MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 2 | 35
like Buffer put into bringing together nearly
100 employees from around the world. Their
annual Buffer Team Retreats, which happen
every 5 to 7 months, last about a week and
all travel, food, and lodging is paid for by the
company. It’s not hard to imagine more com-
panies realizing the power of in-person
meetings and investing in them promptly.
7. FROM DEPARTMENTS TO TEAMS
Soon, departments will be an outdated way
to talk about how people work together. In
the next year or so most companies will at
least have some groups talking about work-
ing “in teams” and “on projects”. They might
still technically be in one department or an-
other, but that isn’t very useful given how
quickly people are moving from project to
project, and more agile companies are pull-
ing people onto projects even if it isn’t in
their department.
8. GOODBYE CULTURE FIT; HELLO VALUES
FIT
Busy recruiters and managers use the
term “culture fit" as a shortcut to describe
the kind of person they are looking to hire.
The problem is that while it’s easy to refer to
the term, it’s never well-defined, but most
often it’s code for hiring people just like the
rest of the employees. Too many like-minded
individuals can lead to groupthink, and nar-
row conclusions, not to mention un-
diversity. Instead, look for values-fit—people
who have complimentary working styles,
motivations, and beliefs.
9.SELF-DRIVING ISN’T JUST FOR CARS
In this brave new world of shortening tenure
(just 18 months around Silicon Valley), work-
ers can no longer rely on one or two organi-
zations to define their career. It will be the
responsibility of the individual to create
their own infrastructure of mentors, coach-
es, skills training, and networking to support
themselves across the years. In today’s work
world, curating a career is critical. Anyone
who wants to climb higher will need to build
their own corporate ladder.10.COMMUNITIES, NOT CUSTOMERS
Businesses don’t have employees and cus-
tomers any longer; they have communities
where value can be created in new ways and
come from unexpected places. A single influ-
encer can create interest in a product, ser-
vice, or brand way beyond what a single cus-
tomer ever could. Roles are changing on the
inside as well. It’s not difficult to imagine a
corporation expanding the responsibilities of
employees and investing in training to help
individuals become more effective brand ad-
vocates in person and online.
As new players emerge, and old positions
fade, it’s hard to say how these extreme hy-
brid roles (if you can even call them that)
evolve. What is evident is that business lead-
ers must change how they see the world;
they need to zoom out, so they can see
more of who is connected to what. In the
future, we won’t be talking about companies
trying to attract employees and sell to cus-
tomers. The conversation will be about one
community, inside and out, working togeth-
er to achieve a single purpose. And when a
business’s control over these sometimes-
paid roles is tentative at best, culture will be
the best tool we have to run our companies.