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Margaret (Meg) Wheatley (born 1944) is an American writer, teacher, speaker, and management consultant who works to create organizations and communities worthy of human habitation.  She draws from many disciplines: organizational behavior, chaos theory, living systems science, ancient spiritual traditions, history, sociology, and anthropology.  


Early life and education

Born in Yonkers, New York, in 1944, to an English father who was a mechanic running a foreign car service and a Jewish-American mother, Wheatley grew up in the New York City area. Her grandmother,
Irma Lindheim Irma L. Lindheim (1886–1978), born in New York, was a Zionist fund-raiser and educator. Early life Lindheim was born Irma Levy in New York City on December 9, 1886, to a German-Jewish family with roots in the American South. Her father, Rober ...
, was a well-known activist, writer, and fund-raiser for the creation of the state of Israel. Lindheim lived in the kibbutz
Mishmar HaEmek Mishmar HaEmek ( he, מִשְׁמַר הָעֵמֶק, . "Guard of the Valley") is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the western Jezreel Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Megiddo Regional Council. Mishmar HaEmek is one of the ...
, frequently visiting her family in the U.S.A. She was Wheatley’s primary guide and role model.Personal communication January 2021 Wheatley graduated from
Lincoln High School (Yonkers, New York) Lincoln High School is located in Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City a ...
, in 1962. She completed her baccalaureate degree in 1966 at the
University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...
, where she majored in English and history, and spent her junior year abroad at the
University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...
. From 1966–1968, Wheatley served in the
Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...
in Cholla Namdo Province,
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
, teaching high school English. She returned from Korea via the
Trans-Siberian Railroad The Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR; , , ) connects European Russia to the Russian Far East. Spanning a length of over , it is the longest railway line in the world. It runs from the city of Moscow in the west to the city of Vladivostok in the eas ...
, and recalled she and her travelling companion were assumed to be
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
agents in the Peace Corps, and were called "thugs wearing peace masks." Advised by
Neil Postman Neil Postman (March 8, 1931 – October 5, 2003) was an American author, educator, media theorist and cultural critic, who eschewed digital technology, including personal computers, mobile devices, and cruise control in cars, and was critical of ...
, Wheatley received her M.A. in communications and
systems thinking Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts. It has been used as a way of exploring and developing effective actio ...
from
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
. She moved to the Boston, Massachusetts area when she was 30 years old to earn her Ed.D. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy at
Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...
. Her dissertation was titled ''Equal Employment Opportunity Awareness Training: the Influence of Theories of Attitude Change and Adult Learning in the Corporate Setting.'' In 1977, while completing her doctoral work at Harvard, Wheatley married a widower who had five children aged five to sixteen. They added two more children together for a total of six boys and one girl. They divorced in 1992 and remain a very strong and loving Italian-American family.  As of 2020, there are 23 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.  Most of the family lives in Utah, where Wheatley has resided since 1989.


Career

Wheatley's practice as an organizational consultant and researcher began in 1973, working with
Rosabeth Moss Kanter Rosabeth Moss Kanter (born March 15, 1943) is the Ernest L. Arbuckle professor of business at Harvard Business School.
in the firm Goodmeasure, Cambridge MA.  Kanter mentored her well and is the reason Wheatley moved so quickly into being both a keynote speaker and author. Since 1973 Wheatley has worked on every inhabited continent in "virtually every type of organization" and with people in all positions, from government prime ministers to small town religious ministers, from teen-age social entrepreneurs to corporate CEOs, from the head of the U.S. Army to the Dalai Lama

She has considered herself a global citizen since her youth. Wheatley has been Associate Professor of Management in two graduate programs: the
Marriott School of Management The Marriott School of Business is the business school of Brigham Young University (BYU), a private university owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and located in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1891 and renamed i ...
,
Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...
, and
Cambridge College Cambridge College is a private college based in Boston, Massachusetts. It also operates regional centers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Springfield, Massachusetts, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and Rancho Cucamonga, California. History Founding Cam ...
,
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...
. She served in a formal advisory capacity for leadership programs in England, Croatia, Denmark, Australia, and the United States. Through the Berkana Institute, (a global charitable leadership foundation, founded by Wheatley and friends in 1991) she worked with leadership initiatives in India, Senegal, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil as well as Europe. The Berkana Institute has worked globally (especially in the Global South) with dedicated, creative, spiritually-grounded leaders, all of whom are experimenting with new forms of leading and organizing.  Berkana’s current work is training leaders and activists as Warriors for the Human Spiri

Wheatley has a strong spiritual practice.  From 2010 to 2018, she did long winter retreats to
Gampo Abbey Gampo Abbey is a Western Buddhist monastery in the Shambhala tradition in Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1983, it is a lineage institution of Shambhala and a corporate division of the Vajradhatu Buddhist Church of C ...
, a
Tibetan Buddhist Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...
monastery in
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
, under the direction of her teacher,
Pema Chödrön Pema Chödrön (པདྨ་ཆོས་སྒྲོན། ''padma chos sgron'' “lotus dharma lamp”; born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism an ...
. She cites
Namkhai Norbu Namkhai Norbu (; 8 December 1938 – 27 September 2018) was a Tibetan Buddhist master of Dzogchen and a professor of Tibetan and Mongolian language and literature at Naples Eastern University. He was a leading authority on Tibetan culture, part ...
who died in 2018 as her Tibetan teacher. She is now a student of the Indian mystic and yogi
Sadhguru


Awards and tributes

Wheatley has received multiple awards and honorary doctorates. In 1992, her first book, ''Leadership and the New Science,'' won the award from Industry Week as the best management book, as well as one of CIO Magazine's "Top Ten Business Books of the 1990s," and one of Xerox Corporation's "Top Ten Business Books of all time." The
American Society for Training and Development American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
(ASTD) has named her one of five living legends. In May 2002, ASTD awarded her their highest honor: "Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance," with the following citation: She was elected to
the Leonardo da Vinci Society for the Study of Thinking ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
in 2005. In 2010, she was appointed to the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
advisory board by the Obama
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
and the
United States Secretary of the Interior The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natural ...
,
Ken Salazar Kenneth Lee Salazar (born March 2, 1955) is an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat who is the United States ambassador to Mexico. He previously served as the 50th United States Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Ba ...
. She served until 2018 when the twelve member advisors resigned en masse in protest of the new policies of the government of President Donald Trump

She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association (ILA) in 2014. An interviewer from ILA said: The introduction to her interview with staff from the Association for Talent Development notes, "Meg Wheatley writes, teaches, and speaks about radically new practices and ideas for organizing in chaotic times. She works to create organizations of all types where people are known as the blessing, not the problem. Her last book, ''Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future'', proposes that real social change comes from the ageless process of people thinking together in conversation." In 2016, Wheatley was honored with the Clara Snell Woodbury Distinguished Leadership Award, as well as recognition from Leadership California.


Publications

Her books include: * 1992. ''Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World'' (in 3 editions and 20 languages), Berrett-Koehler Publishers; . * 1998. ''A Simpler Way'' (with Myron Kellner-Rogers), Berrett-Koehler Publishers; . * 2002. ''Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future,'' Berrett-Koehler Publishers; . * 2007. ''Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time,'' Berrett-Koehler Publishers; . * 2010. ''Perseverance'' (paintings by Asante Salaam), Berrett-Koehler Publishers; . * 2011. ''Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now'' (with Deborah Frieze), Berrett-Koehler Publishers; . * 2012. ''So Far From Home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World,'' Berrett-Koehler Publishers; . * 2014. ''How Does Raven Know: Entering Sacred World /A Meditative Memoir'',  Berkana Publications;   * 2017. ''Who Do We Choose to Be?: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity,'' Berrett-Koehler Publishers; . * 2020. ''Warriors for the Human Spirit: A Songline. A Journey Guided By Voice And Sound''. An mp3 with accompanying book. (music by
Jerry Granelli Gerald John Granelli (December 30, 1940July 20, 2021) was an American-Canadian jazz drummer. He was best known for playing drums on the soundtrack '' A Charlie Brown Christmas'' with the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Early life Granelli was born to Jack ...
), Berkana Publications; .


References


External links


Margaret J. Wheatley
homepage {{DEFAULTSORT:Wheatley, Meg 1944 births American management consultants American non-fiction writers Brigham Young University faculty Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni Living people New York University alumni