To drive transformation in a large organization, leaders must create a cultural movement rather than issuing top-down mandates. This involves creating a bold vision, empowering a community of 'changemakers,' and developing 'artifacts of change' like awards and new metrics to reinforce behaviors.

To ensure genuine collaboration across funds, Centerbridge structures compensation so a "substantial minority" of an individual's pay comes from other areas of the firm. This economic incentive forces a firm-wide perspective and makes being "part of one team" a financial reality, not just a cultural slogan.

Focusing on individual performance metrics can be counterproductive. As seen in the "super chicken" experiment, top individual performers often succeed by suppressing others. This lowers team collaboration and harms long-term group output, which can be up to 160% more productive than a group of siloed high-achievers.

While bonuses tied to revenue incentivize employees to perform specific tasks, they are purely transactional. Granting stock options makes team members think holistically about the entire business's long-term health, from strategic opportunities to small cost savings, creating true psychological ownership.

To solve misalignment, the company cascaded OKRs from the CEO down. Critically, regional leaders were made 'champions' of key pillars like user acquisition. This gave them ownership and a direct voice in shaping product solutions, turning potentially adversarial relationships into collaborative partnerships.

To accelerate company-wide skill development, Shopify's CEO mandated that learning and utilizing AI become a formal component of employee performance evaluations. This top-down directive ensured rapid, broad adoption and transformed the company's culture to be 'AI forward,' giving them a competitive edge.

Satya Nadella states that Microsoft's core philosophy for platforms like Azure and GitHub is that they are only successful if the ecosystem partners building on top of them capture more economic value than Microsoft does. This partner-first approach is central to their strategy.

Structuring compensation around a single, firm-wide P&L, rather than individual deal performance, eliminates internal competition. It forces a culture of true collaboration, as everyone's success is tied together. The system is maintained as a meritocracy by removing underperformers from the 'boat.'

Solely measuring a team's output fails to capture the health of their collaboration. A more robust assessment includes tracking goal achievement, team psychological safety, role clarity, and the speed of execution. This provides a holistic view of team effectiveness.