About
I’m James A. Seechurn — writer, speaker, and advisor. I help companies build the conditions where that kind of work is ordinary, and step away from the controls that get in its way.
Helping startups build from first principles and established companies move from control to trust.
Writing. Weekly essays on pay, performance, and the systems that shape how people work.
Speaking. Talks on building organisations people don’t want to leave.
Most management systems were built to control people. They lean on ratings, forced curves, cascaded goals, and individual incentives, all resting on the idea that without pressure people will coast. The evidence on motivation has pointed the other way for decades. I help companies act on what it shows: give people autonomy, real challenges, and a good team, and they produce better work than any control system can squeeze out of them.
Advisory
Three books on how pay and performance shape behaviour, and how to build systems that help rather than hinder.
CONVERSATIONS
Disengaged is my podcast, where I talk with people building organizations on trust and with thinkers whose work has shaped the field.
Disengaged Podcast
Disengaged asks why most people feel detached from the work they do, and what it would take to change that.
Jessie Schofer
Gerry Murphy
Paul Reiman