The REAL!!! No Asshole Rule - Aditya Yadav

1. “Running an Agile Fortune 500 Company”
Aditya Yadav, aditya.yadav@gmail.com
in.linkedin.com/in/adityayadav76
*

2. *
*A Typical Global Company
*Fortune 500/1000
*200 Divisions
*40 Countries
*25000 Employees

3. @ Acme Inc.
*

4. *
*Original Question “Prof. Sutton describes
Assholes costing the organization a lot of
money and effort. What should be our stand?”
*The Correct Question - “Money is the easy
part. Assholes cause Organizational
Disintegration. Allow me to explain.”

5. And The Philosophy Behind The Answer
*

6. *
* Sutton explores ways to implement a "no-jerk" rule and how to survive
such an environment. He also warns organizations that such behavior is
contagious. Hire a jerk and you will soon have a polluted work
environment. Few human resource managers or executives take action to
avoid hiring jerks, he claims, or stop them once they reveal their true
colors.
* The social contract between employees and employer has changed.
Generation X and Y employees are not prepared to tolerate jerk-like
behavior of nasty bosses and peers, in a way that previous generations
have. Today, younger employees will leave a job rather than tolerate an
abusive boss or colleague.
* The hardest thing for many people to acknowledge is they themselves may
be the jerk at work. Sutton worked with Guy Kawasaki of Apple fame to
produce an assessment called ARSE. Apparently, more than 80,000 have
taken the assessment and 30,000 qualified as office jerk, by their own
admission. Imagine if we asked their co-workers?
Ref: http://electricpulp.com/guykawasaki/arse/

7. *
* Assholism is a Religion!!!!
* It always starts at the Top
* Though it doesn’t need an Asshole at the top to Start With. But that will happen eventually.
* All it needs is a Manager at the Top who
* Wants Results (Nothing wrong with that) But at All Costs.
* Says something and rewards something else
* Who always goes back on promises
* Who sets targets, goals, deadlines, … and hammers everyone to achieve them anyhow possible
* Suddenly assholes spring up everywhere below him
* That’s how Assholes were made
* We made them
* By – “Me before everyone else” – The Culture of Individualism and every man for himself
* By – “Us before them” – The Organizational Silo’s
* Suddenly such people start making it to the top of other companies
* And assholism then becomes a religion in the industry
* Once everyone is for himself, which is officially supported by organizational processes
* Then starts the humiliation, and harassment and all sorts of things
* And since whoever is higher is accountable ($!@%#$^%^) for more things he gets away with more things. Which is
absolutely not the case in Bottom-Up Organizations where Shit Flows To The Top and Not From The Top To The
Bottom.

8. *
* Steve Jobs is also the litmus test for whether you are serious
about the no asshole rule. There’s little doubt that, in his
interactions with most people, Jobs consistently failed
Sutton’s tests. Would you apply the no asshole rule to Steve
Jobs? Sutton says he would. I would, too.
* But then how do you Explain Steve Success with Innovation?
* Ref: Next Slide
* Assholism like Command and Control breaks down with
increase in Complexity, though maybe not just with Size.
When the Asshole cannot figure out how to kick ass and who’s
ass and most people can avoid him
* Assholism like Command and Control also seems to break
down with Multiple Locations when the Asshole cannot kick
someone’s ass very effectively

9. *
*Assholism can work at any scale with Single
Function/Single Business organizations in a Single
Location (Think 1 Infinite Loop)
*If the guy at the top is a very smart asshole then
assholism might be bad for the employees but it is
organizationally very effective. We all know of
Apple’s Success! That is why!!!
*The best layman’s definition of Assholism is –
“Extensively Regressive Command and Control”
*If you understand that definition you will
understand everything I’m trying to say in this
entire Deck.

10. *
*Sutton claims this behavior impacts the bottom
line through increased turnover, absenteeism,
decreased commitment and performance. He
says the time spent counseling or appeasing
jerks, consoling victimized employees,
reorganizing departments or teams and
arranging transfers produce significant hidden
costs for the company.

11. *
* His Argument has a Feel good factor and is not tied to serious organizational implications
* Is it just Cost? Really?
* Oh yes! Managers love to link everything to cost…
* Can we throw some money to take care of it?
* No!
* The problem is not costs its organizational disintegration
* I’m sure manager’s buy the argument of costs
* But leaders should worry about the problem of disintegration
* The disintegration impact of assholes increases in the order of Blue Collar -> White Collar -> Gold Collar
* Golden Rule: Innovation is Voluntary
* Guess what happens to Innovation when assholes rule???
* Nobody else wants to do anything more than whats required of them
* You will have to put 20 metrics into everyones SMART (#$@%$#^$#%^$%) Goals for the Year and yet success will be elusive.
* You need Heavy Incentivization to get people to work. But which wont work anyway, or the way you want it to.
* But collectively no work gets done because Everyone has a Conflict of Interest With Everyone Else, because basically
everyone is for themselves.
* That’s called Organizational Disintegration.
* R’ber One can be very Unethical and yet be Perfectly Within Legal Bounds
* R’ber the best results require Innovation which is Completely Voluntary while what the organization measures of people is
Rigor/Effort, Process/Ritual Compliance or even worse a Mean Standard Outcome!!!
* So Employees can be perfectly Aligned ($@%$#^%^) and yet deliver no Results in an Organization with Assholes…
* That’s the real Impact of Assholism. And Prof. Sutton completely misses that.

12. *
*Every Top Company has somewhat related notions
*Google says – Being Evil is Inefficient!!!
*Some companies have – The No Asshole Rule!!!
*Mckinsey says – There is no place for Ego! In
Consulting!!!
*Rule: Organizational Disintegration should be the
best perspective to deal with this issue!
*Rule: Cost probably is the worst perspective in this
case [And almost in every other case too! Sorry
Managers ;-) ]

13. *
Aditya!!!