Karl E. Weick > Quotes

“Argue as if you are right and listen as if you are wrong.”
― Karl E. Weick

“Failure presumes a lot of prior knowledge. Otherwise, how would you know whether a change represents failing? The word anomaly is important in this context because it refers to a cue that does not fit into a series, something that is a departure from common order, form, or rule.”
― Karl E. Weick, Managing the Unexpected: Sustained Performance in a Complex World

“. Organization resides between smoke and crystal just as it resides between conversation and text. Organization is talked into existence when portions of smoke-like conversation are preserved in crystal-like texts that are then articulated by agents speaking on behalf of an emerging collectivity. Repetitive cycles of texts, conversations, and agents define and modify one another and jointly organize everyday life (Taylor and Van Every, 2000, p. 31).”
― Karl E. Weick, Making Sense of the Organization, Volume 2: The Impermanent Organization

“When heedful interrelating produces mindful action, this is an example of people acting in order to think. What is different is that the acting is more relationally sensitive and the thinking is more situationally mindful. With fuller attention there is less confirmation bias.”
― Karl E. Weick, Making Sense of the Organization, Volume 2: The Impermanent Organization