NVE is in the process of growing into a larger workspace and we have been thinking a lot about workplace culture. I was lucky enough to attend a lecture from Zappos founder Tony Hsieh in downtown LA where he described his unorthodox and forward-thinking approach to his company’s structure.

While I don’t agree with Hsieh on everything—his approach is a bit radical for my taste—several of his overall points were extremely valuable. The way he looks forward to the future of work and the evolving role of workplace leadership is fascinating and inspiring.

Here I share a few of his interesting observations, along with my own thoughts.

“Cities have higher survival rates that companies”

Tony began his talk by comparing the life spans of companies to cities. Only 12% of the original Fortune 500 companies from 1955 still exist, while Paris is over 2,000 years old.

His point is that the delicate, organic balance of cities is something that workplace culture should strive towards. In Manhattan, Tony notes, there are only three days of food supply on any given day, yet no one panics.

That’s because the market-based dynamics of New York work so seamlessly well that it feels like it couldn’t possibly go wrong. In structuring Zappos, Tony has taken a lot from cities. He flips the traditional vertical corporate hierarchy on its head from manager—employee to employee—customer.

Managers at Zappos are customers of their own employees, which reflects a city more than the top-down, military-style hierarchy of a traditional corporation. In Manhattan, no one tells the baker and the banker that they rely on each other; it’s inherent to their organic, exchange-based relationship.

“Most companies don’t realize how talented their workforce is.”

Inside Zappos, employees can do basically whatever they want as long as they aren’t losing money. That includes using company resources for outside projects that bring in money.

He used three examples of employees who created profit-making enterprises within Zappos.

One started a rosé-fueled 5k in Temecula that was highly successful and is now a yearly event. Another started an on-site sundry shop at Zappos HQ. A third opened a Prince-themed bar in the lobby and named it “1999.”

By expanding the way think employees think about the workplace, they can grow wings by creating their own profitable enterprises that benefit the bottom line. Why shouldn’t you encourage them?

“There’s no CEO of a rainforest.”

Like cities, Tony is also inspired by self-organization in nature. His new approach is hands-off as it gets. He provides a solid infrastructure for employees to grow, and then steps out of the way. He analogizes Zappos’s structure to Burning Man, which is similarly dedicated to staying out of its attendees' ways.

This is something we embrace at NVE. In the future, the concept of hands-on management will be replaced by the concept of managerial empowerment. The role of the manager will transform from telling people how to do work to setting a framework that gives employees freedom and autonomy to find the most efficient and effective work practices.

Putting a premium on organic employee development is particularly important for the workplace to evolve beyond automation. One thing robots can’t do is grow.

“It doesn’t have to grow.”

Tony pointed out that while employees themselves should be empowered to grow, it’s not 100% necessary for their creative projects to grow at the pace sometimes demanded in Silicon Valley.

Instead, he implements a “triangle of accountability” that gives his employee’s projects needed structure. The triangle of accountability answers the question: “what’s the minimum number of constraints that allow maximum freedom and accountability.” One side of the triangle is “not having your bank account go below zero,” and the other two relate to Zappos company principles.

Tony believes that growth at Zappos comes from the synergy between all individual market dynamics working as one. Thus if one employee’s project isn’t growing super fast, that doesn’t mean it has to end, so long as it keeps its bank account above zero.

“It’s not about work-life balance, it’s about work-life integration.”

Tony mentions that he has personally officiated the weddings of four different couples that met at Zappos. He believes that integrating the work with the people you want to be with and the life you want to live is absolutely essential for the future of workplaces.

This is another notion I am constantly hoping to emulate at NVE. It’s not about making an environment that people don’t feel comfortable leaving, it’s about reconsidering the barrier between the workplace and home life. That barrier is a social construct, one that might not be necessary moving forward.

At NVE, we are always seeking ways to think beyond the 9-5, to give employees more freedom. In the future, all major commerce is going to become a 24/7 always-on global endeavor. Chatbots will be able to answer questions from anywhere in the world, in any language, at any time. And humans will be expected to keep up by molding their work schedules to key peak times that are dictated by customers or clients. Innovations such as Slack are giving a more direct line between people that requires instant response.

With all that in mind, how do we maximize employee freedom, and create an environment they actually want to be in?

“Don’t start believing your own press releases.”

Tony summed up with a healthy dose of self-critical skepticism. His approach is innovative, and as a tech-star, he is at constant risk of drinking his own kool-aid. He cautioned that the first sign that a company’s workplace culture is in decline is when people stop asking questions or stop being willing to answer them.

But Tony was also careful to acknowledge the necessity of remaining passionate in your mission as a business owner and thinking about your role as something much bigger than just a seller of products or services.

As we enter an era of always-on work driven by tech and automation, workplace culture has more power to influence people’s happiness than ever before. It goes beyond workplace culture and becomes, well, culture culture. And as such it’s important to be excited, intentional, and curious about making the workplace a prosperous and healthy place for all of us.