Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future (Paperback)

by Margaret J. Wheatley (Author) "I believe we can change the world if we start listening to one another again..." (more)
Key Phrases: conversation starters, Paulo Freire, South Africa

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
It is impossible to read Turning to One Another in the wake of the devastating attack on New York City's World Trade Center and not marvel at the book's eerie and moving prescience. Of course Margaret Wheatley has already earned herself a (deserved and legit) reputation as the Oprah of "sensitive" organizational books with such titles as A Simpler Way. But this book--devoted entirely to centrality of conversation in healing everything from personal relationships to organizational dysfunction to world discord--flows so broadly and easily across the borders of genre or topic it's almost as though Wheatley intuited when writing it how the need for its message would soon skyrocket. "The intent of this book is to encourage and support you to begin conversations about things that are important to you and those near you," Wheatley writes right up front in the clean, straightforward voice that always saves her work, unlike that of so many other "New Age" gurus, from cheesiness. "It has no other purpose." She then delivers on that promise, making her points in short, succinct, finely written essays on various aspects of human understanding and connection, invoking the thinking of great humanists like Paolo Friere and Nelson Mandela, peppering her thoughts with encounters with people around the world, and then expanding on 10 "conversation starters" like "Do I feel a 'vocation to be truly human'?" "When have I experienced good listening?" and "When have I experienced working for the common good?"

Suffice to say, those looking for some worksheet-packed, three-step plan for organizational harmony won't find it here. Those willing to take a slower, harder, more thoughtful and likely more rewarding path to better relations on any level--or even those looking for the book equivalent of a cool, tall drink of water (perhaps where all change begins)--will be truly moved and genuinely inspired by Wheatley's practical, timely wisdom. --Timothy Murphy

Product Description
“I believe we can change the world if we start talking to one another again.” With this simple declaration, author Margaret Wheatley proposes that we use the increasingly popular process of conversation and dialogue as the means to develop solutions for the societal changes that need to occur both locally and globally. Wheatley asserts that the changes required in all aspects of modern life will not come from governments or large organizations, national programs, new policies or laws. The changes will be led by people—everyday people self-organizing locally with colleagues and friends to create the changes they want. Turning to One Another will help you begin conversations about things that are important to you. Wheatley begins by describing several conditions that support good conversation, including simplicity, personal courage, real listening, diversity, and several others. Ten short essays will act as “Conversation Starters,” leading people into conversations about their deepest beliefs, fears, and hopes.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (January 9, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576751457
• ISBN-13: 978-1576751459
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #319,432 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a teenagers point of view, January 14, 2002

By	Nicolas Pesci (Utah) - See all my reviews

The main reason for me coming here and writing this review is that I'm not the typical person to read a book like this, let alone fall in love with a book like this. I am a seventeen year-old high-school student from Utah, but more than that I am Margaret Wheatley's son. But I firmly believe that her being my mother has nothing to do with me enjoying this book. She has written other books. None of them I have ever fully read, nor considered trying to finish reading. They adult books, and to me they are boring. But there was something about "turning to one another" that was different from any book I have ever read.

My mom gave me a copy of it before it was done just to see what I thought. I objected to reading more boring adult literature that I didn't understand, but because it was important to her I did. About two hours after I started reading it I realized I was almost half way through the book with no intention of stopping anytime soon. It is rare that a book catches my attention like that. And that is what I believe this book is. It is an extremely rare and incredibly important book. After reading it I felt that even someone like me could make a change in this frightening world. And for once I really was proud to be human and no longer scared, but excited to see what tomorrow and the future would bring me. I think that is something that we all need right now. We are living in a time where countless people are losing their faith in not only people, but also the future.

I don't know what else to say about this book. It really does speak for itself. I know that anyone, no matter how old or young, could pick up this book, read the first few pages and fall in love with it the way I did. It is written very clearly and is extremely easy to understand. Most of all it truly does what the title says, it restores your hope to the future and I feel it is something every one should read.

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply profound, January 24, 2002

By	Steven J. Donaldson (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

Margaret Wheatley's new book demonstrates the importance of more deeply coming to understand and listen to one another if we are to not only survive but to thrive, as our world sits at a key moment in human history. The method is profoundly simple which is what makes it simply profound. If the practice of conversation suggested in this text were to begin to take place, there can only be hope for a better existence for all-and it can start right now, today, with anyone willing to get together and simply converse. This book provides a hopeful tool for anyone concerned about our world and the directions it is heading-it provides practice and promise to make a real difference in our own lives and in the lives of others. I recommend this book with great energy and enthusiasm and am most grateful for the wisdom of this fine author.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple but Vital truths, January 17, 2002

By A Customer

It never stops confounding me how the simplest truths are the most powerful. In this work Margaret Wheatley speaks the simplest truth of them all, that incredible changes can occur on a global scale with the spark of a simple conversation.

This is not groundbreakingly new, before the repurcussions of the industrial revolution, people gathered and talked to each other, made plans, even organized and brought about incredible changes. But today, in the midst of the media/technology flurry and the ensuing shortness of time with which to address each other personally, it is a truth too easily forgotten.

The beauty in this book is that the antidote to this social memory lapse is easily obtainable, and the remedy is very simple to put into action. This work is especially timely in that unlike the mass of other works which determine the root causes, events, and happenings that lead to the disaster of 9-11, it never addresses this with any definition (my suspicion was that the book was already in the works at the time of the horror), and yet offers a potential alternative to ensure that things such as this may not happen again.

The format of the work reflects its nature - no overfilled pages with laborous stories and instructions jammed in, rather, carefully selected simple words on a stark minimalist background accompanied by gentle and simple graphics.

Beautiful.