Work Isn’t Functional Anymore. Why Are You?
Why AI, ambiguity, and outcomes demand a new kind of operator
“What team are you on?”
“Who do you report to?”
“What’s your function?”
We love clean answers. We crave them, especially in business, where clarity seems like the antidote to chaos. But here’s the thing: work isn’t clean anymore (honestly, has it ever really been?) Teams no longer form along neat departmental lines. The problems we’re solving are too complex. The tools we’re using, especially AI, are dissolving the very idea of static roles. So what kind of leader thrives in this new terrain?
Let me start with the honest answer I give when people ask what I do: I’m an operator.
From Founder to Flatland
Before I worked in tech, I ran my own business. When you're a founder, you don’t ask "whose job is this?" You ask "what needs to get done?"
That mindset only deepened during my nearly eight years at Palantir, an organization that prided itself on being flat, fast-moving, and allergic to bureaucracy. Titles were irrelevant. Value was measured in outcomes, not ownership. Every project was 0 to 1, every team cross-functional by default. Success depended on one thing: can you see the system and move the ball forward?
Since then, I’ve led People teams at Zipline and Merlin Labs. But I’ve never seen myself as “just” a People leader. My work has never been about policy or programs for their own sake. It’s about enabling high performance, solving complex problems, and building the systems that make better outcomes possible.
The Real Divide: Function vs. Outcome
Here’s the distinction that often gets missed:
A People leader focuses on engagement scores, performance calibration, and building best-in-class HR systems.
A business leader starts with a different question: What are the company’s priorities right now, and how do we align every lever—including people—to make those real?
This isn’t just about language. It shapes how you set goals, make trade-offs, allocate budget, and define success.
Too often, People leaders operate in a silo. They optimize systems that aren’t connected to the business strategy. They chase “best practices” without asking, best for what? Best for whom?
Meanwhile, the business is moving. It’s launching, pivoting, struggling, scaling. And it needs strategic operators who can build in context, not in theory.
Enter AI and the End of the Org Chart as We Know It
As if that weren’t enough, AI is now fundamentally altering the structure of work itself.
In Microsoft’s recent Work Trend Index, researchers introduced a concept that should stop every leader in their tracks: the “work chart.” This represents a shift away from static org charts and toward dynamic, goal-based team formation. These teams are supported by AI agents that expand what individuals and small groups can achieve.
The key ideas?
AI increasingly handles tasks instead of roles
Teams form around outcomes instead of functions
Leaders must decide what should be handled by agents and what requires human judgment
The new measure of value isn’t expertise. It’s effectiveness.
The result is a Hollywood-style model, where the best people—and best agents—come together for a specific goal, then disband. In that world, no one cares about your title. They care about what you can deliver.
We Need More Operators
This is why I believe the most urgent leadership shift isn’t technical. It’s about identity. We don’t need more functional specialists. We need more operators.
Operators are leaders who:
Think in systems, not silos
Speak the language of finance, product, and customers
Make decisions grounded in context rather than default templates
Thrive in ambiguity, urgency, and high-stakes environments
Navigate between people-centered nuance and machine-powered scale
And perhaps most importantly, operators understand that org charts are just maps. Real work happens in the interactions between people, agents, and goals. Leadership is about building the connective tissue that allows all of that to function.
Final Thought
I’ve held a variety of leadership roles and I’ve always identified as a business and outcome leader. I’m an operator. In a world where AI is reshaping roles, ambiguity is increasing, and the pace of change is accelerating, that identity is not just useful. It’s essential. The future of work is not functional. It’s fluid. And the best way to lead in that world is to operate.
