We've always had something to say about how software is built and consumed.
But, so many of those same principles apply to management,
that I've really realized we really have something
valuable to say more broadly.
Or a contribution to how we think about how to manage any company in the 21st century.
-We live in a world now where people demand a purpose at work,
they demand a clear mission on why they're there.
People don't tend to just work for a paycheck anymore.
They want to make a true difference.
We have a purpose, a soul, people want to be at Red Hat because Red Hat is mission-based.
Open source is at our core and it's something that we all deeply believe in.
-I think the one thing that blew me away, right from the start was this, sort of,
passion that people have.
As soon as I walked in the first meeting,
you saw that people cared about what they did, and when they talked about open source
it comes through their skin.
So that was something I learned right off the bat, and it was really interesting to me,
about why people are involved in this organization,
and what they're hoping to do, that it really is about changing the world.
Newer organization models, what we're calling the Open Organization,
are much more based on coordination, aligning action to people.
But rather than proscribing who gets to make
the decision, you let that be a bit ambiguous, you let the organization itself, figure that out.
You work to align people to have the context and the capabilities to ultimately to make decisons,
and then you let that organization kind of, drive forward to actually solve that problem.
-The open organization is about management in practice, not just management in theory.
And it's real people, telling real stories.
We really worked hard to bring in the perspectives of people who live it and are here every day.
There were times when Darren was like, "man you guys are really bringing everyone
into the fold and getting their opinions on this book."
But what's funny, not only we'd get their opinions,
we would take that feedback and we would incorporate it.
As the drafts were coming together, there were a number of places where I had put a
comment in, and I was kinda like, it's just a comment, just my perspective on what it said.
And I'd get the next draft, and I'm like, oh they actually took it, and it's in the draft now.
-For me it was very reaffirming that we wrote the book in the Red Hat way, using the principles
that we describe in the Open Organization.
A great example of that is actualy how we came up with the book cover.
We went to our creative team and just said come up with a bunch of different ideas.
In the end, the cover was not designed by any one person.
It's going to be exciting and surreal to see this out in the world and know that I had
a hand in helping create it.
In a lot of ways this book is literally a part of the Red Hat culture, because of how many
people were involved in it, right from the start all the way through.
This was not just a Jim project, he wouldn't have ever wanted it to be that way.
The Open Organization is an environment that is centered on participation.
Meritocracy, openness, transparency, and collaboration.
All of our leaders truly believe that the best idea can come from anywhere.
Everyone says meritocracy, letting the best ideas win.
To me the Open Organization really is that.
-In an open organization, it doesn't matter than I'm an EVP at Red Hat. It really doesn't.
So I have no better ideas than anybody else around the organization.
Rather than the CEO being at the top of the hierarchy, the CEO is much more of a catalyst
to get an organization both aligned and capable and enabled to ultimately act on its own.
-When Jim talks to anybody, he genuinely believes they have something important to say,
and there's an idea, and he listens, and he doesn't forget.
You know people like Thomas Cameron, he had a number of really great comments that ultimately
are in the book, because when he talks, I know he has something interesting to say, he's
got a thoughtful perspective, and so when people like that talk, I listen.
I was a little bit surprised that Jim remembered I had said those things, because you see a
lot of CEOs who work from isolation, or work from their small council of experts,
and I thought it was really refreshing to see a fairly big company have a CEO who really did value the
input of a lot of individuals.
-I think of Jim as very down-to-earth, grounded, he's very authentic, he's very honest,
and I think what's nice, is him being that way at Red Hat sort of creates that environment
where you want to be authentic.
Jim uniquely has a voice and a way of communicating that resonates with people.
He's very authentic in his tone, he tells stories as they are, he says the good,
he says the bad, he doesn't hide anything.
-I thought it was really refreshing to read in Jim's tone, and to have him talking about
the pitfalls, and to have him talking about some of the challenges, and his story of when
he first came here, and he gave instructions to somebody and a couple of days later,
they said, "oh no, we decided that was a bad idea, and we didn't do it."
But that's just kinda the way that Red Hat is.
It was fascinating to see somebody coming
from a culture other than Red Hat and how shocking it must be.
I wish I had some crazy story to share with you.
But I guess the crazy story, is that to me in my view,
Jim really transcends what the concept of the old-school CEO is.
Instead he is very open, he's humble, he's collaborative,
he genuinely wants to know people's ideas,
and really lives that meritocracy that we talk about at Red Hat.
-This book is my and Red Hat's contribution to the future of management.
To some extent this is how we have approached the exact same problems that managers and leaders
are facing in any 21st century organization now,
and this is our contribution on how we've solved those problems.
I do work at the Open Organization, it's a crazy, great place to be.
Really, it's passionate people; you can just see it, they're excited about what we're doing,
excited to see the impact that we can have on the world, and it's infectious,
and I talk about it in the book:
The importance of purpose and passion in really igniting performance in a company.
Here it is! -It's beautiful!
-Look at that.
-That's awesome.