Working Together to Restore Sanity in Turbulent Times

In this 2025 interview with Justine Willis Toms, Wheatley discusses the importance of creating "islands of sanity" in disruptive times to restore and awaken the human spirit. She emphasizes the need to face reality, understand the current landscape, and contribute meaningfully. Wheatley outlines five stages for solving complex problems: cooling (listening), enrichment (understanding diverse perspectives), magnetizing (inviting missing voices), compassionate destruction (letting go of old patterns), and pattern language (creating healthy groups). She advocates for conscious communities based on shared values and human qualities, and stresses the importance of being present, curious, and grateful.

Margaret J Wheatley, Ph.D. is an internationally acclaimed writer, speaker, and teacher. She began caring about the world's peoples in 1966 as a Peace Corps volunteer in postwar Korea. She is cofounder and President Emerita of The Berkana Institute, a charitable foundation that works with people around the world to strengthen their communities using the wisdom and wealth already present in their people, traditions, and environment. She is a guide in leading people back to understanding who we are as humans, being able to create the conditions for our basic qualities of generosity, contribution, community, and love. She is a grand contributor in creating an Island of Sanity in the midst of wildly disruptive seas.

Her books include:

Leadership and the New Science (Berrett-Kohler 1998)

Turning To One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope in the Future (Berrett-Kohler 2009)

Perseverance (Berrett-Kohler 2010)

Restoring Sanity: Practices to Awaken Generosity, Creativity & Kindness in Ourselves and Our Organizations (Berrett Kohler 2024)

Opening to the World As It Is: Poems of Experience (Berkana Publications 2024)

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Lydbog: 4. februar 2026