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Thursday, July 16, 2015

Rawhide Theme Song: A New Anthem for Zappos’ Holocracy Culture?

Zappos, famous for getting rid of all managers to form a “Holacracy” is in the news again. Apparently the “managerless” workplace doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Zappos has had to institute a three week+ training course to help new hires adjust. And there must be lots of new hires needed to replace the 200 employees who quit instead of accepting the Holacracy culture.

Even though Zappos embraces a “bottoms up” philosophy, the institutional decision to fire anyone who is late for 7 am orientation sounds pretty "tops down" to me. It’s also what brought to mind the theme song for the 60’s era Western, Rawhide.

Keep Them Doggies Moving, Though They’re Disapprovin’, Keep Them Doggies Moving. Rawhide!” 

I’ll also be interested to see how effective the herd culled by the zero tolerance for lateness policy will be for Zappos. I’ve always found that creative problem solvers just love to be treated like naughty children, haven’t you?