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Copyright © 1999 by Dee Hock
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First Edition
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Author's Note to the Reader ... . .. .. ... .... ... ..... .. .. . ix
Introduction: In Search of a More I .iveahle World 1
Prologue: On the Nature and Creation of Chaordic
Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............... 5
1. Old Monkey Mind .. . .. .... ..................... 15
2. A Lamb and the I .ion of I .ife 31
3. The Bloodied Sheep . . ...... .. .... ......... .. . .... 4 7
4. Retirement on the Job . ..... . ..... .. ............ . 63
5. Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things ... ............ 81
6. The House of C ards ... 0 • • • 0 • • • • • • • • • • • • • 97
7. Nothing to Lose ................. .. ... . ........ 113
8. The Impossible Imagined . .. ...... . . ............. 127
9. The Next to the Last Word . ... . ... .. ... .. ... .. ... 145
10. The Corporation or the Cane? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 5
11. And Then There Was One 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 • 179
12. Quite Ordinary People . .... . ...... . .... . ... . . . . . 195
13. The Victim of Success .... . .. . ... . .............. 2 15
14. The Golden Links ............. .... .... . ... ..... 23 1
15. What's in a Name? . 0 • • • • • 249
16. The Process Opens . . ... .... . .... ... .. .... .. .... 269
17. The Jeweled Bearing .... . ..... ..... . .. .......... 285
18. The Odyssey ... ............ ... .... .. .. . ....... 303
Epilogue: Then Providence Moved Too .. ... . .. . ........ 3 13
What Can You Do? ..... .. .... . . .. .. ... .............. 321
About the Chaordic Alliance . ..... ... . ....... . .. . . .... 323
A Sample of Chaordic Alliance Participation in the
Creation of New Chaordic Organizations .. .. .......... 327
Index ... .. ... . ...... . .... . . . . ..... 0 • • • • 333
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Autlto 'a Note o tla~ eade•
If you wish to sample a few highlights, you can scan the pages
for the MiniMaxims and read a few pages surrounding each.
If you would prefer the inside story of a lifetime exploring
new concepts of organization that led to the formation of a
unique organization that, in two decades, became one of the
largest enterprises on earth, you may wish to begin with Chapter
One and read only that portion of the book set in the type style
you are now reading.
~
If you would like to dive into the depths of the thinking and
beliefs underlying its formation and explore new concepts of orga-
nization that could provide a path to a more liveable future, you
may wish to also read those portions set in the type style of this
paragraph. The first is the Prologue, "On the Nature and Creation
of Chaordic Organizations." It is not essential to understanding or
enjoying the story, but it will provide important perspective. By all
means, return to it later if you wish, for the story also provides
important perspective on the Prologue.
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If you seek the deepest understanding, you may wish to
compare your daily life with the contents and return to the pages
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BIRTH OF THE CHAORDIC AGE
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Is anyone afraid of change? Why, what can take
place without change? What then is more pleas-
ing to the universal nature? And canst thou take
a hath unless the wood undergoes a change?
And canst thou he nourished unless the food
undergoes a change? And can anything else that
is useful he accomplished without change? Dost
thou not see then that for thyself also to undergo
change is just the same, and equally necessary
for the universal nature?
-MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONIUS
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INTRODUCTION
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BIRTH OF THE CHAORDIC AGE
Age. You've been dreaming it, believing it, and Uving it since you
were a child. Now you must share it. I know you're convinced
you don't have time. I understand your feeling that the last thing
the world needs is another book, but you must do it! Please, sit
down in the morning and write an introduction. The book will
follow."
There it is again, my old nemesis, must, however charmingly
packaged by an editor I met only yesterday. The hair on the back
of my neck rises as I reply, "Harriet, you don't understand.
Chaordic organization is about releasing what people desire in
the depth of their being-the passion they have for it-the
integrity they bring to the attempt. If you want me to write the
book, make me love the idea." And so she did.
So, what is this book about?
It's about an introverted, small-town child, passionate to
read, dream, and wander the woods, the youngest of six, born to
parents with only an eighth-grade education. It's about crushing
confinement and interminable boredom in school and church,
along with sharp, rising awareness of the chasm between how
institutions profess to function and how they actually do-what
they claim to do for people and what they too often do to them.
It's about sixteen years in the bowels of three institutional
beasts; years filled with pleasure and pain, success and failure,
dwindling hope and growing despair.
It's about three compelling questions, which arose from that
awareness-questions that came to dominate my life:
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IN SEARCH OF A MORE LIVEABLE WORLD
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PROLOGUE
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e are living on the knife's edge of one of those rare and
W momentous turning points in human history. Liveable Hves
for our grandchildren, their children, and the children's children
hang in the balance.
The Industrial Age, hierarchical, command-and-control
institutions that, over the past four hundred years, have grown to
dominate our commercial, political, and social lives are increas-
ingly irrelevant in the face of the exploding diversity and com-
plexity of society worldwide. They are failing, not only in the
sense of collapse, but in the more common and pernicious
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BIRTH OF THE CHAORDIC AGE
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ON THE NATURE AND CREATION OF CHAORDIC ORGANIZATIONS
sively alter societal behavior and results-in fact, may be the only
things that ever have. That is my hope for our future .
I know it can happen. I've been there-or at least gone part
of the way-during the formation of VISA and other chaordic
organizations revealed later in this book. It's very difficult to put
in words, for in truly chaordic organization there is no destination.
There is no ultimate being. There is only becoming.
Forming a chaordic organization begins with an intensive
search for Purpose, then proceeds to Principles, People, and
Concept, and only then to Structure and Practice. It can't be
done well as a linear process. Each of the six elements can be
thought of as a perspective, a sort of "lens" through which par-
ticipants examine the circumstances givi~g rise to the need for
a new concept of organization and what it might become. The
most difficult part is to understand and get beyond the origin
and nature of our current concepts of organizations; to set them
aside in order to make space for new and different thoughts.
Every mind is a room filled with archaic furniture. It must be
moved about or cleared away before anything new can enter.
This means ruthless confrontation of the many things we know
that are no longer so.
The process can easily begin with a deceptively simple ques-
tion: "If anything imaginable is possible, if there are no constraints
whatever, what would be the nature of an ideal organization
to ... ?" Finishing that question is all-important. It is essential to
determine with absolute clarity, shared understanding, and deep
conviction the Purpose of the community. From that, all else must
flow. It is what will bind the group together as worthy of pursuit.
The first attempt nearly always results in platitudes; impressive
words full of smoke and mirrors with which everyone can quickly
agree without discomfort and easily implement with a bit of insti-
tutional cosmetology. To get beyond platitudes, it becomes neces-
sary to agree on what a 11purpose" really is.
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BIRTH OF THE CHAORDIC AGE
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ON THE NATURE AND CREATION OF CHAORDIC ORGANIZATIONS
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BIRTH OF THE CHAOROIC AGE
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. CHAPTER ONE
ld MoaLey Mind
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