VISA International - One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization

Every now and then a book breaks through to new ground in discovery. Looking at business and innovation together, Dee Hock offers an exciting look at the role of creative thinking in a sustainable future. I was quite simply stunned at how this man broke old, staid rules in defining a new theory of social economics: accessible, personal, and deeply inspiring.

Robert Redford

From the military, to commerce, to the arts, our first priority is new models for effectively organizing human endeavor to match the wildly altered times. Dee Hocks One From Many is the most original and apt approach to organizing we have been offered so far. It clearly fits the must read, must absorb category for leaders in every sector.

Tom Peters

Entrenched, rigid bureaucracy is the common chain around mankind in the corporate, private, and public sectors. Dee Hock knows how to replace it trans-culturally with generic, adaptable structures that breathe, innovate, respond, and recover as if reality and their loftier purposes matter first and foremost. Dee Hocks book One from Many is an organizational revolution that the world ignores at its stagnant peril.

Ralph Nader

Reads as good as Ben & Jerrys ice cream tastes. If you care deeply about the future of people, place, or planet, be prepared for a surprise as well as a real treat.

Ben Cohen, President, Businessmen for Sensible Priorities, and Co-founder, Ben & Jerrys

There are very few people who have changed the world: Dee Hock is one of them. His book is a celebration of the redesign of human ego-systems and eco-systems, including the most visceral and urgent form of communicationcurrency. There are very few books that can change ones life; this is one of them. A person with ideas that can change the world whose book can change your mind. I have read it twice, sent copies to my friends, and that is not enough.

William McDonough, architect, designer, futurist; Principal, McDonough Consulting; and Professor, Cornell, Stanford, and Virginia Universities

Dee Hock, practical visionary extraordinaire, has rearranged our mental furniture. If you think you already know how we think, organize ourselves, and achieve breakthrough results, be prepared to be surprised by this remarkable book.

Amory B. Lovins, CEO, Rocky Mountain Institute

Dee Hock has had a profound impact on my thinking and on my view of governance and problem-solving in America. After 24 years in elective office, including two terms as governor of Oregon, I have seen firsthand the need for the kind of new organizational structures described in this remarkable book. One From Many is a must read for anyone who is serious about meeting the challenge of institutional failure in the United States.

John Kitzhaber, former governor of Oregon

Dee Hock has produced a powerful, profoundly important, and beautifully written book. It is the moving personal story of a young boy growing up dirt poor in rural Utah, who went on to change the way the world does business. Here we see the mind behind the revolutionary global VISA modela model that balances cooperation and competition in a way unlike anything ever seen before in commercial history. No one knew how to approach this problem, or solve it. Someone suggested Hock. The rest is history and a rattling good story.

Barry Sheehy, CEO, CPC Econometrics, Inc.

Dee Hocks work will do for organization theory in the post-industrial age what the steam engine did for the industrial age.

Bernard Lietaer, Chairman, Access Foundation, and author of The Future of Money

One From Many is a book about organizational illness, sick leadership, and political cynicism. It is, thank God, even more a book about hope, social innovation, and down-to-earth, magical, organizational results. Mind-moving, playful, and beautifully written, it is also a compelling story of what mankind can be if we dare to be truly human. It has profoundly affected our students.

Uffe Elbaek, Founder of the Kaospilot University, Denmark

Dee Hock offers a vision that can transform any organization. His insights are brilliant and humane, his prescription is smart and workable. This is a book that aspiring leaders need to embrace.

Alan M.Webber, Founding Editor, Fast Company magazine

One From Many is about a new organizational form (chaordic) 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

The originality and profundity of Dee Hocks wisdom can and does revolutionize institutions. I can bear witness to that in terms of his counsel in the creation of the United Religions Initiative. He made it possible for URI to flourish.

The Rt. Rev. William E. Swing, President,United Religions Initiative, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of California

Dee Hocks genius and vision has made it possible for organizations of all types and sizes to re-envision themselves in new ways.
One From Many encompasses quantum physics, chaos theory, cellular biology, the butterfly effect, the natural world, and common sense.
One From Many is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the organization of the future.

Michael Toms, Founding President and Executive Producer/Host, New Dimensions Radio

Dee Hocks work has become required reading for academic medicine. Once it is clear that improving patient care is the only purpose that matters, smart people begin to act smart again. Talent that had been paralyzed by dysfunctional systems becomes unleashed and is available to do the work of medicine and teaching.

David C. Leach, M.D., Executive Director, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

Hock is a gentle giant who successfully challenged traditional management and organization of a global industry. His new way of thinking ideas can change the way all of us approach our own lives and institutional structures.

Linda Golodner, President, National Consumers League

Dee Hock describes a new organizational culture that might well spell the difference between a smooth, orderly transition to a more salubrious, sustainable society and the chaos and anarchy some see in our near-term future.