I had made it a habit to drop in on meetings to learn as much as I could about the organization. In one such meeting I was told, quite directly, they were discussing how to avoid giving me raw data without first thoroughly reviewing it and deciding on the "narrative." That moment was a wake-up call. I realized I had underestimated not only the scale of change management required, but also my own learning curve in leading such a transformation.
As a new kind of dealmaking is sweeping Silicon Valley, forcing employees to be vigilant about how much trust they are willing to put in startup founders.