enabling organisation

The core [of VISA] was an enabling organization that existed for the sole purpose of assisting owner-members to do what they wished with greater capacity, more effectively, and at less cost.

Dee Hock, 1999, Birth of the chaordic age, p.190

Nothing but an idea

Any organisation ... is nothing but an idea. All institutions are no more than a mental construct to which people are drawn in pursuit of common purpose; a conceptual embodiment of a very old, very powerful idea called community. All organisations can be no more than the moving force of the mind, heart and spirit of people, without which all assets are just so much inert mineral, chemical, or vegetable matter, by the law of entropy steadily decaying to a stable state.

Dee Hock, 1999. Birth of the chaordic age, p.119

learning organisations

learning organisations are "organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to learn together.” (Senge, 1990, p.3). 

Senge, P.M.    1990    The Fifth Discipline     London: Century Business

Great ideas come into the world as quietly as doves. Perhaps then, if we listen attentively we shall hear, among the uproar of empires and nations, the saint fluttering of wings, the gentle stirrings of life and hope. Some will say this hope lies in a nation; others in a man. I believe rather that it is awakened, revived, nourished by millions of solitary individuals whose deeds and works every day negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history. Each and every one, on the foundations of their own suffering and joy, builds for all.
Albert Camus - quoted by Dee Hock p310

VISA

Today, before any audience in the world, I can hold a VISA card overhead and ask, "How many of you recognise this?" Every hand in the room will go up. When I ask, "How many of you can tell me who owns it, where it's headquartered, how it operates, or where to buy shares?" a dead silence comes over the room. The audience realses something extraordinary has occurred and they haven't a clue how it happened. Nor, in my opinion should they. The results of the best organisations are apparent, but the structure, leadership, and process are transparent.
Dee Hock - Birth of the Chaordic Age p189

Man is not born evil. Why then are some of them infected with this plague of malevolence? It's because those who are at their head have the malady and communicate it to the rest of mankind.

Voltaire

Theology of chaordic organisation

Heaven is purpose, principle and people.
Purgatory is paper and procedure.
Hell is rules and regulations.

Dee Hock describing his theology of chaordic organisation in Birth of the Chaordic Age (p146)