5 ms·

I think his problem of persona mis-matches is a temporary problem we all will face. Are you a leader of your organization or are you a burning man guy? We all

by jonmc12 17y ago

I think his problem of persona mis-matches is a temporary problem we all will face. Are you a leader of your organization or are you a burning man guy? We all have limited time to understand your true personality, so we have to rely on our best generalizations and stereotypes. However, not too long from now we will all either be a) so exposed that our simple notions of persona will break down. We can just be people and we can be judged in context instead of these pseudo-personas, or b) we will all be so scared about breaking our personas that we will just withdraw from expressing ourselves honestly. In the meantime, yea its a broken system. If you want to express the persona of a successful business person, it might just mean you don't get to express yourself as burning man dude until you retire or something. Its a sacrifice because the rest of the world just is not ready to see you as both.

veemjeem 17y ago
There are successful companies out there that don't adhere to the typical structure, and I'm glad to add another company to that list. For example, the 20,000 employees at Gore-Tex have no bosses, you're on a team. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/89/open_gore.html?page=0%2C1 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/89/open_gore.html?page=0... Also, Tony Hsieh sits in a cubicle among employees -- he's just one of the guys, even though he's the founder & CEO of a giant company recently purchased by Amazon. His cubicle office isn't near any windows either. He's also very approachable in the office, just as any other employee would be.
- jmackinn 17y ago
  Awesome article. To nit pick though, it states that there are 6,300 employees at Gore. Still, no bosses for that many people is an incredible accomplishment.
  - catch23 17y ago
    Well, the article was written in 2007, so maybe there are more now, but then again in 2007 the economy looked strong. So maybe there's less than 6300 now.
jlees 17y ago
I think it seems a problem with the history of his persona too. Originally set up by a PR guy, it's vastly shifted - towards the 'real' him, yeah, but shifted nonetheless. If he'd been shirtless Burning-Man guy from the start, I don't think there would be quite so much uproar.

by jonmc12 17y ago

veemjeem 17y ago

There are successful companies out there that don't adhere to the typical structure, and I'm glad to add another company to that list. For example, the 20,000 employees at Gore-Tex have no bosses, you're on a team. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/89/open_gore.html?page=0%2C1 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/89/open_gore.html?page=0... Also, Tony Hsieh sits in a cubicle among employees -- he's just one of the guys, even though he's the founder & CEO of a giant company recently purchased by Amazon. His cubicle office isn't near any windows either. He's also very approachable in the office, just as any other employee would be.

jmackinn 17y ago
Awesome article. To nit pick though, it states that there are 6,300 employees at Gore. Still, no bosses for that many people is an incredible accomplishment.
- catch23 17y ago
  Well, the article was written in 2007, so maybe there are more now, but then again in 2007 the economy looked strong. So maybe there's less than 6300 now.

jlees 17y ago

I think it seems a problem with the history of his persona too. Originally set up by a PR guy, it's vastly shifted - towards the 'real' him, yeah, but shifted nonetheless. If he'd been shirtless Burning-Man guy from the start, I don't think there would be quite so much uproar.