.

Ones vision is not a road map but a compass.

How do you change the world? One room at a time. Which room? The one you're in.

Relationship and connectedness are the pre-condition for change. Every meeting, every process, every training program has to get people connected first. Otherwise the content falls on deaf ears. So small groups are an essential building block to any future you want to create.

Learning and performance will become one and the same thing. Everything you say about learning will be about performance. People will get the point that learning is everything.

We need to tell people not to be helpful. Trying to be helpful and giving advise are really ways to control others ... Advice, recommendations, and obvious actions are exactly what increase the likelihood that tomorrow will be just like yesterday.

Raise the question of what do we want to create together, even for an established institution.

The artist treats intuition and nuance with respect and reminds us that a little madness resides in all of us. Artists give voice to feelings, to conflict, to the prism of human experience.

Anecdotes, personal stories, reminiscences, like biblical parables, are the medium through which faith is restored. Stories are a form of poetry, and give us a saving image to personally relate to.

Why do anything unless it is going to be great?

We get the leaders we create.

The shift in the world begins with a shift in our thinking. Shifting our thinking does not change the world, but it creates a condition where the shift in the world becomes possible.

All we have to do to create the future is to change the nature of our conversations, to go from blame to ownership, and from bargaining to commitment, and from problem solving to possibility.

The task of leadership is to be intentional about the way we group people and the questions that we engage them in.

As long as we wish for safety, we will have difficulty pursuing what matters.

What worked yesterday is the gilded cage of tomorrow.

Structure influences behavior. Design spaces that make you feel "you are welcome here and that you came to the right place."

If you need ownership and responsibility from core workers, patriarchy can't get you there.

We must establish a personal connection with each other. Connection before content. Without relatedness, no work can occur.

Every parent's deepest wish is that their children are self sufficient, happy, and able to live a full life.