 |
|
Book Review
One From Many - VISA and the Rise of the
Chaordic Organization
“One From Many is about a new organizational form for human systems in harmony with the principles of nature and life itself. Anyone who imagines living in such a future will be captivated by the wisdom of this book. It maps our journey to purposeful, life-affirming organizations essential for a sustainable future.” - Stephanie Pace Marshall, Ph.D., Founding President, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy In One From Many, Dee Hock chronicles the emergence of a new form of organization that blends chaos and order, which may be critical to a livable future, and shows how it is emerging in such effective organizations as VISA, the internet, World Weather Watch, and Alcoholics Anonymous. A beautiful blend of history, biography, and philosophy, this book not only challenges the way we think about organizations, management, and our relationship to the world, it's a captivating and inspiring story as well. I was personally moved by Hock's perseverance in the face of constant adversity to bring about positive institutional change. He begins a chapter in the book with the following quote by Niccolo Di Bernardo Machiavelli: "There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." The truth of this sentiment is clearly illustrated throughout Hock's story. But so, too, is the dogged determination to live a life of passion, purpose, and principles with a constant eye on serving the greater good - the mark of all truly great leaders. Our cultural love affair with the mechanistic, command-and-control management and organizational models of the industrial age must change. In Hock's words: "We are at that very point in time when a four hundred year old age is rattling in its deathbed and another is struggling to be born. A shifting of culture, science, society, and institutions enormously greater and swifter than the world has ever experienced. Ahead lies the possibility of regeneration of individuality, liberty, community, and ethics such as the world has never known, and a harmony with nature, with one another and with the divine intelligence such as the world has never seen. It is the path to a livable future in the centuries ahead, as society evolves into ever-increasing diversity and complexity." Peter Senge shares these comments in the book: "We face a mounting range of insoluble problems because the DNA of our dominant institutions is based on machine age thinking, like "all systems must have someone in control" and change only happens when a powerful leader "drives" change. Yet, we all know that in healthy living systems control is distributed and change occurs continually. But we are so habituated to the "someone must be in control" mind-set that we fail to imagine real alternatives." “We will need a willingness to question our most deeply held habitual ways of seeing organizations and management. We will need a willingness eventually to embrace the seeming chaos of an organization that no one "runs" and where we all share responsibility. We will need to embrace continually mistake-making and correcting, nature's learning process. And we will need a willingness to surrender the personal need to control.” - From the Foreword by Peter Senge, senior lecturer at MIT, founding chair of the Society for Organizational Learning, and author of the highly acclaimed book The Fifth Discipline Back to GL Gems - "Must Reads" for Your Leadership Library
|
|
|
|
|
|