Turning to One Another -- Learning from Margaret Wheatley

I recently reconnected with Margaret Wheatley’s book, Turning to One Another: Simple conversations to restore hope to the future. I’m so glad I reencountered this lost gem and was struck by Wheatley’s message more today than the first time I read this book.
She writes, “It is an increasingly dark time. It is difficult to do good and lasting work. It is seemingly impossible to create healthy change. But people are basically good and caring. We may feel distressed, overwhelmed, numbed, and afraid. But beneath these feelings, we still desire learning, freedom, meaning, and love.” She goes on to explain, “The intent of this book is to encourage and support you in beginning conversations about things that are important to you.”

This week I used Wheatley’s thoughts on understanding one’s beliefs with a group of coaches in Parkway, MO. Her work helped us unpack our beliefs and consider how this impacts our work with others. We also explored some of her thoughts about meaningful conversations and had several meaningful conversations of our own.

In these challenging times, it was refreshing to think about some of these more heart-felt concepts…a ready change from the frenzy of our daily work in schools and maybe something you would like to take on yourself.