Dee Hock

“It won't do away with hierarchy totally, but the principal leader will be the person who most exemplifies the kind of organization and behavior required who is best able to create the conditions such organizations require.”

“Life is not about control. It’s not about getting. It’s not about having. It’s not about knowing. It’s not even about being. Life is eternal, perpetual becoming, or it is nothing. Becoming is not a thing to be known, commanded, or controlled. It is a magnificent, mysterious odyssey to be experienced.”

“Community is composed of that which we don't attempt to measure, for which we keep no record and ask no recompense. Most are things we cannot measure no matter how hard we try.”

“If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled 'subordinates', then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.”

“It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.”

“Preserve substance; modify form; know the difference.”

“Success follows those adept at preserving the substance of the past by clothing it in the forms of the future.”

“Make another list of things done for you that you loved. Do them for others, always.”

“Think about technological float: it took centuries for the wheel to gain universal acceptance. Now any microchip device can be in use around the world in weeks.”

“Every mind is a room packed with archaic furniture.”

“Substance is enduring, form is ephemeral.”

“An organization, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it.”

“Throughout history, it took centuries for the habits of one culture to materially affect another. Now, that which becomes popular in one country can sweep through others within months.”

“The closest thing to a law of nature in business is that form has an affinity for expense, while substance has an affinity for income.”

“Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers, and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia.”

“As I like to say, the entire collective memory of the species - that means all known and recorded information - is going to be just a few keystrokes away in a matter of years.”

“If you go back to the first single-cell form of life, it clearly possessed the capacity to receive, to utilize, to store, to transform, and to transmit information.”

“With the advent of genetic engineering the time required for the evolution of new species may literally collapse.”

“Language was a huge expansion of that capacity to deal with information.”

“The prudent course is to make an investment in learning, testing and understanding, determine how the new concepts compare to how you now operate and thoughtfully determine how they apply to what you want to achieve in the future.”