Honoring the Alliance During Covid
Forging Lifetime Work Relationships Amid Career Changes
The Alliances that power HBO’s Silicon Valley
Spoiler Alert: Richard is the best manager on the show (True spoiler alert: This essay contains spoilers about the Season 3 finale; you have been warned!) While you might think that HBO’s Silicon Valley is a hit comedy about startups, venture capital, programming, egos, sex (well, for Erlich and Jared, at least), friendship, mind-altering drugs (well, for Erlich…
How Wikimedia Foundation, Coursera and others are building trust, coaching their managers and keeping their employees
When I wrote The Alliance with my co-authors Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh, we had a vision of transforming the world of work by helping companies and employees understand how to build stronger, longer, more honest relationships with each other. To help others adopt that vision, we co-founded Allied Talent with Chip Joyce, to guide organizations and managers on how to…
Jedi Tours of Duty with the (Rebel) Alliance
Since our book, “The Alliance”, came out last year, people have asked me to explain the different Tours of Duty. “The Alliance” shows how and why a manager and her employee should structure that employee’s work as a tour of duty—a specific mission that, if achieved, advances the business of the company, and the career…
The Power of Purpose at Work
In 2002 at LinkedIn, there were very few of the perks that Silicon Valley is famous for. Our company headquarters was my apartment’s living room. Free lunches? Yes, if there was an extra yogurt in my refrigerator, or if you consider a can of Coke “lunch.” Nap pods, on-site yoga classes, wellness centers, concierge services,…
Acquiring proven entrepreneurs is a smart way to innovate
Nearly every company understands the urgent need for innovation. Technology and globalisation have so accelerated change that scale and power — once the greatest strengths — have become weaknesses because they impair an organisation’s ability to adapt. The problem is, the term “innovation” is used so broadly that it has become virtually meaningless.Consider the typical…
Employee Compensation and The Alliance
Mutual benefit is the fundamental characteristic of an alliance in the workplace. Ideally, by working together, the employee transforms his career and the company transforms its business. When an employee evaluates what he or she stands to gain in this alliance, the cash and equity compensation the company offers should be one of the benefits.…
Tours of Duty: How to Organize Modern Employment
In an alliance at work, the tour of duty represents an ethical commitment by employer and employee to a specific mission that’s expected to last a finite amount of time. An ideal mission is mutually beneficial: the company gains new products, customers, profits, etc. and the employee gains new skills, experiences, connections, and so on. The finite…
You Need Employees with the “Founder’s Mindset”
Silicon Valley is the best place in the world for adaptation and innovation, as demonstrated by its economic growth over the past decade. If you want your organization to be able to survive and thrive in an environment where change is rapid and disruptive innovation rampant, you need to develop the adaptability that is the…
Managers: It’s Time to Rebuild Trust With Your Employees
The world of work has changed, and the rules for managers need to change with it. We used to work in an era of stability and lifetime employment. Employers and employees committed to each other, for better or worse, through bull and bear markets, until retirement did them part. Because both sides expected the relationship…
The Alliance: A Visual Summary
I’m co-author of a new book titled The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age. I’ll be writing a lot more about the book in the weeks ahead. To kick us off, here’s a visual summary of the key ideas that drive an employer-employee alliance, and details about the Tour of Duty framework.
Managers: It’s Time to Rebuild Trust With Your Employees
The world of work has changed, and the rules for managers need to change with it. We used to work in an era of stability and lifetime employment. Employers and employees committed to each other, for better or worse, through bull and bear markets, until retirement did them part. Because both sides expected the relationship…