Already dated, but still a useful peak under the curtain of Automattic - the company behind Wordpress.com.Automattic is unusual in that its small staff body (then 130) is highly distributed and all home workers. That was rare in 2011. It is less so nowadays (I'm a home worker myself). As a result, the book is probably stronger on the psychology of managing teams rather than the topic promised by the subtitle - the future of work.
A few learnings.
Teams still meet in person once or twice a year to "recharge the intangibles". What exactly does that mean? The book isn't clear, but from my own experience of working with colleagues overseas and also those who are mostly based in a head office - relationships can accumulate cruft without some maintenance. Small hurts or even misreads - perhaps lost in translation over the ether - can be nursed into bigger ones - and even an informal get together reminds everyone that we are all just humans trying to do our best etc. At Automattic, when they get together in the real world - they are intensely social.
Email isn't a thing. Most communication is via three tools. A blog for updates etc, IRC for one to many and video conferencing for 1:1s. One thing that struck me is that the IM exchanges which Berkun faithfully, and not particularly interestingly, reproduces are highly chatty and give a good sense of each person's personality. That's quite a difference from the short businesslike ones I experience at my current workplace. They don't seem to use any horrible jargon either. In short, they sound like warm friendly humans not emotionless business droids.
Help is always on hand. I guess my organisation's equivalent is our Slack #random channel - but you don't get the instantaneous response that it seems you do at Automattic. Perhaps that is not necessarily a bad thing!
Don't hire assholes. Lifted from a book called "The No-Asshole Rule":
"No matter how many golden lectures a leader gives imploring people to “Be collaborative” or “Work as a team,” if the people hired have destructive habits, the lecture will lose. And of course if the leader is the asshole, there is no hope at all."
Scott Berkun, The Year Without Pants.
Having encountered a (thankfully) very few workplace assholes in my time, I can testify to the opportunity cost of employing them. They may "get things done" - but often at the expense of a massively demoralised set of peers and others who are less engaged and productive (and in some cases, leave for more fruitful working environments).
Avoid cargo cults. Aping a good working culture is not the same if the values etc are not also embedded.
Prioritise product creators over support roles like HR/IT etc. The classic mistake is of IT dictating what computers and software the creative people should use.
As a manager, prioritise communication and helping others. This chimes well with me as servant leadership is my go-to approach.
On meetings, if it is important - people will pay attention.
Pick a problem, and write a product launch and support page for it. I love this future orientated prototyping approach.
“Writing the announcement first is a forcing function. You're forced to question if your idea is more exciting for you as the maker than it will be for your customer.”
Scott Berkun, The Year Without Pants.
I wonder what working at Automattic is like now. It's got a lot bigger - closer to a thousand than a hundred and fifty...
Verdict: Already feels a little dated, but some of the management psychology is still insightful.
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