08/12/2015
08/12/2015
Follow the August 2015 Zappos All Hands Meeting with our live blogging of the event.
Follow the August 2015 Zappos All Hands Meeting with our live blogging of the event.
We’re looking forward to sharing our Q3 All Hands Meeting with you today. Keep checking back for updates on all of the exciting things going on around Zappos. The fun begins at 1pm PST and will continue until 5pm PST.
Tony's Intro
- We briefly touched on the concepts of Teal for our guests- self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose (read more about what this means here: http://www.zapposinsights.com/blog/item/a-memo-from-tony-hsieh)
- "What is the difference between Teal and Holocaracy? Think of Holacarcy as the letter of the law and Teal as the spirit of the law"
- What are the different directions we can go to leverage the things we currently have?
- We have over 500 circles in Holacarcy. How can they evolve? Each circle should strive to be enterpreunerial
- How do you tie each employees purpose with the purpose of the company?
- Later today you'll hear people's stories about how Holacracy has enabled them to do things they weren't able to do previously
- Think about Google X- they can explore different lines of business and we hope to be able to eventually do the same at Zappos
- What separates humans from other species? It's our ability to organize socially
- How companies are organized has't changed over the last hundred years
- This command and control structure only works when the world doesn't change; but the world around us is constantly changing
- Look at prominent companies that have went out of business- they weren't able to adapt to change
- What excites me about what Zappos is doing is that we're finding a new way for humans to organize
- We can share our learnings with other companies and allow them to organize and solve bigger issues to make an impact
- I believe what we're doing is gonna have a ripple affect that it will affect over a billion people on Earth
- We get thanked by companies who we have been able to make an impact on with our story and culture- Airbnb has been one
- Joseph Campell "Hero's Impact"- He did research and found that in most stories, the heroes followed the same journeys (think about The Matrix, Star Wars, etc., check it out here: http://lincoln.debbieyoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The_Hero__s_Journey_by_Dunlavey.jpeg)
- Once upon a time an ordinary guy lived an ordinary life, there is a call to adventure, they decide to keave the safety of what they know into the unknown, through that process they go back home and spread to the community what they now know
- The reason these stories resonate with us is because we see ourselves inside the hero
- As humans our default is to imitate. Kids do this watching adults. When we don't know the answers, we look around and that has proven to be biologically successful
- Over time, by doing this you start to lose a sense of yourself.
- Thinking of command and control structure, just because everyone else is doing it, does not mean there isn't a better way
- Holacracy is about enabling Hero-acracy....let's trademark that!
- We have gone through a lot of hero's jouneys here at Zappos- selling shoes online, building a customer service brand online, culture, core values
- There is the hero's journey as a company and indivually though all the challenges in life. Different people are at different parts of their journey
- I want to say that I am super excited to be on this journey with all of you
Fred and Arun- Our Teal Journey and Future Considerations Workshop
- Where you are in the journey is the right place to be
- A group of us attended a 3 day workshop with a company called Future Considerations
- As the workshop went on, some lightbulbs went off
- Think of our joruney as a train: When we first adopted Holacracy we had the engine (early adopters), most of us were in the cars (read emails and communications but weren't fully sure of what exactly is going on), then you have the caboose (people who weren't practicing Holacracy)
- 14% of people left the company, that leaves 86% of people who are fully commited to the Teal journey
- Teal is not black or white, in or out
- We're all at different places in our journey but wherever we are, is the right place to be. We're all here figuring this out together.
- There have been people expressing frustration with all the chnages going on- out of the workshop the notion of "if the system isn't working, you need to raise your tension (a gap between where are and where we can be)" came up
- Bringing up tensions is a gift to the company. This may not be the norm for most companies, but we have the opportunity to use our frustration to make meaningful changes
- It takes 10,000 hours or 5 years of practice to become an expert
- It's up to us to raise tensions- whether you need to raise 60 or 1,000 tensions, the more comfortable you get the better you are at it
- If a 100 people brought up 100 tensions, you'd have 100 incremental improvements within the orgnaization
- Evolution is always moving towards higher orders of complexity, we want to keep it simple. Everyone should be able to understand the information being sent regarding Teal
- How can we simplify and disseminate information for everyone so that we're not innundated and stressed about these changes?
- A circle (team) called Teal Made Simple was created to help streamline the information sent out to the company
- There are some Teal myths that need to be debunked
- Misconception 1: There is no hierarchy- Actually a political hierarchy is replaced with a hierarchy of purpose. People within the company that have proven their dependability and expertise will be trusted to become leaders
- Misconception 2- If you're not Teal, you're not a "culture fit"- Not true! These aren't not the same thing. We should all look to create value within the company
- Misconception 3- Teal is the end of the journey!- Not true. The Zappos story is constantly evolving
John Bunch- Holacracy Update
- You've heard a lot about the hero's journey
- I want to talk about my own personal journey
- Three years ago, I accepted a position to shadow Tony. I helped with a lot of ideas but didn't find my passion
- As I worked on Holacracy implementation, I found that that purpose matched my own
- Where is the intersection between your own purpose and the Zappos purpose?
- I hope that everyone uses Holacracy to do that for themselves
- There has been peaks and valleys. Two years into our journey, we want to highlight our peaks
- We are 100% launched in Holacracy, we celebrated Holacracy heroes who went above and beyond to help the company by recognizing them on stage.
- We played a video asking employees how they feel about how Holacracy is going
- Among the honest answers were, "It's easier to do my work without asking permission", "I can speak my mind, it helps to prioritize my work", "seeing who does what work adds more clarity", "sometimes we spend more time talking about the work versus doing the work", "there are still certain people who are not all in", to the fun and weird "fannypacks improve efficiency".
- Holacracy is a system and process that has a lot of rules. We need to learn how to leverage these rules
- More importantly, we need to find out how we can inspire people through Holacracy
- The people are the reason why the company is so special and we need to focus on the relationships. How do we make Zappos a better place for everyone and not just for ourselves?
- Who do you come to work for? We had employees share stories of people that inspire them
- Transitioning from this, we led into a segment where employees were able to come on stage and give thanks to others
- Among the thanks were Zappos as a whole, mentors, Holacracy, and various leaders within the company who go above and beyond, as well as a new hire who had a wish granted by other employees for her son.
Miguel & Ryan- Przm
- We highlighted this recently created art circle- first big project was an art mural on the way to the company Bistro
- Ryan Brunty talked about his journey (check out his work here: http://ryanbrunty.storenvy.com/collections/512797-depressed-monsters)
- Miguel Hernandez- Zappos gave me the opportunity to pursue my passion to create. The biggest impact you can make, is the one you leave behind
Best Customer Strategy
- "A great brand is a story that never stops unfolding"
- Two years ago, we could feel that Zappos wasn't healthy. How could we change the company strategy and do something different?
- What did our customers value about us? What did we value about them?
- Best Customer Strategy- highly engaged and highly profitable customers. How do we retain and grow this customer base?
- Focusing on the right product selection, moving away from marketing and focusing on long-term relationships instead
- How do we engage our customers? What do they like?
- At the end of the day, our Customer Loyalty Team is at the core. They are the eyes and ears of the customers
- How do we make this strategy successful?
- Think about how what you do impacts the customer
- Think about how what you do builds the Zappos brand/story
Dan Ariely- External Speaker
- You can check out some of Dan's previous talks here: http://danariely.com/speaking/
Brief Company-Wide Updates
- Zappos Interns- We showed a video featuring our 2016 interns talking about their experience being part of the Zappos family
- Zappos Events- Our employee events team talked about upcoming Zappos sponsored events including PRIDE
- Culture Gatekeepers- An overview on our Core Values and how as the basis of our culture, these values are still relevant in a self-managed enviroment
- Women Empowered- Empowering women across the company to fullfill their potential through mentorship and communication. We celebrated a "Superwoman" who was recognized on stage for her accomplishments in Tech
- Why Discovery Workshop- Helping Zappos employees find their purpose through the Simon Sinek "Why Discovery Workshop" (check out more information here: https://www.startwithwhy.com)
- Why Space Circle- Supporting Zappos employees as they find new roles within the company that fits their individual purpose
- Think Circle- Formed from a previous All Hands activity, this circle has focused on unconvential marketing campaigns which includes a video that aired on New Year's Eve in Times Square (View the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKgedZCbQJ0) Future projects are centered around giving customers unique experiences and showing that Zappos is not just an online retailer
Wrapping Up:
Another great meeting with plenty of updates and food for thought.
From these All Hands topics, which would you like to learn more about?
We’re looking forward to sharing our Q3 All Hands Meeting with you today. Keep checking back for updates on all of the exciting things going on around Zappos. The fun begins at 1pm PST and will continue until 5pm PST.
Tony's Intro
- We briefly touched on the concepts of Teal for our guests- self-management, wholeness, and evolutionary purpose (read more about what this means here: http://www.zapposinsights.com/blog/item/a-memo-from-tony-hsieh)
- "What is the difference between Teal and Holocaracy? Think of Holacarcy as the letter of the law and Teal as the spirit of the law"
- What are the different directions we can go to leverage the things we currently have?
- We have over 500 circles in Holacarcy. How can they evolve? Each circle should strive to be enterpreunerial
- How do you tie each employees purpose with the purpose of the company?
- Later today you'll hear people's stories about how Holacracy has enabled them to do things they weren't able to do previously
- Think about Google X- they can explore different lines of business and we hope to be able to eventually do the same at Zappos
- What separates humans from other species? It's our ability to organize socially
- How companies are organized has't changed over the last hundred years
- This command and control structure only works when the world doesn't change; but the world around us is constantly changing
- Look at prominent companies that have went out of business- they weren't able to adapt to change
- What excites me about what Zappos is doing is that we're finding a new way for humans to organize
- We can share our learnings with other companies and allow them to organize and solve bigger issues to make an impact
- I believe what we're doing is gonna have a ripple affect that it will affect over a billion people on Earth
- We get thanked by companies who we have been able to make an impact on with our story and culture- Airbnb has been one
- Joseph Campell "Hero's Impact"- He did research and found that in most stories, the heroes followed the same journeys (think about The Matrix, Star Wars, etc., check it out here: http://lincoln.debbieyoon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The_Hero__s_Journey_by_Dunlavey.jpeg)
- Once upon a time an ordinary guy lived an ordinary life, there is a call to adventure, they decide to keave the safety of what they know into the unknown, through that process they go back home and spread to the community what they now know
- The reason these stories resonate with us is because we see ourselves inside the hero
- As humans our default is to imitate. Kids do this watching adults. When we don't know the answers, we look around and that has proven to be biologically successful
- Over time, by doing this you start to lose a sense of yourself.
- Thinking of command and control structure, just because everyone else is doing it, does not mean there isn't a better way
- Holacracy is about enabling Hero-acracy....let's trademark that!
- We have gone through a lot of hero's jouneys here at Zappos- selling shoes online, building a customer service brand online, culture, core values
- There is the hero's journey as a company and indivually though all the challenges in life. Different people are at different parts of their journey
- I want to say that I am super excited to be on this journey with all of you
Fred and Arun- Our Teal Journey and Future Considerations Workshop
- Where you are in the journey is the right place to be
- A group of us attended a 3 day workshop with a company called Future Considerations
- As the workshop went on, some lightbulbs went off
- Think of our joruney as a train: When we first adopted Holacracy we had the engine (early adopters), most of us were in the cars (read emails and communications but weren't fully sure of what exactly is going on), then you have the caboose (people who weren't practicing Holacracy)
- 14% of people left the company, that leaves 86% of people who are fully commited to the Teal journey
- Teal is not black or white, in or out
- We're all at different places in our journey but wherever we are, is the right place to be. We're all here figuring this out together.
- There have been people expressing frustration with all the chnages going on- out of the workshop the notion of "if the system isn't working, you need to raise your tension (a gap between where are and where we can be)" came up
- Bringing up tensions is a gift to the company. This may not be the norm for most companies, but we have the opportunity to use our frustration to make meaningful changes
- It takes 10,000 hours or 5 years of practice to become an expert
- It's up to us to raise tensions- whether you need to raise 60 or 1,000 tensions, the more comfortable you get the better you are at it
- If a 100 people brought up 100 tensions, you'd have 100 incremental improvements within the orgnaization
- Evolution is always moving towards higher orders of complexity, we want to keep it simple. Everyone should be able to understand the information being sent regarding Teal
- How can we simplify and disseminate information for everyone so that we're not innundated and stressed about these changes?
- A circle (team) called Teal Made Simple was created to help streamline the information sent out to the company
- There are some Teal myths that need to be debunked
- Misconception 1: There is no hierarchy- Actually a political hierarchy is replaced with a hierarchy of purpose. People within the company that have proven their dependability and expertise will be trusted to become leaders
- Misconception 2- If you're not Teal, you're not a "culture fit"- Not true! These aren't not the same thing. We should all look to create value within the company
- Misconception 3- Teal is the end of the journey!- Not true. The Zappos story is constantly evolving
John Bunch- Holacracy Update
- You've heard a lot about the hero's journey
- I want to talk about my own personal journey
- Three years ago, I accepted a position to shadow Tony. I helped with a lot of ideas but didn't find my passion
- As I worked on Holacracy implementation, I found that that purpose matched my own
- Where is the intersection between your own purpose and the Zappos purpose?
- I hope that everyone uses Holacracy to do that for themselves
- There has been peaks and valleys. Two years into our journey, we want to highlight our peaks
- We are 100% launched in Holacracy, we celebrated Holacracy heroes who went above and beyond to help the company by recognizing them on stage.
- We played a video asking employees how they feel about how Holacracy is going
- Among the honest answers were, "It's easier to do my work without asking permission", "I can speak my mind, it helps to prioritize my work", "seeing who does what work adds more clarity", "sometimes we spend more time talking about the work versus doing the work", "there are still certain people who are not all in", to the fun and weird "fannypacks improve efficiency".
- Holacracy is a system and process that has a lot of rules. We need to learn how to leverage these rules
- More importantly, we need to find out how we can inspire people through Holacracy
- The people are the reason why the company is so special and we need to focus on the relationships. How do we make Zappos a better place for everyone and not just for ourselves?
- Who do you come to work for? We had employees share stories of people that inspire them
- Transitioning from this, we led into a segment where employees were able to come on stage and give thanks to others
- Among the thanks were Zappos as a whole, mentors, Holacracy, and various leaders within the company who go above and beyond, as well as a new hire who had a wish granted by other employees for her son.
Miguel & Ryan- Przm
- We highlighted this recently created art circle- first big project was an art mural on the way to the company Bistro
- Ryan Brunty talked about his journey (check out his work here: http://ryanbrunty.storenvy.com/collections/512797-depressed-monsters)
- Miguel Hernandez- Zappos gave me the opportunity to pursue my passion to create. The biggest impact you can make, is the one you leave behind
Best Customer Strategy
- "A great brand is a story that never stops unfolding"
- Two years ago, we could feel that Zappos wasn't healthy. How could we change the company strategy and do something different?
- What did our customers value about us? What did we value about them?
- Best Customer Strategy- highly engaged and highly profitable customers. How do we retain and grow this customer base?
- Focusing on the right product selection, moving away from marketing and focusing on long-term relationships instead
- How do we engage our customers? What do they like?
- At the end of the day, our Customer Loyalty Team is at the core. They are the eyes and ears of the customers
- How do we make this strategy successful?
- Think about how what you do impacts the customer
- Think about how what you do builds the Zappos brand/story
Dan Ariely- External Speaker
- You can check out some of Dan's previous talks here: http://danariely.com/speaking/
Brief Company-Wide Updates
- Zappos Interns- We showed a video featuring our 2016 interns talking about their experience being part of the Zappos family
- Zappos Events- Our employee events team talked about upcoming Zappos sponsored events including PRIDE
- Culture Gatekeepers- An overview on our Core Values and how as the basis of our culture, these values are still relevant in a self-managed enviroment
- Women Empowered- Empowering women across the company to fullfill their potential through mentorship and communication. We celebrated a "Superwoman" who was recognized on stage for her accomplishments in Tech
- Why Discovery Workshop- Helping Zappos employees find their purpose through the Simon Sinek "Why Discovery Workshop" (check out more information here: https://www.startwithwhy.com)
- Why Space Circle- Supporting Zappos employees as they find new roles within the company that fits their individual purpose
- Think Circle- Formed from a previous All Hands activity, this circle has focused on unconvential marketing campaigns which includes a video that aired on New Year's Eve in Times Square (View the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKgedZCbQJ0) Future projects are centered around giving customers unique experiences and showing that Zappos is not just an online retailer
Wrapping Up:
Another great meeting with plenty of updates and food for thought.
From these All Hands topics, which would you like to learn more about?