Why the most expensive person in your organisation isn't the CEO
Harvard data proves your high-performers might be bankrupting you. This is the business case for being human — and the 90-day pilot to prove it works.
What if I told you that avoiding a toxic hire is worth 2.3x more than finding a superstar?
That psychological safety creates a 36% revenue swing? That your "brilliant jerks" are costing you $12,489 each, every year, in people they drive away?
These aren't soft HR initiatives. These are hard commercial strategies. And the data is irrefutable.
The evidence
The paradox
Toxic workers are often more productive than average. That's the trap.
On a standard performance dashboard, they look like your best investment. They close deals, ship code, hit targets. But they're a negative-carry asset — their individual gains are offset by the teammates they drive away.
The question isn't "Who are our top performers?"
The question is: "Who's driving our best people to quit?"
The three pillars
Hire for attitude, train for skill
Get the right people with the right attitude and they can learn anything. Get the wrong people with the right skills and they'll erode the commercial success you built.
Listen radically
Understand what your people need. Replay it back so you're convinced you understand what must be done. Then do whatever you can — intelligently — to give them the environment to thrive.
Empower the frontline
Give them the tools, the budget, and the permission to solve problems without asking. Ritz-Carlton gives every employee $2,000 per guest. Their turnover dropped from 51% to 23%.
Build your manifesto of permissions
The first step to cultural change is making it official. Customise this manifesto, download it, sign it, and put it on the wall. This is how you signal that the rules have changed.
A manifesto of permissions
To: All Colleagues
From: Leadership
Date:
For too long, we have operated on a default setting of "wait for permission." This slows us down, stifles your creativity, and erodes our commercial edge.
Effective immediately, we are flipping the default. As a member of this team, you officially have:
Signed,
_____________________
The Leadership Team
Customise your manifesto
Print it. Sign it. Put it on the wall.
Tool 2: The Safety Thermometer
Safety is invisible until it's gone. Use these three questions as a pulse check for your team.
Check your temperature
Select answers to see your safety score.
Tool 3: The Smoke Detector
Identify the "brilliant jerks" before they burn down your culture. Answer these for a specific high-performer.
Do they say "I" or "We" when things go well?
When others make a mistake, do they help or blame?
Do you feel drained or energised after meeting them?
Do they do work that doesn't get them credit?
If you were starting a new company, would you hire them?
The 90-day pilot
We don't ask you to transform the whole business. We ask you to run an experiment.
Take one team. Apply The Greenhouse. Document the results. Let them prove what's possible.
Tool 5: The New World Dictionary
Language shapes reality. Stop using factory terms for creative work.
We cultivate talent, we don't extract it like coal.
Your job is to remove obstacles, not issue commands.
The only skills AI cannot replicate.
Don't judge the past. Align the future.
The price we pay for learning something new.
Ready to run The Greenhouse?
Let's find your most expensive person — and turn them into your best investment.
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