Rosabeth Moss Kanter famous quotes

05-24-2025

A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Inspirational #Self Esteem #Vision
Change is a threat when done to me, but an opportunity when done by me.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Change #Positive #Opportunity
Creativity is a lot like looking at the world through a kaleidoscope. You look at a set of elements, the same ones everyone else sees, but then reassemble those floating bits and pieces into an enticing new possibility.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Leadership #Creativity #Kaleidoscope
Leaders are more powerful role models when they learn than when they teach.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Leadership #Powerful #Role Models
Everything looks like a failure in the middle. In neary every change project, doubt is cast on the original vision because problems are mounting and the end is nowhere in sight.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Sight #Doubt #Vision
Too many people let others stand in their way and don't go back for one more try.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#People #Trying #Way
Embrace change as an opportunity to learn, to improve, to make a difference in others' lives as well as in your own. Have the courage to challenge the status quo. Remember that preparation and ambition in combination with opportunity equals success. And have fun!
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Fun #Ambition #Opportunity
The most radical thing we can do is connect people to one another. That starts conversations toward a vision for change.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#People #Vision #Conversation
The difference between "winners" and "losers" is not whether they face obstacles and setbacks - we all do, and it is inevitable that plans do not unfold exactly as imagined or that unexpected events surprise us or that a few mistakes happen. The real difference is that "winners" bounce back from a fumble or a loss by refusing to panic, analyzing the situation and looking for positive actions they can take to correct the problem, and then go on to resume winning.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Real #Mistake #Loss
Change masters are - literally - the right people in the right place at the right time. The right people are the ones with the ideas that move beyond the organization's established practice, ideas they can form into visions. The right places are the integrative environments that support innovation, encourage the building of coalitions and teams to support and implement visions. The right times are those moments in the flow of organizational history when it is possible to reconstruct reality on the basis on accumulated innovations to shape a more productive and successful future.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Team #Moving #Successful
Leaders must wake people out of inertia. They must get people excited about something they've never seen before, something that does not yet exist.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Inspirational #People #Leader
The architecture of change involves the design and construction of new patterns, or the reconceptualization of old ones, to make new, and hopefully more productive, actions possible.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Change #Design #Patterns
I've found that small wins, small projects, small differences often make huge differences.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Winning #Differences #Small Wins
People often resist change for reasons that make good sense to them, even if those reasons don't correspond to organizational goals. So it is crucial to recognize, reward, and celebrate accomplishments.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#People #Accomplishment #Goal
Change is like putting lipstick on a bulldog. The bulldog's appearance hasn't improved, but now it's really angry.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Change #Bulldogs #Appearance
Passion for a goal doesn't guarantee success, but without it, you can't even begin.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Passion #Goal #Excellence
Mindless habitual behavior is the enemy of innovation.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Innovation #Enemy #Inquiry
Change demands new learning.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Demand
Leaders must pick causes they won't abandon easily, remain committed despite setbacks, and communicate their big ideas over and over again in every encounter.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Talking #Ideas #Leader
in most important ways, leaders of the future will need the traits and capabilities of leaders throughout history: an eye for change and a steadying hand to provide both vision and reassurance that change can be mastered, a voice that articulates the will of the group and shapes it to constructive ends, and an ability to inspire by force of personality while making others feel empowered to increase and use their own abilities.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Leadership #Eye #Hands
Innovative organizations provide the freedom to act which arouses the desire to act.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Organization #Desire #Innovative
A great thinker once described innovative thinkers this way: "Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' I dream of things that never were and say, 'Why not?'" Innovative thinkers are constantly asking questions such as these. How can we improve recruiting, hiring and training. How can be add greater value to our products and services by making them even better? How can we do more to nourish the personal as well as professional development of our people? What more can we do as a good citizen where we do business?
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Dream #Men #People
To stay ahead, you must have your next idea waiting in the wings.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Inspirational #Motivational #Wings
Leaders is the new organisation do not lack motivational tools, but the tools are different from those of traditional corporate bureaucrats. The new rewards are based not on status but on contribution, and they consist not of regular promotion and automatic pay rises, but of excitement about the mission and a share of the glory of success.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Leadership #Motivation #Different
People who are making decisions about the future often don't have access to some of the best ideas in the company, which may be at the periphery or at lower levels.
-- Rosabeth Moss Kanter

#Ideas #People #Decision

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