How Zappos Converts New Hires to Its Bizarre Office Culture

DeVonTae Browne didn't know anything about the management discipline of Holacracy before showing up at orientation for his new job in customer service at Zappos. "I wasn't entirely sure what it meant," he admits. Three weeks into the online shoe retailer's monthlong on-boarding slog, Browne is a convert to the avant garde management strategy. "I’m pretty much buying whatever someone is selling, as far as Holacracy goes," Browne says. "I’m definitely all-in."

Holacracy replaces the traditional top-down office hierarchy with an alternative-org chart of circles within circles within circles. Employees no longer take job titles; instead they inhabit roles that create autonomy over their work. It's not anarchy: A series of highly structured "governance" and "tactical" meetings help define who does what. More than 300 organizations have at least dabbled in Holacracy over the last decade, including part of the Washington State government and the company of productivity guru David Allen, but Zappos is the largest and most famous business to embrace the philosophy completely.