Customer Reviews

Birth of the Chaordic Age

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In large part, this is a personal account of the development of VISA as told by its founder and CEO Emeritus. It is also the author's personal quest for understanding the nature of society today and the reasons for the failure of so many organizations. He presents his ideas about the birth of a new age filled with accelerating change and disorder which requires organizations that can operate at the thin edge between chaos and order.

Hock introduces the concept of chaordic, an adjective referring to the behavior of any self-governing organism, organization or system which blends elements of order and chaos. Chaordic organization is one able to maintain a harmonious order-disorder balance, characterized by principles of evolution; its nature includes being self-organizing, self-governing, adaptive, and nonlinear.

Hock uses his business experience as a springboard to put forward ideas about chaordic organization which include: they have no destination or ultimate being-only becoming; they incorporate inherent paradox and conflict; they are driven by a deep conviction and shared understanding of the Purpose of a community from which all else flows (profit is not, according the Hock, a Purpose); and they apply principles that are an expression of behavior in the pursuit of Purpose.

The full scope of Hock's thinking encompasses the environment, society, and individuals. This book is a mixture of subtle concepts, insights into organization, and a well told tale (in detail) of the evolution of an idea into a major business enterprise. Hock's deeper insights are intriguing.

The book will be immensely rewarding for those interested in delving into reflective thinking about the evolving nature of organization. Highly recommended. Reviewed by Yvette Borcia, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, the CyberSpace SourceFinder, and the Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

This is a profound book.

Dee Hock created the largest business enterprise on earth - the VISA credit card network. More precisely, he created the organization/system/environment that allowed and encouraged the creativity and passion of thousands of people to create VISA. Hock has coined the term "chaordic," meaning chaos and order at the same time; the harmonious interplay of both is necessary for all vital, adaptable systems. He makes the critical distinction between control and order. Control is imposed, an attempt to eliminate chaos, and stifles creativity and the human spirit. Order arises naturally out of a shared purpose that engages people at the core of their being and brings forth the best they have to offer. Hock states it exquisitely, "Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex, intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple, stupid behavior."

Hock offers a new way of organizing human activity, one that can alter our headlong rush toward social and environmental disaster. It is not merely theoretical but imminently practical - applicable to all sizes and types of organizations from individual to global for-profit and non-profit endeavors of every kind. This new chaordic understanding nurtures the human spirit, the biosphere, and a sustainable future. And it comes just in the nick of time. Maybe we CAN create a livable future for all of the grandchildren.

If you are interested in the best way for people to work together in organizations, you must read Dee Hock's account of the founding and development of Visa. His thinking has played a key role for those who are trying to apply chaos and complexity theory to organizations, and to seminal thinkers like Peter Senge and Arie de Geus. Now, you can read the simple, humble thoughts that can turn ordinary people into extraodinary combinations of effectiveness. I loved the aphorisms interspaced through the book and the down-to-earth way that Dee Hock shared his experiences and thoughts. Think of this as the opposite of Chainsaw Al, and with greater results. Anyone who wants to move beyond the command and control culture that tends to dominate in most organizations should read Dee Hock's account of Chaordic Organizations in the new Chaordic Age. If you liked The Fifth Discipline, The Dance of Change, or The Living Company, this is must reading for you.

'We are living on the knife's edge of one of those ... momentous turning points in human history. Liveable lives ... hang in the balance.' So begins a compelling, passionate, deeply practical and radical exploration of a way forward for our society and for business. Compulsive reading.

I have been waiting for the book to come out since hearing Dee Hock speak at a conference in 1996. It is well up to my highest expectations. This is a book to experience rather than to summarise or analyse. I can not recommend strongly enough that you permit yourself the experience.

Reading this book is like reading three books at the same time. It is a part story of VISA, part reflection on life's lessons and part textbook on organisation theory. Depending on what the reader is looking for, it can either be a great book or a lousy one.

If the reader is looking specifically for a story on VISA, he will find the story superficial, lacking in details and excitement.

If the reader is looking for a new organisation theory, termed Chaordic Theory by the author, he will find that the book explains little on the theories (no more than ten pages) and even lesser on how to apply it. The example of how VISA applied Chaordic theory is superficial and I doubt anyone can apply Chaordic concepts in their organisation just by reading the book.

If the reader is looking for life's lesson as experienced by an extraordinary man, if the reader is willing to plough through the book for such lessons, the reader will find the book full of such life's lesson. I found one such lesson most valuable. The author wrote that men must always keep the beasts of Ambition, Avarice, Ego and Greed at bay. I thought that was a valuable lesson indeed.

Reading this book demanded much of my concentration. Interspersed in the story of VISA, are reflections of how certain thoughts and theories were developed. Such reflections not only break the flow of the book, but also tend to be much more philosophical in nature. To add to the confusion, there are little boxes of mini-maxims (as the author termed it), throughout the book. While I like the touch of the mini-maxims, it again breaks the flow of a normal read. The author certainly is serious when he wrote in the beginning of the book that this book is chaordic in nature. If you ask me, it was some kind of relief when I finally finished the book.

The book ended with a disguised plea for donation to the Chaordic Alliance. Somehow, this did not feel right to me. I guess the author should have stuck to what he wrote in the book when he said he never ask for donations from others.

Dee Hock interweaves his experiences growing up and founding VISA with his thoughts about how to address the decline of community and of modern institutions. He perceives a general breakdown in the social order, fueled by an overemphasis on monetary values and greed, and perpetuated by institutions committed to old methods derived from ideas about machines and structure rooted in the Industrial Revolution. Now, businesses need a more dynamic, flexible organizational structure based on a clear sense of "purpose". This purpose should be rooted in contributing to the community. It must be based on ethical principles and values. This process involves developing "chaordic organizations," those which balance chaos and order. Hock uses examples from his life and from the development of VISA to show how this process works.

This is an excellent, thoughtful book. Hock's fascinating story about founding VISA provides a good context for his meditations about the modern need to develop more chaordic, flexible organizations. At times though, his writing can become somewhat ponderous and wordy, particularly when he tries to express fairly complex or abstract ideas.

I have two regrets after reading it. One that I can't give it more than 5 stars, and that I did not read it a long time ago. I read this book to learn more about Hock's views on complexity and organization, what he describes as a "chaordic system." While I met that purpose, I also discovered much more.

The personal narrative about failure and disappointment before Hock's leadership in the creation of VISA is something I needed to read years ago before I went through frustrating set-backs in my own career for related reasons.

What's more, Hock's understanding and recommendations for harnessing the power of complex systems is brilliant. If you could read only one book on leadership and complexity, I would strongly encourage this book to be it.

Part of what I find so amazing is that Hock is able to express a great deal of cutting edge philosophy and social science thinking as he tells a business story.

Read this book and share the ideas within with others!

As a leader in a religious non-profit organization Hock's maxims hit home with me. He arguments for fighting against heirarchy and command and control structures rang true. In a day and age where we move from the modern worldview to life in a postmodern world, Hock is describing the organization of the future.

If you are a leader of any organization, you owe it to the people around you to read this book.

Simply put, Dee Hock is a man of conviction and courage. In establishing an organization structure that is far from most business hierarchies, he has given us a method to emulate for today's rapidly changing business model.

As an information technology team coach, I found Dee's examples of having a well defined purpose as the center in promoting creativity and productivity right on target. His MiniMaxims are a throwback to the humor and insight of Will Rogers.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in an alternative to common business structure.

Dee Hock is a man with a rich history. He relates a large part of that personal history in Birth of the Chaordic Age even though, he claims, this is not a story about him, nor about VISA International, although both figure prominently in the tale. The book is not so much a story at all, but a passionate manifesto for the future of business and society as a whole. If almost anyone else had written a book of such grand - perhaps grandiose - pretensions, we would quickly dismiss them. But Hock is known as the founder and former CEO of VISA International. He explains that he founded the organization on "chaordic principles". This business now connects over 20,000 financial institutions, 14 million merchants, and 600 million consumers in 220 countries. That's a compelling argument for allowing the man to speak.

Hock's book is a masterfully written broadside against the dominance of today's command-and-control institutions. He is far from alone in the outlines of his historical perspective. According to this, over the last three centuries we have increasingly sought to structure society according to reductionism, specialization, more technology, more efficiency, more linear education and processes, and more hierarchical command and control. The goal has been to create an organization in which leaders can pull a lever and reliably produce a desired result.

Hock goes further than most who share this perspective when he talks of the "dominator organizations" that have ordered resources and people so as to produce large quantities of uniform goods. Instead of the expected results, claims Hock, what we have produced is "obscene maldistribution of wealth and power, a crumbling ecosphere, and collapsing societies." This apocalyptically gloomy view may be trendy, but has only a passing resemblance to reality. (For a brief alternative view, see "The Truth About the Environment", related to this review.) Readers need not share Hock's assessment of today in order to learn from, agree with, and help to implement his alternative vision of chaordic organizations - those that are simultaneously chaotic and orderly.

The positive vision expounded on in Birth of the Chaordic Age sees organizations of the future as being the embodiment of community, based on shared purpose calling to the higher aspirations of people. Hock puts this general description into more specific form by explaining how a chaordic organization is formed by attending to six elements in the proper order: Purpose, Principles, People, Concept, Structure and Practice.

Hock claims that VISA was formed according to this description - the unusual organization is owned by its member banks, which combine competition for customers with cooperation by honoring each other's transactions across borders and monetary systems. If this is true, then you may persist in reading the book for its vision, despite some annoying peccadilloes, such as Hock's talk of "Old Monkey Mind" (his rational thoughts).