- Hardcover: 345 pages
- Publisher: Berrett-Koehler (1 Dec 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1576750744
- ISBN-13: 978-1576750742
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15 x 3.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 249,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Birth of the Chaordic Age is a compelling manifesto for the future, embedded within the intriguing story of a personal odyssey. An engaging narrator, Dee Hock is the man who first conceived of a global system for the electronic exchange of value, becoming the founder and CEO of VISA International. He looks critically at today's environment of command-and-control institutions and sees organisations that are falling apart, failing to achieve their own purpose let alone address the diversity and complexity of society as a whole. The solution, Hock claims, lies in transforming our notion of organisation, of embracing the belief that the chaos of competition and the order of cooperation can and does coexist, succeed, even thrive, and of welcoming in the chaordic age.
The underlying tenets of Hock's ideas are well illustrated by the incredible story of the birth of VISA International, an organisation formed on chaordic principles that now links in excess of 20,000 financial institutions, 14 million merchants and 600 million consumers in 220 countries. Hock deplores an age where ingenuity and effort are wasted on circumventing the rules and regulations of insular, hierarchical bureaucracies. In a bold-type subtext interspersed throughout the book, he examines how this situation is stunting our potential as individuals and communities and contemplates what can be changed. This rumination is propelled onward by "Old Monkey Mind" (Hock's own thoughts). Though the technique allows the reader to engage in stimulating mental discovery along with the author, its New Age spiritual tone is sometimes a bit saccharine. His insights, however, are clear and provoking. In the Chaordic Age, he contends, "success will depend less on rote and more on reason; less on the authority of the few and more on the judgment of many; less on compulsion and more on motivation; less on external control of people and more on internal discipline". Hear, hear. --S. Ketchum
Product Description
Written by the founder, president, and CEO emeritus of VISA International, this is the story of how VISA International was conceived, founded and established. It is also the life story of Dee Hock, a maverick banker who put his own wild ideas into practice to create something the likes of which the world had never seen. This text challenges the ideas and radical philosophy about the nature of the world, the role of money and organizations in the world, reinventing leadership and management, and transforming business and society.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
"Nine hours we have happily worked the hillside together, a sixty-five-year-old man and Thee Ancient One, a diesel crawler-tractor of indeterminate age and lineage." Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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 extraordinary 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, The Soul at Work or The Living Company, this is must reading for you.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Nelson Mandela's statue on the South Bank has a quote form him as follows - "The Struggle Is My Life".
Dee Hock lived a fulfilling life of struggle in engaging co-operation from numerous disparate banking organisations to form an organisation that does not exist in the usual sense. Visa is a Chaordic organisation. It is based on a fundamental philosophical understanding of the mathematical science of Chaos Theory or as Waldrup calls it Complexity.
A huge proportion of us go off to work or are serviced by bureaucractic organisations which are hierarchical downward coercive power driven historical anomolies.
What does this millenia hold for use - bureaucratic anarchy or as Dee Hock describes the Chaordic organisation.
There are two levels:
There is the fascinating business operatic tale of the development of VISA.
Then there is Old Monkey Mind - putting VISA and Dee's perspective into a world changing, developing and equitably harmonious possibility
Will Birth of the Chaordic Age become real in our life time. With the fluttering of many individual 'butterflies wings' of chaos theory experiEncing Nelson Mandella's 'the struggle is my life' it could be.
It could be if you read the book and live your version of the Chaordic Age.
Dee Hock lived a fulfilling life of struggle in engaging co-operation from numerous disparate banking organisations to form an organisation that does not exist in the usual sense. Visa is a Chaordic organisation. It is based on a fundamental philosophical understanding of the mathematical science of Chaos Theory or as Waldrup calls it Complexity.
A huge proportion of us go off to work or are serviced by bureaucractic organisations which are hierarchical downward coercive power driven historical anomolies.
What does this millenia hold for use - bureaucratic anarchy or as Dee Hock describes the Chaordic organisation.
There are two levels:
There is the fascinating business operatic tale of the development of VISA.
Then there is Old Monkey Mind - putting VISA and Dee's perspective into a world changing, developing and equitably harmonious possibility
Will Birth of the Chaordic Age become real in our life time. With the fluttering of many individual 'butterflies wings' of chaos theory experiEncing Nelson Mandella's 'the struggle is my life' it could be.
It could be if you read the book and live your version of the Chaordic Age.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
24 reviews
39 of 39 people found the following review helpful
CREATIVE THINKING ABOUT THE EVOLVING NATURE OF ORGANIZATION.
29 Nov 1999
Format:Hardcover
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.
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Out of Control - In to Order
19 Nov 1999
Format:Hardcover
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.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
The Right Stuff for Maximum Human Progress
13 Nov 1999
Format:Hardcover
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.
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