What the no-boss revolutions means for the future of work

No boss? No problem. Employee autonomy is helping workers dedicate themselves to their goals without management, and it’s making entire companies more productive.

The way we work is evolving, and we’re evolving with it.

Todd Rose, author, professor, and social entrepreneur, joins Evan Baehr in a discussion about what it takes to create a healthy and thriving workplace. In traditional workplace dynamics, things like self-silencing and collective illusions keep us from speaking out about the things that we hope can change.

This is why the landscape is changing. @ltoddrose shares insights from businesses like Morning Star Tomatoes, where they’ve eliminated the concept of bosses and trust their employees to work without management. This structure, they’ve learned, has created an environment where the work feels not just productive, but meaningful.

But this is only the beginning. These conversations about the history and impact of hierarchical work structures are the starting point for progress. The real challenge is continuing to turn these ideas into action, reshaping the future of work for the better.

[chome]

People don't leave jobs....they leave bad management!

[drewseisler]

The reason people aren't engaged in their community can largely be traced back to car-based infrastructure. Paving cities over for cars separates people physically and makes everything more expensive, because you're using your land less efficiently (Henry George knew this concept in the 1800s before cars were even invented). Instead of hopping on a bus or light rail, or walking to the corner pub, we are forced to drive everywhere, and hope there's parking. Euclidian zoning (separating land by use, specifically zoning large swaths of cities for single family homes only), means that there's no third places within our neighborhoods. We don't hang out at the local pub or the corner store, because they're outlawed. We are forced to drive to the chain restaurant or Walmart, because we've let our cities transform in a way that is good for billionaires, but bad for everyone else. To rediscover meaning in life, it starts with rediscovering human-scale urban land use.

[holleey]

28:42 not everybody can be an entrepreneur, it's entirely infeasible for everybody to be responsible for running their own business.
"don't feel fulfilled in your life? just become an entrepreneur!" would be an incredibly short-sighted and downright dangerous advice.

we need organizations.
but these organizations can be run without a capitalist owner and without a board of directors that bends to investors.
we call that a worker cooperative. it's not a novel idea, it's been working great for decades, is scalable and vastly more stable than a capitalist company.
in a nutshell, rather than *for* an employer, people work *with* their peers on a common goal they have actual stake in.

[Rich-NH]

Bosses are part of an outmoded and antiquated system handed down from the industrial age. Chain of command makes sense for the military, but it’s stifling for creativity and knowledge work. We’ve been top-heavy for a LONG time. If you can’t clearly and easily articulate what your “leaders” do to add value your work, then they’re just in the way. Only a few leaders I’ve experienced are brilliant strategists, and they will struggle to compete with the strategic thinking and reasoning of AI. Humans are flawed, biased and riddled with fragile egos—the higher up the chain you go the worse it seems to get. At best, a good boss is a coach and mentor. If you’re lucky, they may remove blockers for you.

The age of leadership is dying as people become more self-directed and autonomous.

[ADITYAGAME]

2:52 What is Collective Illusuion?

3:31 He explains this with the help of an example.

5:30 Why do we decide to follow the thing even if we know it's not what we want?

5:44 What is Conformity Bias?

7:10 How to educate kids such that they find meaning and purpose in their work? ---> 9:06

9:45 About Frederick Taylor

11:02 How Taylor's Management approach affected businesses

12:08 High School Movement

13:22 Cultures that will drive human flourishing

15:32 How attitude towards work is changing?

16:48 A look at how no-boss model works in a company, i.e., Morning Star, a tomato company ( or a mission focussed self management )

18:02 How such a model function between colleagues?

18:57 How feedback mechanisms works?

20:22 How do they mediate any conflicts?

20:41 Why people say it doesn't work?

21:54 What is the satisfaction level of employees in a no-boss model?

22:55 What are the mistakes that people make in the flourishing space?

24:06 What is stopping these people from fulfilling their top priorities (especially the one to engage within their communities)

25:17 How do top grads that are recruited enter into political activist?

26:29 Who are the most susceptible to Collective Illusuion?

28:38 Some entrepreneurial approaches

30:13: The real advice starts here

[MysteriousSoulreaper]

I love that I see so many individuals on this channel that are almost Visionary Moderates. They come on and say something profound to shift the paradigm while at the same time managing to be common sense that should be acceptable by everyone.

[RussellFineArt]

Corporate Cooperatives are the best model and solution for companies.

[rjsimpkins]

40 years ago we tried the farce of self managed workforce in the Fortune 250 bordelo I worked at. Management just couldn't give up that power and control. There was a specialized group of 15 that had made it work. That thought terrified managers, because of what widespread success of this meant for them.

[corey]

This idea is why small, family-run companies have the highest job satisfaction. You're in a space where everyone is working towards a mission and typically management is hands off and more "mission setting" and it really makes people happy. The happiest teams I've worked on have democratic leaders or transparent leaders. People love to work with each other and want to accomplish goals together. Not everyone and not every system is perfect, there's always going to be low performing individuals. But in those autonomous systems, there will he far fewer low performing individuals

[dorukyalcinsoy]

We all need a strong WHY to really be motivated on work, and life. It’s not fully separate

[lyl]

We need more leaders, not managers. Do what you love and keep doing it, money should come.

[cmw]

Seems to me that the education system being anachronistic and unsuitable for modern employment and living is the one thing nearly everyone on every side agrees on.

Left and right both want to bring out the unique abilities of every individual, just for different reasons.

The problem is then trying to measure them according to some common oversimplified metric so that they can be added to a database.

Mission driven self management is a sign of the kind of company I want to work for, not pigeon-holed into one role. Start ups that are growing beyond the comfortable work of a small team are the best I've found.

[CHRIS-ELID]

No-Boss Illusion, the Boss who brainwashed them with system.

[eve_sayings]

I love the idea and I like that he is spreading out these message to the public, as these messages are considered not sexy or not popular. Normally, I do not support anyone but his idea is worth thinking about it.

[myssimiss]

Unpopular opinion: one of many reasons some ASD can't keep work: not participating in collective illusion.

[JD-xupy]

This video jives well with the cooperative movement like DemocracyAtWork

[lalakuma]

Meanwhile my unqualified boss has been harassing every skilled person in my team so that all that will be left are her and 9 underpaid entry-level drones.

[Stupidspencer]

What an amazing vision! But how can that paradigm ever come to be, when so many people lack empathy? How does that system of self-management deal with people who habitually deceive for personal gain? 🤔Where do sociopaths fit into that paradigm? Its an important question to ask, since many top executives are sociopaths, or exhibit strong Machiavellian traits.

[devakrishna]

Right we don’t need a boss but a leader

[merkur]

There was a whole country where most companies were self-governed & owned by the employees: Yugoslavia.