Articles by Rich
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18K followers
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Rich Sheridan shared thisThis afternoon we're opening our doors again, this time virtually! For years now, people have come to Menlo Innovations to see how we work. They watch two programmers sharing one computer. They see our work authorization board covered in handwritten index cards. They hear the hum of a room full of people actually talking to each other. If you can't make it to Ann Arbor, this is the next best thing. Our team will walk you through how we plan, build, and learn together, and there will be plenty of time for your questions. Wednesday, September 30, 2:00–3:30pm ET https://lnkd.in/eMKZk2gf There's still room. We'd love to have you with us!
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Rich Sheridan posted thisIn October, I'll be receiving the University of Michigan's Alumni Merit Award— and as part of the ceremony, they've asked me to give a talk. It's free and open to the public, and I'd love to see some familiar faces there. I'll be walking through my own journey to joy, starting as a programmer back in 1971, building an early version of fantasy baseball, and connecting every school in Macomb County by email a decade before that was a normal thing to do. By my mid-thirties, I was falling out of love with the profession I thought would carry me for life. I decided there had to be a better way to build software, and I set out to find it. That search led to co-founding Menlo Innovations in 2001, where I still serve as CEO. Our mission has never wavered: to end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology and teams.® We're still working every day to bring joy back to one of the most remarkable things people have ever built together, software. Friday, October 16, 3:30 - 4:30 pm Bob and Betty Beyster Building, Ann Arbor Details and registration: https://lnkd.in/gDC2dn2s
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Rich Sheridan shared thisHere in Ann Arbor, it's hard to talk about company culture for very long before someone mentions Zingerman's. For as long as we've been building Menlo, Zingerman's has been one of the places I point to when people ask whether a business can be both deeply human and genuinely successful. The way they care for their people, their customers, and their community all seems to come from the same place. So I was glad to see Zingerman's joining a2Tech360 this year with a coffee chat featuring Tom Root. Tom will be exploring how thoughtful technology choices can strengthen service, support company culture, and help a business stay true to who it is. That last idea is close to my heart. Technology should serve the people and the values of an organization, and it's always encouraging to hear from leaders who have made those choices with care. Thursday, October 1 | 9–11 AM ZingTrain, Ann Arbor Light breakfast included If you're in town that morning, I suspect it will be a good way to start the day. More details here: https://lnkd.in/eDjfzPvu
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Rich Sheridan shared thisI had one of those conversations recently that reminded me why I love talking about culture! JF (John Francis) Unson (He/Him) and Mun-Wai Chung invited me onto their podcast, Joy and HR, and we spent an hour on something I think about constantly: the gap between what a culture says about itself and what it actually does. We talked through some of the things we do at Menlo that might seem unusual from the outside: letting anyone walk in and tour the space, running an interview process designed to show us how people really work rather than how they interview, giving people a trial run before either side commits, replacing performance reviews with peer-based conversations we call prosperity reviews. We think these are all examples of what happens when you try to build alignment between what you say, what you do, and what you actually believe. That's the part that stuck with me most after the conversation ended. Culture has integrity when the outside perception, the inside reality, and the leader's own heart are all telling the same story. When they're not, you feel the drag. Sometimes you even start managing the appearance instead of the substance. If that kind of conversation is interesting to you, give Episode 9 a listen: https://lnkd.in/gqpkMRZDRich Sheridan shared thisYour culture is what you reinforce, not what you put on the wall. You can have beautifully worded values, inspiring CEO speeches, and all the right words about culture. But if your recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, feedback, promotion, and firing practices tell a different story... People notice. In Episode 9 of “Joy and HR”, JF (John Francis) Unson (He/Him) and I talk with Rich Sheridan about what it really means to build an intentional culture. Rich shares some practical examples from Menlo Innovations: • Public tours that let people see the culture for themselves • An “extreme interview” designed to reveal how people actually work • One-day and three-week trials before making hiring decisions • Peer-based “prosperity reviews” instead of traditional performance reviews • A willingness to let negative Glassdoor feedback stand, then actually learn from it One idea that stood out to me was Rich’s emphasis on alignment: Outside perception. Inside reality. The leader’s heart. When those three are aligned, culture has integrity. When they aren't, organizations experience drag. And sometimes they start doing things that make their culture LOOK good rather than actually BEING good. That distinction matters far beyond HR. 🎙️ Listen to Episode 9 of “Joy and HR” with Rich Sheridan on your favorite podcast platform or via the link here: https://lnkd.in/gqpkMRZD If you haven't listened to the earlier episodes, I'd recommend starting with Episode 1. The conversation builds from one episode to the next. 👉 Here's a question for you: What’s one practice, not a poster value, that you’ve seen actually shape how a team behaves?
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Rich Sheridan shared thisSharing the August issue of the Menlo Innovations newsletter! This month we cover Costco's success story, upcoming events, book recommendations, and more!
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Rich Sheridan shared thisTwo chances this week to see how we actually work at Menlo Innovations. Tomorrow, we're opening things up virtually; a live, unscripted look at paired programming, the Planning Game, and an open space built to take fear out of the workday! Then Thursday, we're opening the floor in person. Same ideas, but you can feel them. Walk the space, watch pairs work side by side, see what a joyful workplace looks like when it's built into how the work gets done. We keep both tours small and interactive on purpose. If you've ever been curious whether this stuff really works, come find out for yourself. Virtual Tour — 9–10:30am ET, tomorrow 9/15 Sign up: https://lnkd.in/eMKZk2gf In-Person Tour — 3:30–5pm ET, Thursday 9/17 Sign up: https://lnkd.in/eD-nybqH
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Rich Sheridan posted thisFall in Ann Arbor means one thing at Menlo: we get to leave the building. Over the next few weeks, our team will be out meeting the next generation of talent and reconnecting with the community that's shaped so much of who we are. We are currently looking for mid-level talent for both Software Developer and High-Tech Anthropologist® roles. September 16 — UofM School of Information Career Fair We'll have a booth here, like we do most years — this is where we meet a lot of the High-Tech Anthropologists® who go on to join our team. Our Head of People, Mollie Callahan, will also be on a panel beforehand (11:30–12:15) talking about how students should be thinking about AI in their job search, followed by an informal lunch conversation with students on recruiting in the age of AI. If you're a UMSI student, come find us. September 22 — Tech Homecoming This is the career fair part of Ann Arbor SPARK's A2Tech360. We'll have a booth at this one too, open to the public, from 4–7pm. October 2 — Tech Trek This is the one where we really open our doors — tours of Menlo and a booth running all afternoon, right alongside 60+ other companies showing off what they're building. Free, open to everyone, and honestly one of my favorite days of the year to watch people walk through our space for the first time. If any of these line up with where you are this fall, I'd love to see you there.
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Rich Sheridan shared thisMy friend Jeff Kosciejew has a gift for building spaces where people can just be themselves. This October he's put together something special in Cornwall, Ontario called DotDotDot. This is a small, informal gathering that feels more like a retreat among friends than a conference. I'll be joining Melissa Boggs for a Friday afternoon workshop, "From Personal Courage to Organizational Joy." I'm bringing my Lead With Joy talk, plus a hands-on activity built around the paper airplane model I use to talk about culture and change. There's nothing quite like watching people build, throw, and rebuild instead of just listening to me talk. The event runs October 1–4. Most folks already know each other, but it's open to anyone who wants in. There will be campfires, card games, and lots of good conversation. My kind of week! If that sounds like your kind of gathering too, details and registration are here: https://lnkd.in/eWDpcbRH Dustin Potts, Tim Heller, Thomas Paider
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Rich Sheridan shared thisI just returned from a camping trip with my wife and two of our granddaughters. We had a wonderful time. We hitched our trailer to the car, took the North Carolina girls and spent an entire week road traveling through Northern Michigan. (For those from Michigan, we went “up North.”) We started in Cadillac, where the KOA campground had this amazing floating obstacle course in the middle of a pond. Think American Ninja Warrior, but for kids. The girls spent just about every waking minute of our time at this campground on the course. Then we headed up to Mackinac Island. If you've never been, the most unique aspect is that there are no cars on the island. You take a ferry over, and from there it's all bikes, horses, and walking. We rented bikes and rode the 8.2-mile loop around the island! The girls were amazed at the crystal clear waters of Lakes Huron and Michigan. My favorite moment of the whole trip happened there. My 11-year-old granddaughter saw a mural of Lake Michigan on the side of a building and asked where it was. I told her it was Lake Michigan. She looked at me like I was making it up. "You don't have sandy beaches like that." Determined to defend our great state, I Googled it right there. Michigan has 3,200 miles of sandy beaches. Second most in the country, behind only Florida. Already wishing we could be back on the road with those two, having campfires, making s'mores, and playing games at the picnic table. I hope everyone has enjoyed some downtime this summer to recharge and be with family! We already received a nice thank you note from the girls asking “when will we do this next summer?” Pure joy.
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Ron Pereira best season of life!
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Rich Sheridan reacted on thisRich Sheridan reacted on thisFor so long, companies have promoted their highest-performing sales VP into the CRO role and expected magic. In 2026 that’s a high-risk gamble. Modern revenue leaders need general management range. They must understand data architectures, customer lifecycle economics, and change management just as deeply as they understand closing deals. This is a big part of what we explore in our new white paper with N2Growth, Chief Revenue Officer 2026 Trends: Hiring the Future of Growth. Together, we reviewed nearly 2,500 of the world’s leading companies, including the S&P 500 and Forbes Global 2000, as well as mid-cap, private, and fast-growing organizations. Our goal was to capture a clearer picture of where the CRO role exists today and how hiring is evolving. If you’re a board member or executive thinking about who should lead growth next, this study is worth a read. Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/ddZkswqZ
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Rich Sheridan reacted on thisRich Sheridan reacted on thisWe had another great DRiV certification class last week. Roles ranged from clergy to intelligence analysts, and people were from all over. Participants tuned in from Scotland to Texas to learn more about the DRiV. It’s exciting that more and more people are wanting to learn about what drives them and what drains them. I am passionate about it because it gives people the language and tools they need to make sense of their behavior. Now this group gets to take that back to the people they coach and lead. Good job, group. Go spread the word on what drives and drains us. Future certs with OKA (Otto Kroeger Associates) can be found here: https://lnkd.in/evdBdgjR Tim Bruton, PMP, RBLP-T Dr. Adriane Smalls-Owens, DSL, MBA, MHA,BS James Sedgwick Dr. Les Donaghy Andrea Meinema-Macklin
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Rich Sheridan liked thisRich Sheridan liked thisWhen I sat down with Wayne Zell on the Blueprint for Wealth podcast a few weeks back, we spent a lot of time on a number most business owners never look at: what turnover actually costs them. Here's the math. Studies show that the cost of turnover ranges from 50 -200% of an employee’s annual salary. When a key person walks out the door, you lose their institutional knowledge. Sales and customer satisfaction can decline because the relationships are lost. Quality suffers because of a lack of experience. Productivity slows. And of course, you must pay to replace the key employee: recruiting, onboarding, and the months it takes a new hire to reach full contribution. The question I keep asking owners and CEOs is simple: what would it take to keep the people you already have? In my experience, the answer is never just money. At AO, we know that winning companies build what we call Conscious Development Cultures. They build development into their missions and their business plans. They know that engaged employees are more productive and stay longer. And they know the research: 93% of employees say they would stay longer if employers invested in them. There's a distinction I make with every client: training builds technical skills, but development builds people. Training is vital, of course. Investing in true development (People Skills, Mind Skills and Technical Skills) is how you win over the long run. Companies that understand the difference between training and development, and fund both, command higher long-term value. (And are rewarding, fun places to work!) If you want the full conversation, the link to the podcast is in the comments.
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Rich Sheridan reacted on thisRich Sheridan reacted on thisGeorgetown University’s work on artificial intelligence is expanding on the Capitol Campus. The McCourt School’s Tech & Public Policy Center recently announced four visiting fellows whose work covers some of the most practical AI-governance questions facing institutions today: - Simon Case will focus on AI adoption in the public sector - Travis Moore will examine who staffs and supports technology policymaking - Mitchell Kominsky will explore AI regulation in the emerging agentic era - Kira Tebbe will focus on digital infrastructure and the public’s experience accessing government services What interests me about this group is the range of the questions they will be addressing. AI governance is not only about writing regulations. It’s also about whether the government has the people, institutional capacity, technical understanding, and operational systems required to use and oversee the technology effectively. The fellows will engage directly with Georgetown students through discussions, events, and student leadership teams. That practitioner access can help connect policy theory with the complicated reality of implementation. Georgetown’s location in Washington has always been an advantage. As AI moves deeper into government, national security, public services, and regulation, that advantage may become even more valuable. Which of these topics would you most want to explore with the fellows? https://lnkd.in/eFjhYWUmTech & Public Policy Center Names Global and National AI Governance Leaders as Fall 2026 Visiting Fellows | McCourt School of Public Policy | Georgetown UniversityTech & Public Policy Center Names Global and National AI Governance Leaders as Fall 2026 Visiting Fellows | McCourt School of Public Policy | Georgetown University
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Rich Sheridan liked thisRich Sheridan liked thisSummer may be winding down, but planning season is just getting started. In the latest issue of the CHRO Newsletter, I’m highlighting three questions that are top of mind for CHROs as we head into planning season and look ahead to 2027. Read the latest issue to learn more:
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Rich Sheridan reacted on thisRich Sheridan reacted on thisWith so much changing in the workplace, it is easy to focus on the tree directly in front of us and miss how the forest itself is changing. In my latest newsletter, I share a lesson from earlier in my career that I still think about today and three questions leaders should be asking as they prepare for what comes next.
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Rich Sheridan liked thisRich Sheridan liked thisWe are pleased to welcome Piedmont Wealth Partners to Rockefeller Capital Management. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, the team joins Rockefeller with a longstanding commitment to helping individuals and families navigate complex financial decisions through personalized advice and trusted relationships. Their addition strengthens our presence in an important growth market and expands our ability to serve clients across the region. https://lnkd.in/gMrNrRMi Gavin Shuck Paul Irving Brett Schmidt Ben Beeson Nichole McKeon
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Rich Sheridan reacted on thisRich Sheridan reacted on thisIt’s time to bring you our next Signals from the Edge. As always, it’s an exciting opportunity to explore some fascinating topics without definitive answers, which is part of the fun. This time, we’re looking at what we can learn from the way software engineers have approached the evolution of AI, and what that might mean for the human side of work. We’re also exploring the mortar between things, the knowledge, relationships and ways of working that hold organisations together. We’re particularly excited to have Jayney Howson contributing her perspective to the conversation. Very soon, we’ll be sitting down with Jayney to dive deeper into some of these ideas and hear more about her perspective from inside a technology business where AI is already such a fundamental part of how work happens. I’d love to hear your thoughts. https://lnkd.in/efvSR4iPdesigning work that's good for people and performance.designing work that's good for people and performance.
Publications
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Chief Joy Officer
Penguin Random House
See publicationRich Sheridan’s Joy, Inc. told the story of how his tiny software company in Ann Arbor, Michigan achieved success and renown by embracing offbeat culture and human-centered values. In Chief Joy Officer, he turns his attention from culture to leadership, and draws on his experience running Menlo and consulting elsewhere to offer a wise, provocative guide on how anyone can build leadership capacity for joy within their own organization.
Chief Joy Officer offers sage, hard-won advice to…Rich Sheridan’s Joy, Inc. told the story of how his tiny software company in Ann Arbor, Michigan achieved success and renown by embracing offbeat culture and human-centered values. In Chief Joy Officer, he turns his attention from culture to leadership, and draws on his experience running Menlo and consulting elsewhere to offer a wise, provocative guide on how anyone can build leadership capacity for joy within their own organization.
Chief Joy Officer offers sage, hard-won advice to any manager or leader who yearns to make more of an impact on the lives of others, including:
* Self-understanding is the cornerstone for every virtue of leadership: authenticity, trust, humility, and optimism.
* Good leaders make more leaders: Learn to judge your performance not on whether people are doing what they’re told, but whether they’re developing independent leadership capacity.
* Influencing up is just as important is influencing down: how to encourage different thinking in those above you in your organizations.
Filled with colorful anecdotes from Sheridan’s personal journey and wisdom from many leadership mentors, Chief Joy Officer offers an approachable, down-to-earth philosophy and practice that will help even the most disillusioned of middle managers bring a renewed sense of purpose to their work building others. -
Joy, Inc. - How We Built a Workplace People Love
Penguin Random House
See publicationIn 2013, over 2,400 people came from around the world to visit Menlo Innovations, a small software company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They made the trek not to learn about technology, but to witness a radically different approach to workplace culture— one intentionally designed to produce joy.
We removed the fear and ambiguity that typically make a workplace miserable. With joy as the explicit goal for Menlo’s staff, as well as their clients and the people who use the products they create…In 2013, over 2,400 people came from around the world to visit Menlo Innovations, a small software company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They made the trek not to learn about technology, but to witness a radically different approach to workplace culture— one intentionally designed to produce joy.
We removed the fear and ambiguity that typically make a workplace miserable. With joy as the explicit goal for Menlo’s staff, as well as their clients and the people who use the products they create, Sheridan and his team changed everything about how the company was run. Now he offers an inside look at a shared belief system that influences physical space, embraces making mistakes, and eliminates meetings—all while fostering dignity and respect for the team.
Joy, Inc. is for readers in any field who want tangible examples of a healthier, happier atmosphere at work—leading to the sustainable business results required for growth. -
Breaking Down Walls, Building Bridges, and Takin’ Out the Trash
InfoQ
See publicationA discussion of Agile workspaces, based on our experiences at Menlo Innovations.
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