I read 『ALLIANCE アライアンス』 リード・ホフマン (著), ベン・カスノーカ (著), クリス・イェ (著), 篠田 真貴子 (翻訳), 倉田 幸信 (翻訳) (“The Alliance” by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, and Chris Yeh), so I’ll share the insights I gained from this book.
Background: Reid Hoffman's Book
Since this was Reid Hoffman’s book, I decided to read it.
The following are quotes and notes from sections that left an impression on me.
1. New Employment in the Network Era: What is "Alliance" that Restores Trust and Loyalty to the Workplace
From "Family" to "Team"
In contrast, professional sports teams have a specific mission (winning games and championships), and members unite to achieve that mission. Team rosters change over time, either because members decide to move to other teams, or because team management decides to cut or trade members. In this respect, business is much more like a sports team than a family.
→Business is similar to professional sports teams.
2. Setting Commitment Periods: Alliance Defines Job Content and Duration
Long-term Partnerships
Commitment periods become a framework that allows each employee to work on multiple meaningful assignments, making it easier to build a long-term career at one company. While commitment periods end after several years, the end of a successful commitment period can also become the starting point for the next commitment period at that company.
→Using commitment periods to provide an environment for long-term career development.
Each time a commitment period ends, the bond of mutual trust strengthens. And if the company knows when an employee's commitment period is about to end, they can start discussions early and begin working together to design the next commitment period at the company. This allows them to get ahead of the curve before that employee starts looking elsewhere for commitment periods.
→Using the commitment period cycle to get ahead of employee departures.
3. What Matters in Commitment Periods ~ Aligning Employee and Company Goals and Values
Now is an era when we cannot expect corporate goals to become the one absolute goal for employees. Unless they are employees in foundational commitment periods (a very small number), they will want to seek and expand possibilities outside the company. Entrepreneurial employees will want to build a "personal brand" separate from the company. With lifetime employment over, this reaction is both rational and necessary.
→An era when corporate goals cannot be expected to become employees’ goals.
The goal should not be to perfectly align company and individual goals in every aspect. We should aim for "alignment" that naturally brings both together, but only for a certain period and under certain conditions. To achieve alignment, managers must consciously search for and clearly identify common ground between "corporate goals and values" and "employee career goals and values."
→What we should aim for is alignment.
What's needed is building alignment so that it matches the employee's goals during their commitment period. There's no need to align with the employee's "life goals and values." As mentioned before, companies are not families. While we should respect employees' values and future prospects, we have no obligation to support them unconditionally.
→What’s needed is alignment during the commitment period.
COLUMN: Dialogue with Subordinates - Advice for Managers
Opening Up to Gain Trust
When subjects share their deepest emotions and beliefs, it was found that trust and intimacy that would normally take weeks, months, or sometimes years to form can emerge in just one hour. By asking frank questions like "Who was the best colleague you've ever had?" or "What moment made you feel most proud of your career?", you can reduce psychological distance.
→Best colleague? The moment you felt most proud of your career?
4. Implementing Transformational Commitment Periods: Four Steps to Effective Utilization
4. Dealing with Unexpected Situations: Changes During Commitment Periods
What if an Employee Wants a Different Department or Position Within the Company?
In the case of internal lateral moves, the employee isn't leaving the company, but both company and employee still need to cooperate to complete the commitment period, just like with job changes. If the employee can move smoothly while keeping commitment goals on track as planned, the company should not prevent this.
→Internal transfers after mutual expectation adjustment between supervisor and subordinate
6. Developing Network Intelligence: Tips and Tactics for Extending Employee Networks
3. Company-wide Deployment of Programs and Strategies to Support Individual Network Building
Establishing a "Networking Budget" for Employees
Keep money aside to have tea or meals with interesting people in your network. The corporate version of this is a "networking budget" for employees. Most companies recognize business lunches as expenses, but few companies allow networking lunches to be expensed. Yet almost all executives have these networking lunches and companies ultimately benefit from them. Companies should not only allow employees to do the same, but actively "require" them to do so. And then have them report what they learned afterward.
→Actively encouraging networking lunches and reporting might be a good idea.
7. Companies Should Create "Alumni" Networks: Lifelong Individual-Company Alliance Relationships
Three Levels of Investment
Level 2: Support
At this level, the company directly contacts "alumni" group organizers and provides support by asking "Is there anything we can help with?" This doesn't become a company system, and support can be intermittent.
→If running an alumni network minimally, this method seems good.
A good example is Accenture. The company's LinkedIn "alumni" group has over 31,000 participants, who agreed when joining to receive updates and job information from the company. More importantly, they also agreed to stay in touch with each other.
→Case study: Accenture
8. Leveraging "Alumni" Networks ~ Tips and Techniques for Effective Implementation
1. Deciding "Alumni" Network Participants
A way to reliably resolve such issues long-term is to establish "alumni" groups of only "selected" former employees. This gives the company more detailed control over participating members and the benefits derived from them.
→Groups of only selected former employees
That’s all from the Gemba - I want to effectively utilize the Alliance approach.