I have always found my attention drawn to many different disciplines: science, history, literature, systems thinking, organizational behavior, social policy, cosmology and theology. I value what I’ve learned from each of these different fields, because no one discipline, institution, or specialization can answer the questions that now confront us. We all must draw from many different perspectives to reweave the world.

I had an excellent liberal arts education at the University of Rochester and University College London. In the mid-sixties, I spent two years in the Peace Corps in Korea, teaching high school English. On returning to the U.S., I taught junior and senior high school, then became an educational administrator of programs for children and adults who were economically poor and denied traditional educational opportunities. I received a Master of Arts degree from New York University in systems thinking. My doctorate is from Harvard’s program in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, with a focus on organizational behavior and change.

I have been a consultant and speaker since 1973, and have worked, I believe, with almost all types of organizations and people. They range from the head of the U.S. Army to twelve year old Girl Scouts, from CEOs to small town ministers. This diversity includes Fortune 100 corporations, government agencies, healthcare institutions, foundations, public schools, colleges, major church denominations, professional associations, and monasteries. I have also been privileged to work on all continents. Every organization is wrestling with a similar dilemma—how to maintain its integrity, direction, and effectiveness as it copes with relentless turbulence and change. But there is another similarity I’m hopeful to report: A common human desire for peace, to live together more harmoniously, more humanely.

I have served as full-time graduate management faculty at two institutions, Cambridge College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and The Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. I have served in a formal advisory capacity for leadership programs in England, Croatia, Denmark. Australia and the United States, and through my work in Berkana, with leadership initiatives in India, Senegal, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Canada and Europe.

I am co-founder and President Emerita of The Berkana Institute, a global charitable foundation founded in 1991, and dedicated to serving life-affirming leaders. We define a leader as anyone who wants to help at this time. Berkana has worked in dozens of countries, mostly in the third world, supporting local initiatives committed to strengthening a community's leadership capacity and self-reliance by working with the wisdom and wealth already present in its people, traditions and environment. Berkana has discovered that the world is blessed with tens of thousands of courageous leaders. They are young and old, in all countries, working in all types of organizations and communities. Together, we are pioneering a new model for developing leaders who have the skills, capacity and commitment to invite their community to learn to care for itself.
For information about Berkana’s work, see www.berkana.org.

Leadership and the New Science was first published in 1992, with new editions in 1999 and 2006. Each edition contains new material on where the ideas of new science are evident in the world. This book is credited with establishing a fundamentally new approach to how we think about organizations. It has been translated into 20 languages and won many awards, including “Best Management Book of 1992” in Industry Week, Top Ten Business Books of the 1990s by CIO Magazine, and Top Ten Business books of all time by Xerox Corporation. The video of Leadership and the New Science, produced by CRM films, has also won several film awards.

In 1996, I co-authored A Simpler Way (with Myron Kellner-Rogers). A Simpler Way explores the question: Could we organize human endeavor differently if we understood how Life organizes? Through photos, poetry, and prose, the book contemplates self-organization, and the conditions that nurture life and organizations.

Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future (2002) is written from the belief that we could change the world if we just begin listening to one another again. Great social change movements always begin from the simple act of friends talking to each other about their fears and dreams. This book contains ten conversation starters as well as guidance about how to host good conversations.

Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time (2005) is a collection of my practice-focused articles, where I apply themes addressed throughout my career to detail the organizational practices and behaviors that bring them to life. These pieces represent more than a decade of work, of how I took the ideas in my earlier books and applied them in practice in many different situations. However, this is more than a collection of articles. I updated, revised or substantially added to the original content of each one. In this way, everything written here represents my most current views on these subjects.

My articles appear in a wide range of professional publications and magazines, and can be downloaded for free on this website; click the Articles tab above to visit the Writings page.
In the Books & Tapes section, you will also see a number of videos, CDs and DVDs that I’ve produced on different organizational and leadership topics.

I was raised on the East Coast of the U.S., first in the New York City area, and then in Boston. In 1989, my family and I moved west to the mountains and red rocks of Utah. I have two adult sons, five stepchildren, and fourteen grandchildren. My family, friends and my work bring me great joy, and so does the time I spend with my horses, hiking, skiing, and being in the true quiet of wilderness.

I can be reached at: Margaret J. Wheatley Inc., P.O. Box 1407, Provo, Utah 84603
Tel: 801-377-2996; Fax: 801-377-2998; www.margaretwheatley.com