Let’s be honest, most CHRO groups out there are bad. They are expensive, filled with vendor pitches, and loaded with “fluff” resources that are outdated by the time they are published. That’s why I put together Future of Work Leaders. A CHRO group for people leaders who are moving beyond traditional HR to focus on the future of work and employee experience. No pitches, no selling, no fluff.
The community is focused on discussions, candid Q&A sessions, and sharing of resources and insights. Members include Lego, Novartis, PwC, Saks Global, and dozens of others. I’m just in the process of planning our annual in-person forum which will be at the end of March. if you want to learn more and request an invite go to Future of Work Leaders or email me directly Jacob[at]thefutureorganization[dot]com.
People leaders today struggle to satisfy the overwhelming demand for workplace flexibility while upholding the non-negotiable need for sharp execution and high performance. Many companies have discovered that simply allowing remote work without re-architecting their operating model leads to ambiguity, diluted responsibility, and a creeping fear of proximity bias.
In this episode, Coinbase’s Chief People Officer, LJ Brock, revealed a more sophisticated approach. Their success with a remote-first model isn’t a story about a fixed playbook but one of relentless experimentation and fine tuning of culture.
Evolving Culture and Cadence
Coinbase has evolved its culture from “fully remote and rarely getting together” to a more structured, execution-focused cadence, constantly adapting to meet the moment. The result is not just a work-from-home policy, but a powerful operating system built on radical accountability—one that allows them to attract top global talent while maintaining razor-sharp execution.
Brock details three distinct phases of their remote journey:
- Fully remote and rarely getting together.
- Getting together for social connection or workshops.
- The current phase: Getting together primarily to get work done (execution) once per quarter.
This latest shift is intended to help them “execute at an even faster rate with even greater precision” in a competitive market.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
Accountability through the DRI Model
At the heart of Coinbase’s operating model is a non-negotiable principle: the Directly Responsible Individual, or DRI. For any project, initiative, or decision, there is a single DRI—one person who is the ultimate point of accountability. This is a foundational rule enforced from the top down.
In a remote-first environment, this clarity is a superpower. By avoiding the trap of leading by consensus—which Brock observes often dilutes results into ‘watered-down solutions’ —Coinbase relies on single points of accountability to keep decision-making sharp and fast. Having a DRI allows the company to avoid the “never ending loop” of seeking group approval.
This system makes performance reviews much easier. Because every project has one clear owner (the DRI), it’s obvious who is responsible for the results. This gives managers objective data to use in reviews, which helps ensure people are promoted for their actual work rather than just getting “face time” in an office.
Build Decision-Making Frameworks, Not Bureaucracy
To prevent the DRI from becoming a siloed dictator, Coinbase equips its teams with simple, powerful frameworks. These tools allow the team to give feedback asynchronously, ensuring the owner hears different perspectives without the “never-ending loop” of trying to make everyone agree.
The first tool encouraged for the whole company, not just executives, is the “Problem Proposed Solution” framework. Any employee can create a simple Google Doc identifying a problem and proposing a solution. This document is then shared with relevant parties who can contribute their thoughts on their own time. As Brock describes, this allows teams to “asynchronously move things…to like the one yard line” without a single meeting, fostering a culture of proactive problem-solving.
For high-stakes choices, Coinbase uses the ‘RAPID’ framework to draw a clear line between those providing input and the DRI who ultimately makes the call. While this ensures diverse perspectives are heard, it also prevents those perspectives from turning into a veto.
To keep this speed from feeling like rigidity, they have evolved the process to include ‘revisit conditions’—defining upfront exactly what data or market shifts would trigger a new discussion. This addition creates a ‘best of both worlds’ scenario: it stops the immediate second-guessing that slows companies down, but guarantees the flexibility needed in a dynamic industry like crypto.
If you’re involved with or leading employee experience initiatives at your company and you’re not a CHRO, then check out Employee Experience Leaders. When I created my CHRO group I received over 1,500 from non-CHROs who wanted to join an EX community, so I decided to create one. It’s launching in March ONLY for 150. You’ll get access to monthly Q&A sessions with CHROs, officer hours with me, a monthly EX newsletter, and online community, and more to come!
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start building with a true peer group, we’d love to have you at Employee Experience Leaders.
Make Performance Management the Ultimate Source of Truth
The antidote to proximity bias is an objective and rigorous performance management system. At Coinbase, this system has been continuously tuned to support their remote-first model. When they first went remote, they conducted performance reviews four times a year to maintain a tight feedback loop. As they gained confidence in their operating rhythm, they have since “dialed it back” to twice a year, demonstrating their iterative approach.
Each cycle meticulously calibrates performance with a dual focus on:
- The “What”: The measurable output and results an employee delivered—made clear and defensible by the DRI model.
- The “How”: The employee’s adherence to Coinbase’s values and culture tenets. At Coinbase, one cannot advance simply through great output; they must also be a “culture carrier”.
By grounding promotions and opportunities in measured contribution, the system ensures that impact, not physical location, dictates career progression. This data-driven process is the cornerstone of their promise that an employee in Raleigh, North Carolina has the same opportunity for advancement as one in New York City.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
Treat Leaders as Remote-First, Too
For any remote-first culture to be truly equitable, leadership behavior is the ultimate guarantee. Coinbase deliberately neutralizes the political capital of physical presence by ensuring its leadership is as distributed as its teams. The executive team is not anchored to a physical office, a strategic choice that prevents the formation of an “in-person” inner circle that would disadvantage remote employees.
This leadership model is the cultural linchpin that makes the entire system credible. If senior leaders aren’t consistently in the office, there is no “face time” advantage to be gained. This ensures career progression is tied to the objective measures laid out in the performance system, not to in-office politics. As Brock states, the model’s integrity hinges on this principle:
“I do believe, personally, the end of a remote first culture is the moment that you know you can’t have the same trajectory as somebody who is in person… And we haven’t seen that.”
When leaders live the remote-first ethos, they prove that contribution is valued over co-location, ensuring everyone operates on a level playing field.
Engineering a Culture of Accountability
Coinbase’s remote-first success proves that a high-performance culture is never a finished product; it is a continuously calibrated operating system. By anchoring their work in unwavering accountability—using tools like DRIs and asynchronous frameworks—they have decoupled productivity from the physical office.
As AI shifts the corporate landscape toward measurable output, the traditional reliance on “observable hours” is becoming a liability. The real challenge for leaders today is building an adaptive culture that can tune itself to meet the next market shift without losing its center of gravity.
To hear LJ Brock break down how Coinbase manages high performance at scale, listen to the full episode of Future Ready Leadership below.
