An Innovative Approach to Organizational Renewal

Something new must be imagined (and created), a new concept of organizing relationships. When such an organization is brought into being, it will inevitably attract the people required for its success, since they will be drawn to the clarity of shared purpose, principles, concept, and structure. And what about profit? Well, from my experience, profit becomes a barking dog begging to be let in. ~ Dee Hock, Founder of VISA

The worldwide success of visa international, dee hock asserts is due to it’s chaordic structure: it is owned by 22,000 member banks, which both compete with each other for 750 million customers and must cooperate by honoring one another’s $1.25 trillion in transactions annually (in 1998) across borders and currencies. Birth of the chaordic age is the never before-told story of how that structure came into being.

Although he does not like to take credit for such things, dee hock coined the term chaordic. Chaordic (kay’ordic) from chaos and order the behavior of any self-governing organism, organization, or system which 1. Harmoniously blends characteristics of order and chaos. 2. Patterned in a way dominated by neither chaos or order. 3. Characteristic of the fundamental organizing principles of evolution and nature

It is particularly important for leaders to help in restoring the face-to-face community—in the family and extended family, in schools, congregations, workplaces, neighborhoods. That is where shared values are generated, and if they decay, that is where they decay.

Implicit in the word community is the idea of wholeness;…but there is such a thing as too much “wholeness.” To prevent the wholeness from smothering diversity (and innovation), there must be a tradition of pluralism and healthy dissent. To prevent the dissent from destroying the wholeness, there must be accommodation, coalition building and well-developed practices of dispute resolution. No leader surveying the world scene today can doubt that the achievement of ‘wholeness incorporating diversity’ is one of the transcendent goals of our time, a task for our generation worldwide.

On Leadership
John W. Gardner

Inspired by the work of Dee Hock, John Gardner and others, Continuous Renewal is an organization of men and women committed to their own personal programs of continuous renewal. Our research carries us beyond reading and attending workshops. Once we have personally experienced valuable improvements with leading edge technology, we work with individuals and organizations to achieve breakthrough results in all areas of business.

Using an innovative process that combines ancient wisdom with leading-edge developmental techniques, Continuous Renewal coaches CEOs, senior executives and organizations to improve their leadership skills, build high-performing teams and create relationships that embrace personal accountability as a core value and essential building block of success. This powerful, results-oriented developmental process enables business leaders to move beyond their self-limiting addictions -- such as the need to be right and choosing comfort over truth -- and growing into the life of wisdom and contribution they desire.

Education can no longer be confined to the schools. Every employing institution has to become a teacher. The country that is again in the lead is the United States, where employers – business, government agencies, the military – spend as much money and effort on the education and training of their employees, and especially the most highly educated ones, as do all the colleges and universities together.

Peter F. Drucker
The New Realities

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