Ben Casnocha
Co-author of The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age
Discussion
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
Greetings! I'm Ben Casnocha. I'm an entrepreneur and author in San Francisco. I'm co-author of The Start-up of You, and The Alliance with Reid Hoffman. I served for two years as Reid's chief of staff at LinkedIn, and have founded many different companies in Silicon Valley. I'm also interested in politics, books, philosophy, and travel. Ask me anything!
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Andreas Klinger
@andreasklinger · Tech at Product Hunt 💃
At LinkedIn did you have a (mental or explicit) framework to decide if a person is a fit for the overall company? What kind of compromises did you have to do or where accepted? How did you define/share ownership on this decisions?
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@andreasklinger I'm not speaking on behalf of LinkedIn here. But I will say that in any organization as large as LI you will see as many cultures as there are managers. Sure, there are overarching values and principles that Reid and Jeff set, but there's so much diversity within so many different groups, that "fit" will really depend on the specific circumstances. It's key difference between 5 person startup and a BigCo. All that said, my personal take on LinkedIn values generally is that there are a lot of nice people who work there -- big hearts -- and so assholes tend not to survive long. LI employees for the most part are driven, competitive, super smart, etc. but *also* compassionate. This stems first from Reid's huge heart and also from Jeff's belief in compassionate management. It differentiates Linkedin from a lot of other tech firms in terms of values and the makeup of employees.
Brad Feld
@bfeld · Managing Director, Foundry Group
How do you write? What's your process?
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@bfeld I do not get up at 5am every day to write, as so many other writers do... I do my best writing at night -- night owls, unite! Another key difference for me is I tend not to place a lot of stock in outlines. I don't thoroughly outline my thoughts before writing. Actual full prose writing is the process of figuring out what I want to say. Thus, there's a lot of revising and editing and scrapping old stuff. Outlines are overrated -- how do you know what you want to say before you say it?! I think Joan Didion or someone said something like that.
AJ
@alanaut24 · Engitrepresigner
@bencasnocha yay for night owls! My family thinks I'm crazy because most of my work is from 10pm - 5am.
Jessie A. Young
@jessieay · Developer, 18F
In the career advice space, the million dollar question is “What should I do with my life?” What do you make of that question and how do you guys talk about it in Start-up of You?
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@jessieay When it comes to the question "What should I do with my life?" you often hear three different common pieces of advice. Some say "play to your strengths." In other words, figure out what you're good at, and go do that. Some say "follow your passion." In other words, figure out what you like to do, and build a life around that. And then others say "figure out what the market needs and go do that." This is the Tiger Mom approach. I.e., there’s a nursing shortage in California? Go become a nurse. What’s problematic is that each of these common pieces of advice, when taken on their own, is insufficient. What if your passion is playing the violin or something else that’s awfully hard to monetize? Or what if you’re not passionate about what you’re good at? And if you just pursue a career based on what the market needs, you may not be able to do it for very long because you may not enjoy it. This is why in The Start-up of You we talk about developing a competitive advantage by intersecting all three considerations — your assets (strengths), aspirations (values, passions, etc), and the market realities. Fit those three puzzle pieces together to arrive at a smart Plan A for your career. How can you leverage your strengths to achieve some of your aspirations while navigating the realities around you? You'll necessarily have to trade off on some things along the way. For example, I love writing and am decent at it, but it's so hard to monetize writing ability on its own, so I integrated that skill/strength into an arena where the market realities are more favorable (business). Finally, the answers to any of these questions will change. Your assets change. Your aspirations change. The market changes. You always have to iterate on your plans to account for these changes. There's no one right, permanent answer to the question...
Chris Schroeder
@cmschroed · investor
@bencasnocha I do think there are however more true answers than right ones. The latter is an intellectual exercise, often based on meetings others' judgement. The former is you looking at the mirror. A warning if one leans too heavily to the latter -- tho good Socratic advice can help that mirror conversation! :)
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@cmschroed Agreed, though sometimes looking at the mirror can prompt confusion or uncertainty as well. Self-knowledge doesn't come naturally to many people!
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg · Former Product Hunt
@bencasnocha Hey Ben. You wrote a great piece on what you learned spending 10,000 hours with Reid Hoffman. What did he learn spending 10,000 hours with you?
Phrased another way, or perhaps this is another question, what is your core competence? What are you uniquely best at?
http://casnocha.com/reid-hoffman...
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@eriktorenberg You'd have to ask him. :) I'd say one core competence is how to distill and communicate complex concepts to a general audience. For a lot of the initiatives we were working on, this came in handy.
Sagar
@cigardubey · Grad Student - iSchool - SU
@bencasnocha How can one learn this? What's the hardest thing you've had to breakdown?
karenmariemason
@karenmariemason · artist launch
What are you ideas and views about tech and start ups in Africa.
Caroline Fairchild
@cfair1 · New Economy Editor, LinkedIn
@bencasnocha, what's your take on the contract worker debate? Do we need a third class of worker for the on-demand economy?
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@cfair1 I liked Simon Rothman's piece on Linkedin on this topic. :) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/r... I do think we'll see an evolution of the laws around employee classification. But I'm not optimistic this will happen soon. And so I suspect companies will wrestle with the traditional 1099 vs. W2 issue for some time. It's a risk point in any business that relies upon these sorts of workers.
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@cfair1 I liked Simon Rothman's piece on Linkedin on this topic. :) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/r... I do think we'll see an evolution of the laws around employee classification. But I'm not optimistic this will happen soon. And so I suspect companies will wrestle with the traditional 1099 vs. W2 issue for some time. It's a risk point in any business that relies upon these sorts of workers.
Christina Kehoe
@christinaakehoe · Partner Communications, Infusionsoft
What compelled you to write The Alliance? What was the moment you knew you needed to get it in ink?
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@christinaakehoe After The Start-up of You came out, Reid and I heard from a lot of companies asking a simple question: How do we attract and manage employees who are thinking entrepreneurially? Who embrace the principles in that book? And we realized that companies needed a whole new framework for relating to talent if they wanted a chance to effectively recruit and manage someone who's an intelligent risk taker, network builder, adapter, etc. So we wrote a piece in HBR describing this "new employer-employee compact," and our theory around tours of duty. The feedback was so positive and overwhelming that we expanded our thinking into a book. Now, we're helping companies walk the walk on the ideas in the book. So far the results are very promising.
Christina Kehoe
@christinaakehoe · Partner Communications, Infusionsoft
@bencasnocha Thank you for answering my question. Back in April, you came to speak at my company, Infusionsoft, that talk has impacted many conversations here since regarding leadership and the idea that employees take tours of duty in their careers. Thank you for writing The Alliance. :)
Benjamin Schroeder
@benrschroeder
What advice would you have for a young person who wishes to become an effective member/manager as I enter the workforce?
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@benrschroeder Study those people you admire, deconstruct their successes and failures, and try to articulate the generalizable lessons that you can incorporate into your own life. Let those who've come before you be a guide... :)
Satyajeet
@iamdeveloper · iWonder
@bencasnocha Hey! Any advice for young college dropouts, who are interested in Tech? (Wantrepreneurs)
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@iamdeveloper First, don't call yourself a wantrepreneur. :) Self-defeating self-talk is not a good starting point! I would identify some people you admire who are a notch or two ahead of you in their career, and reach out and offer to add value for free. Do free work. Start showing you can add value as a side project volunteer. Try to break in that way.
Chris Schroeder
@cmschroed · investor
@bencasnocha there's been a ton of banter on the nytimes amazon piece. Is it a good thing/bad thing/even accurate. I have a different question. From the alliance perspective what is the right way for an organization to handle a piece like that? What honors the contract between employee and employer?
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Ben Casnocha
@bencasnocha
@cmschroed I can't say how accurate that piece was. Most people I know who work/worked at Amazon love it. From an Alliance perspective, honesty and transparency is key. If an employee signs up for a tour of duty expecting to work long hours in a fast paced, competitive environment -- then that's fine. It was the agreement. My sense is that this IS the compact at Amazon -- and it works for them. What's problematic is if either side is not honest about their expectations, time horizons, etc. As you like to say Chris, "no surprises!" That's one essence of an Alliance compact. I would also add that I think Amazon's explicit compact with employees is premised on the joys of innovation and professional growth, NOT perks and lifestyle, like a lot of big tech companies.