We cannot wait for great visions from great people, for they are in short supply. It is up to us to light our own small fires in the darkness. Charles Handy More Quotes by Charles Handy More Quotes From Charles Handy Presidents, leaders, to be effective have to represent the whole to the parts and to the world outside. They may live in the centre but they must not be the centre. To reinforce the common sense they must be a constant teacher, ever travelling, ever talking, ever listening, the chief missionary of the common cause. Charles Handy leadership talking teacher Most of us prefer to walk backward into the future, a posture that may be uncomfortable but which at least allows us to keep on looking at familiar things as long as we can. Charles Handy teaching may long The first step is to measure whatever can easily be measured. This is OK as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can't be easily measured or to give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily really isn't important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide. Charles Handy risk suicide giving Purpose, pattern, and people, the three P's at the heart of life. Charles Handy fortune-cookie heart people A consultant solves other people"s problems. I could never do that. I want to help other people solve their own problems. Charles Handy helping-others want people We should see schools as safe arenas for experimenting with life, for discovering our talents... for taking responsibity for tasks and others people, for learning how to learn... and for exploring our beliefs about life and society. Charles Handy arena people school Talent comes with an individual name tag. Charles Handy learning teaching names Home is the first school for us all, a school with no fixed curriculum, no quality control, no examinations, no teacher training Charles Handy home teacher school The market is a mechanism for sorting the efficient from the inefficient, it is not a substitute for responsibility. Charles Handy sorting substitutes responsibility Learning is experience understood in tranquility. Charles Handy tranquility understood learning Why don't we teach our children in school what they are? We should say to them, 'You are unique... you have the capacity for anything. You are a marvel'. Charles Handy learning relationship children Passion is born of vague hopes. Charles Handy vague born passion It is tempting to call for better leadership, but we probably expect too much from the leaders of the nations. Those nations are too big, the connections not strong enough, the commitment to the future not long enough. It is better to look smaller, to our now-smaller organisations, to local communities and cities, to families and clusters of friends, to small networks of portfolio people with time to give to something bigger than themselves. We have to fashion our own directions in our own places. Charles Handy fashion strong inspirational The morality of compromise' sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don't compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised. I shall argue that strong men, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle. Charles Handy strong business men If economic progress means that we become anonymous cogs in some great machine, then progress is an empty promise. Charles Handy progress mean promise Competition is healthy ... but there is more to life than winning or we should nearly all be losers Charles Handy competition healthy winning Profit has to be a means to other ends rather than an end in itself. Charles Handy finance business mean Forget land, buildings, or machines-the real source of wealth today is intelligence, applied intelligence. We talk glibly of "intellectual property" without taking on board what it really means. It isn't just patent rights and brand names; it is the brains of the place. Charles Handy land real mean Villages are small and personal, and their inhabitants have names, characters, and personalities. What more appropriate concept on which to base our institutions of the future than the ancient social unit whose flexibility and strength substained human society through millenia? Charles Handy personality names character We need to have faith in the future to make sense of the present. Charles Handy make-sense have-faith needs
