Karl E. Weick Quotes

#1. Being naive simply means that we reject received wisdom that something is a problem. We are always naive relative to some definition of the situation, and if we try to become less so, we may accept a definition that confines the definition of small wins to narrower issues than is necessary.

Karl E. Weick

#2. Rank and expertise do not necessarily coincide.

Karl E. Weick

#3. If people have multiple identities and deal with multiple realities, why should we expect them to be ontological purists?

Karl E. Weick

#4. Your beliefs are cause maps that you impose on the world, after which you 'see' what you have already imposed.

Karl E. Weick

#5. Specifically, I would suggest that the effective organization is garrulous, clumsy, superstitious, hypocritical, monstrous, octopoid, wandering, and grouchy.

Karl E. Weick

#6. The real trick in highly reliable systems is somehow to achieve simultaneous centralization and decentralization.

Karl E. Weick

#7. Managers construct, rearrange, single out, and demolish many 'objective' features of their surroundings. When people act they unrandomize variables, insert vestiges of orderliness, and literally create their own constraints.

Karl E. Weick

#8. Simply pushing harder within the old boundaries will not do.

Karl E. Weick