"We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity. We need to give each other space so that we may both give and receive such beautiful things as ideas, openness, dignity, joy, healing, and inclusion"
About this Quote
De Pree frames “space” as a moral resource, not a managerial perk. Coming from a businessman who spent his career arguing that leadership is stewardship, the line is less self-help than corporate dissent: a quiet rebuke to organizations that confuse control with competence. “We need to give each other the space to grow” smuggles in a critique of systems that prize predictability, compliance, and sameness, then wonder why creativity dies on the vine.
The repetition does work here. By hammering “We need to give each other space,” De Pree shifts responsibility away from the individual’s grit and onto the social architecture: culture, policies, meetings, power. Space is something granted and protected, meaning somebody with authority has to stop crowding the room. That’s the subtext: inclusion isn’t a vibe; it’s an allocation decision.
His list of “beautiful things” escalates strategically from the cerebral (“ideas, openness”) to the existential (“dignity, joy, healing”) and lands on the civic (“inclusion”). In business language, he’s expanding the definition of value beyond output. Dignity and healing are provocative in a corporate context because they imply harm has been done - by workplaces that flatten identity, punish difference, and demand emotional neutrality from people who can’t afford it.
Even “exercise our diversity” carries a subtle edge. Diversity isn’t a static demographic fact; it’s a capacity that atrophies under surveillance and blossoms under trust. De Pree’s intent is to make “space” sound soft while demanding something hard: leaders who relinquish ego, redesign incentives, and treat human variance as the engine of a healthy institution rather than the mess to be managed.
The repetition does work here. By hammering “We need to give each other space,” De Pree shifts responsibility away from the individual’s grit and onto the social architecture: culture, policies, meetings, power. Space is something granted and protected, meaning somebody with authority has to stop crowding the room. That’s the subtext: inclusion isn’t a vibe; it’s an allocation decision.
His list of “beautiful things” escalates strategically from the cerebral (“ideas, openness”) to the existential (“dignity, joy, healing”) and lands on the civic (“inclusion”). In business language, he’s expanding the definition of value beyond output. Dignity and healing are provocative in a corporate context because they imply harm has been done - by workplaces that flatten identity, punish difference, and demand emotional neutrality from people who can’t afford it.
Even “exercise our diversity” carries a subtle edge. Diversity isn’t a static demographic fact; it’s a capacity that atrophies under surveillance and blossoms under trust. De Pree’s intent is to make “space” sound soft while demanding something hard: leaders who relinquish ego, redesign incentives, and treat human variance as the engine of a healthy institution rather than the mess to be managed.
Quote Details
| Topic | Respect |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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