Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant and thought provoking
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: A Solid Effort!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Global community builders take note
Review: Here at Global Home we may not understand all that Dee Hocksays but we sure are on the same wavelength. What Dee Hock imparts is what we at GlobalHome, in our own way, are looking to coax into being. This is a review of the book that a friend of ours wrote...
Rating: 
Summary: Lack of response
Review: I cannot review this book which I purchased simply because even though my credit card has been debited I have not received the merchandise of my last and first shipment. I have been repeatedly trying to tell you are using the wrong postal address but cannot seem to get through. You are so automated but took no provision for cases like this one. Hellooooooooooooo!
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: I really recomend this book. It's a letter for FUTURE organizations. How the "way of doing things" are not working anymore, and how we should find a more "equal and ecological" way, re-thinking every relation and seeing all inter-relations. It is too a emotional and sincere talking about the right and wrong, the fail and the creative soul that are inside of all people. If you like Peter Senge books and Charles Handy books, you will enjoy Dee Hock too.
Rating:
Summary: The Right Stuff for Maximum Human Progress
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Stick to the article.
Review: Like many others, I bought this book because of the outstanding article written about Dee Hock in one of the first issues of "Fast Company." So I waited...and waited...and waited for Hock to come out with this long-planned volume (replete with many publishing delays). The result. Yeech. I couldn't stomach more than 10 pages or so. In the future, let's keep the writing to others writing *about* Mr. Hock. This book reads like someone who's been cooped up in the study a bit too long. In the original article, there was an exciting thesis about creating organizations in which power was pushed away from the center. And Visa, Hock's brainchild, was a brilliant manifestation of that principle. But the book is about...ummmm, what? "Old Monkey Mind" musings? Who can follow these meanderings? Readers of the article are bound to be disappointed. At least we get a little insight as to why the author is no longer at Visa. Tough to imagine that a man with this sort of obvious brilliance could function trying to run the nuts-and-bolts of an increasingly static (and less chaordic) organization.
Rating:
Summary: Stick to the article.
Review: Like many others, I bought this book because of the outstanding article written about Dee Hock in one of the first issues of "Fast Company." So I waited...and waited...and waited for Hock to come out with this long-planned volume (replete with many publishing delays). The result. Yeech. I couldn't stomach more than 10 pages or so. In the future, let's keep the writing to others writing *about* Mr. Hock. This book reads like someone who's been cooped up in the study a bit too long. In the original article, there was an exciting thesis about creating organizations in which power was pushed away from the center. And Visa, Hock's brainchild, was a brilliant manifestation of that principle. But the book is about...ummmm, what? "Old Monkey Mind" musings? Who can follow these meanderings? Readers of the article are bound to be disappointed. At least we get a little insight as to why the author is no longer at Visa. Tough to imagine that a man with this sort of obvious brilliance could function trying to run the nuts-and-bolts of an increasingly static (and less chaordic) organization.
Rating:
Summary: Confusing Layout, Wonderful Life's Lessons
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A 21st century Hero
Review: 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.
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