"An illustration I use to get people to understand it is this: I'll ask major corporate audiences: Why don't you just take all your traditional beliefs about organizations, and apply them to the neurons in your brain?"
About this Quote
The subtext is sharper: your management gospel is not merely outdated; it’s biologically implausible. Hock’s rhetorical move borrows authority from nature to expose the hubris of command-and-control. By invoking the brain, he smuggles in a powerful premise: the most complex, high-performing system you know doesn’t succeed by central planning, so why should your company?
Context matters. Hock, the founder CEO behind Visa’s early “chaordic” model, had skin in the argument. He’d seen a global network function through shared protocols, distributed governance, and constrained autonomy long before “platform” became a buzzword. The line is aimed at “major corporate audiences” because they’re the most invested in comforting myths: that control equals competence, that clarity requires hierarchy, that culture is a memo away.
The illustration works because it’s legible and slightly humiliating. It forces a choice: keep worshipping the org chart, or admit the future belongs to systems that think more like brains than bureaucracies.
Quote Details
| Topic | Management |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hock, Dee. (2026, January 16). An illustration I use to get people to understand it is this: I'll ask major corporate audiences: Why don't you just take all your traditional beliefs about organizations, and apply them to the neurons in your brain? FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/an-illustration-i-use-to-get-people-to-understand-86697/
Chicago Style
Hock, Dee. "An illustration I use to get people to understand it is this: I'll ask major corporate audiences: Why don't you just take all your traditional beliefs about organizations, and apply them to the neurons in your brain?" FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/an-illustration-i-use-to-get-people-to-understand-86697/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"An illustration I use to get people to understand it is this: I'll ask major corporate audiences: Why don't you just take all your traditional beliefs about organizations, and apply them to the neurons in your brain?" FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/an-illustration-i-use-to-get-people-to-understand-86697/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
