Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

Synopsis

"Why are Google employees so happy?" Laszlo Bock, Google's innovative Senior Vice President of People Operations, offers his best answers to this and more puzzling questions in his book Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead.

Bock shares valuable insights and experiences from 15 years as a leader of Google's strategy to attract, develop and retain the world's top talent.

He credits Google's distinctive management philosophies and its unique approaches to people, culture, talent and leadership as the reason why Google is recognized as the most sought-after place to work on the planet.

Top 20 insights

1. All that's needed to replicate Google's people success in your own workplace is the belief that people are fundamentally good, and a commitment to create a culture of "high-freedom," which values liberty, authority and ownership. "If you believe people are good, they should be free," Bock says. This belief will profoundly impact how you treat employees, the freedom and empowerment you give them in the business and the resulting happiness they will feel about their work.
2. Everyone wants to feel like what they do matters, so help your employees see the meaning in their work. Show them how it contributes to a greater good or benefits others. Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google knows it will never achieve its aspirational mission because there will always be more information to organize and more ways to make it useful. That is what inspires Googlers to constantly innovate and push beyond anything they can imagine right now. If you think of yourself as a founder with a mission that matters, so will your employees.
3. Trust your employees to behave like a founder and create an ethos of ownership in the team. Ask what frustrates them in their work and let them fix it. Be transparent and give them a voice to help shape the team or organization. You will feel vulnerable when you give away some authority to employees, but that is exactly what must happen for genuine trust to grow. If you have to pull back authority in the future, Bock suggests you tell employees each change is a test for a few months. If deemed effective, the change will remain.
4. Give people slightly more trust, freedom and authority than you give them now. If you are not nervous, you have not given them enough. Bock says that if you let people be free, they will absolutely amaze you.
5. Be transparent and share information. Openness shows employees you think they are trustworthy and have good judgment. Give them deeper context about the business along with details about why things are the way they are. This will motivate employees to do their jobs better and contribute in ways a top-down manager could never envision.
6. The existence of a huge corporate training budget is not a bragging point about an investment in your people, but the evidence that you failed to hire the right people in the first place. Invest your HR dollars to recruit first and the return will be better than any training program you could develop.
7. Slow down and invest time upfront to hire the best people. "Hire by committee, set objective standards in advance, never compromise, and periodically check if your new hires are better than your old ones," advises Bock. "The proof that you have hired well is that nine out of 10 new hires are better than you are. If they are not, stop hiring until you find better people."
8. Learn as much as possible from your top performers. Data shows they find it easier to get work done, they feel valued, believed their work is meaningful and they leave the company at one-fifth the rate that lowest performers do. Find out what they do best and then build programs to measure and reinforce the best attributes for the entire company.
9. Build an environment of deliberate learning and let employees be your faculty. Bock believes most corporate training is a waste of time and money because it is often ill-targeted to the audience, delivered by the wrong people and does not measure what employees actually learned or how their behavior changed as a result. Instead, empower your people to teach one another new skills in their respective areas of expertise. Ideally, the person with maximum expertise in each topic area delivers the training.
10. If you help those who struggle most to improve substantially, then you have created a cycle of continuous improvement. Google has observed that when someone helps a struggling employee, that person's performance improves to an average level.
11. Employees, managers and HR departments alike dread the performance management process. It is bureaucratic, administrative, critical and carries professional and economic consequences for people. That is why Google and other companies including Adobe, Expedia, Kelly Services and Microsoft have eliminated performance reviews altogether. If you want your people to grow, have separate discussions about their development and performance.
12. Make developmental discussions with your employees safe, productive and consistent. Always approach development discussions with a positive spirit and goal to help the employee be more successful. Otherwise, defenses go up and learning shuts down. If you make development discussions a normal part of everyday business, there will be no surprises at the year-end performance review discussion, which should focus on outcomes and rewards.
13. Your company has two tails that represent employees at both extremes of the performance distribution. The top tail represents the top 5% of employees in the company and the bottom tail represents the bottom 5%. Most employees are classified as average employees in the middle of the organization. The tails are where your greatest opportunity to improve lives.
14. Many companies get rid of their bottom 5% of employees, but not Google. Instead, it chooses an approach "compassionate pragmatism," tells the employee they are part of that group and then takes action to help improve and grow. Google has found that such "interventions" improve teams because people will either improve their performance dramatically or go somewhere else where they can be successful.
15. In a veiled attempt to be "fair," most companies design compensation systems that encourage the best performers and those with the highest potential to quit. The problem is that it's possible for an employee's contribution to grow faster than their compensation, and today's internal pay systems don't move quickly enough or offer enough flexibility to pay the best people what they are worth. As a result, people are underpaid relative to their contributions early in their careers and overpaid later in their careers. At Google, fairness in pay does not mean everyone at the same job level is paid the same or within 20% of one another. Google pays "unfairly" compared to most companies because it believes your best people are better than you think and worth more than you pay them.
16. You can implement many perks and benefits Google offers, but this doesn't mean you have to spend a fortune on them. In fact, much of what Google offers is free or carries a negligible cost. Google is frugally generous with employees because it wants to improve their quality of life, save them time, make things more convenient and efficient and simply delight and refresh the people who create and share in Google's success.
17. The best things in life really are free, so remember that the best "perk" you can offer employees is to be there when they need you most. They will trust you and never forget your empathy, kindness and support.
18. Use nudges to influence the choice, not mandate it. Nudges are intended to change poorly planned current conditions that result in less health, wealth and happiness for employees. With transparency at the heart of Google's culture, nudges do not need to be secret. They just need to be timely, relevant and simple to put into action. Due to their data-driven nature, Googlers often nudge one another at moments of decision and use research, academic citations and results from internal studies to make the decision.
19. Reject entitlement. People quickly get used to what is offered, and it becomes a baseline expectation rather than something positive and delightful. One way to address this is to be unafraid to change benefits once the original reason for them disappears.
20. Manage expectations. To build a great culture and environment, ensure constant learning and renewal. It is not a one-time effort and you will have critics. Experiment with one idea from Work Rules! or a dozen, learn from the experiment, tweak the initiative, and try again.

Summary

Work Rules! is a detailed playbook for leaders who strive to emulate Google's people success in their own teams and organizations. This manifesto of simple truths offers transformative guidance to leaders who want to improve teams from the inside out instead of top down. That will not happen by institutionalizing some complex quality or productivity improvement methodology such as Six Sigma or Total Quality Management. This is about human beings and how we treat one another. Everything that has made Google wildly successful in the past 22 years is rooted in the fundamental belief that people are good and can be trusted. This is what has enabled Google to design a workplace where Googlers feel free, fulfilled, happy and able to efficiently manage both their personal and work lives. It doesn't get any more complicated than that.

Questions and answers

What three people-related management innovations at Google do you consider to be most innovative? Why?

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Three people-related management innovations at Google that are considered most innovative are:

1. Open Culture: Google promotes an open culture where employees are encouraged to voice their ideas and opinions. This fosters creativity and innovation, and makes employees feel valued and involved in the company's success.

2. Work-Life Balance: Google has always prioritized the work-life balance of its employees. They offer flexible work hours, telecommuting options, and various on-site amenities like gyms and cafes. This not only increases employee satisfaction but also productivity.

3. Employee Empowerment: Google trusts its employees and gives them the freedom to work on projects they are passionate about. This empowerment leads to high job satisfaction and innovative solutions.

These innovations are significant because they focus on the human aspect of the organization, recognizing that happy, satisfied employees are key to a company's success.

What are some ways that Google's approach to people management has been revolutionary?

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Google's approach to people management has been revolutionary in several ways. Firstly, it is rooted in the fundamental belief that people are good and can be trusted. This has enabled Google to design a workplace where employees feel free, fulfilled, and happy. They are able to efficiently manage both their personal and work lives. Secondly, Google's approach is about improving teams from the inside out, not top down. It does not rely on complex quality or productivity improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma or Total Quality Management. Instead, it focuses on how human beings treat one another.

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Getting it right out of the gate

Larry Page and Sergey Brin knew exactly the kind of company they wanted to create when they started Google 22 years ago. The founders have always been humble and generous people who believe that the value and success Google and its employees create together should be shared fairly. Yes, it is true, you can earn or be awarded large sums of money at Google.

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How to develop your operation skills?

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To develop your operational skills, you can follow several steps:

First, understand the basics of operations management. This includes knowledge of supply chain management, quality control, and production planning.

Second, gain practical experience. This can be achieved by working in an operational role or by undertaking internships or work placements.

Third, consider further education. Courses in business administration or operations management can provide valuable insights.

Fourth, learn from industry leaders. For example, Google's approach to operations, as described in Laszlo Bock's book, can provide valuable insights.

Finally, continuously seek to improve. The field of operations is constantly evolving, so it's important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and developments.

Show your skills to everyone

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To showcase your skills to everyone, you need to take a proactive approach.

Firstly, understand your unique skills and how they can add value to your team or organization.

Secondly, communicate your achievements and contributions effectively. Don't shy away from sharing your successes with your team or superiors.

Thirdly, seek opportunities to demonstrate your skills. This could be through volunteering for challenging projects, presenting at meetings, or taking on leadership roles.

Lastly, continue to improve and expand your skill set. Lifelong learning is key to staying relevant and competitive in the business world.

Remember, it's not about showing off, but about demonstrating your value and potential.

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Page and Brin's founding philosophies have stood the test of time as Google has grown to 50,000 strong in 70 countries. During Bock's 15-year tenure, Google was named the number one employer more than a hundred times in the U.S. and 16 other countries, the top diversity employer, the best company for women in technology and honored with a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign.

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What are some of the key factors that have contributed to Google's success in the tech industry?

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Some key factors that have contributed to Google's success in the tech industry include its strong founding philosophies, its growth to a large global workforce, its reputation as a top employer, its commitment to diversity, and its recognition for being a great company for women in technology and for its human rights practices.

How has Google's approach to people operations impacted its global expansion?

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Google's approach to people operations has significantly impacted its global expansion. The company's founding philosophies have allowed it to grow to 50,000 employees in 70 countries. During Bock's 15-year tenure, Google was named the number one employer more than a hundred times in the U.S. and 16 other countries, the top diversity employer, the best company for women in technology and honored with a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign. These recognitions reflect Google's commitment to its employees, diversity, and inclusion, which have been key factors in its successful global expansion.

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Bock admits Google has made plenty of mistakes along the way, but that its failures and lessons learned have helped it grow even stronger as a fair, just and happy culture. Bock is convinced that any team can be built around the very same principles Google has used and offers actionable advice so leaders can do just that. He cites impactful data, industry examples and research discoveries about human nature as he nutshells the valuable lessons that continue to shape Google's culture.

Questions and answers

How are the themes of "Work Rules!" relevant to contemporary issues and debates in corporate culture and leadership?

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The themes of "Work Rules!" are highly relevant to contemporary issues and debates in corporate culture and leadership. The book provides insights into Google's people-centric approach, emphasizing the importance of a fair, just, and happy culture. It highlights the significance of learning from failures and using those lessons to strengthen the organization. These themes resonate with current discussions about the role of leadership in fostering a positive work environment, the need for continuous learning and adaptation, and the value of data-driven decision making. The book also offers actionable advice for leaders, making it a practical guide for navigating modern corporate challenges.

How do the theories presented in 'Work Rules!' challenge existing paradigms or practices in the field of People Operations?

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The theories presented in 'Work Rules!' challenge existing paradigms in People Operations by advocating for a more data-driven, human-centric approach. The book suggests that traditional hierarchical structures and rigid policies may not be the most effective way to manage people. Instead, it promotes a culture of transparency, freedom, and trust, where employees are treated as capable individuals who can be trusted to make the right decisions. It also emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and improvement, both at an individual and organizational level.

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Hire the best talent upfront

If you are committed to transforming your team, hiring better is the single best way to do it, according to Bock. Google's greatest growth constraint through the years has consistently been the ability to find great people. Google front-loads its people investment and spends most of its time attracting, assessing and cultivating new hires. Google invests more than twice in recruiting, as a percentage of its people budget, than the average company spends. Bock knows from experience how difficult it is to take an average performer and through training make them a star. Yet the massive training budgets of most companies are evidence that Bock's belief is not widely shared.

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Are there examples of companies that have successfully implemented the hiring practices outlined in Work Rules!?

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Yes, there are several companies that have successfully implemented the hiring practices outlined in "Work Rules!". Google is a prime example, as the book is written by Laszlo Bock, Google’s Senior Vice President of People Operations. He shares insights and experiences from his time at Google, outlining their hiring strategy. Other companies, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, have also implemented similar hiring practices, focusing on hiring the best talent upfront to ensure success.

What are some of the most innovative or surprising ideas presented in Work Rules!

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Some of the most innovative ideas presented in "Work Rules!" include the concept of hiring more slowly to ensure the best people are selected who will be successful in the context of Google's business and inspire success in those around them. This approach reduces the need for extensive training and allows for the reallocation of training resources to support hiring. Another innovative idea is the emphasis on creating a culture of transparency and trust, where employees feel valued and are encouraged to take risks.

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Google hires more slowly to find the best people up front who will be successful in the context of Google's business and inspire success in those around them. The way Bock sees it, if you get the best up front, there is less work you need to do with them when they hire in. Plus, you can reallocate all those training dollars to support hiring.

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Can you analyze the case of Google's hiring process as presented in Laszlo Bock's book and its broader implications?

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Google's hiring process, as presented in Laszlo Bock's book, is unique and strategic. It takes about six weeks, which is longer than the traditional hiring process. This is because Google prioritizes quality over speed. They are willing to take the time to ensure they hire the right candidate for the job. This approach reduces the error rate and improves the experience for candidates and Googlers. The broader implication of this approach is that it emphasizes the importance of hiring the right people for the job. It suggests that companies should invest time and resources in their hiring process to ensure they get the best fit for their organization.

How can a small business use the insights from Laszlo Bock's book to improve their hiring process?

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Small businesses can use insights from Laszlo Bock's book to improve their hiring process in several ways. First, they can take more time in the hiring process to ensure they find the right candidate, as Google does. This might mean extending the hiring process beyond the traditional week or two. Second, they can strive to balance speed, error rate, and experience for candidates, as Google does. This might involve occasionally expediting the process for candidates with offers from other companies. Lastly, they can learn from Google's innovative approach to People Operations, which includes valuing employee happiness and productivity.

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Bock acknowledges that Google could certainly hire people in the traditional week or two instead of the six weeks it takes to hire into Google. He confirms the company can certainly move faster when needed, and occasionally must expedite the process for candidates with offers from other companies that will expire if the candidate does not respond quickly. Google is constantly working to balance its speed, error rate and experience for candidates and Googlers.

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What are the actionable takeaways from "Work Rules!" for HR managers and entrepreneurs?

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1. Prioritize quality in hiring: Google's hiring process is designed to ensure quality is not compromised. HR managers and entrepreneurs can adopt a similar approach, focusing on quality over speed.

2. Make hiring a collective responsibility: At Google, hiring is considered everyone's job. This approach can be adopted by other organizations to ensure diverse perspectives in the hiring process.

3. Use data to inform decisions: Google uses research and experimentation to improve its hiring process. HR managers and entrepreneurs can also use data to make informed decisions.

4. Minimize bias in hiring: Google's hiring process is designed to be fair and free of bias. This is another key takeaway for HR managers and entrepreneurs.

How does the hiring process described in "Work Rules!" challenge traditional hiring practices?

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The hiring process described in "Work Rules!" challenges traditional hiring practices in several ways. Firstly, Google's hiring process is a collective effort, not just the responsibility of a single interviewer or hiring manager. This approach reduces bias and ensures a more comprehensive evaluation of candidates. Secondly, Google's hiring process is designed to maintain a high bar for quality, rather than focusing on speed or efficiency. This means they prioritize finding overlooked talent over quick hires. Lastly, Google's hiring process is based on research and experimentation, which allows them to continually refine and improve their methods.

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• Google has done years of research and experimentation to hire more efficiently. For example, it has done one-day recruiting events on college campuses in the U.S. and India to see if its offer acceptance rates improved. The company found that the accelerated speed didn't materially improve the candidate's hiring experience or acceptance rates, so it remains focused on finding ways to hire people they might overlook rather than move faster.
• Google's hiring process consists of six parts designed to ensure that the bar for quality is not compromised and that hiring decisions are fair and free of bias. In the early days, the founders hired by committee and often interviewed candidates together while sitting around a ping-pong table, which doubled as their only conference room table. From the beginning, Page and Brin considered hiring to be everyone's job because no individual interviewer will get it right every time, an instinct Google formalized in its 2007 "wisdom of crowds" study.
• Google's hiring bench still runs deep as teams, not individual managers, hire new employees. The company follows the science of hiring and combines behavioral and situational structured interviews with specific assessments of every candidate's cognitive ability, conscientiousness and leadership.

The major benefit to hiring the best people up front is this: In most organizations, you join and then must prove yourself. At Google, there is such confidence in the hiring process that new people join and on their first day they are trusted and full members of their teams.

It is easy to tell a team what to do and then make sure they deliver. But it is exponentially harder to build a high-freedom work environment because everything about today's traditional management power dynamic pulls against freedom. This is a significant root cause of the unhappiness and disengagement in today's workforce. Unfortunately, many organizations are low-freedom workplaces, hard-wired to mistrust and operate with a command-and-control management philosophy. Both high- and low-freedom companies can operate profitably, but the most talented people crave high freedom environments and will gravitate to the companies where they can do meaningful work and help shape the future of their company.

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Default to open and operate transparently

The way to balance individual freedom with overall direction is to be transparent. Employees need to understand the rationales behind each action that could be perceived as a slippery slope that collides with the company's values. The more central your values are to your culture and how you operate, the more you need to explain to employees.

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How might a company in a traditional sector like manufacturing apply the innovative approaches discussed in "Work Rules!" to improve employee performance?

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A traditional manufacturing company can apply the innovative approaches discussed in "Work Rules!" in several ways. Firstly, they can foster transparency within the organization. This can improve both individual and company performance. Secondly, they can focus on improving the performance of struggling employees. As seen in the example of Google, helping a struggling employee can significantly improve their performance, which in turn benefits the company. Lastly, they can aim to make even their worst performers better than the competition. This can create a high-performance culture within the organization.

How can the ideas presented in "Work Rules!" be implemented in real-world scenarios to improve employee performance?

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The ideas presented in "Work Rules!" can be implemented in real-world scenarios to improve employee performance in several ways. Firstly, transparency can be increased within the organization. This can improve both individual and company performance. Secondly, helping struggling employees can significantly improve their performance. For instance, if an employee is among the worst performers, interventions can help them improve to average levels. This not only benefits the individual employee but also the overall performance of the company. Lastly, the company can aim to improve the performance of all employees, not just the worst performers. This can create a competitive advantage as even the bottom performers would be better than the competition.

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Bock has seen transparency improve both individual and company performance at Google. He says that helping a struggling employee typically improves that person's performance to average levels. It may not sound like much but think of it this way: out of a group of a 100 people, Jim was one of the five worst performers. After intervention, Jim became the fiftieth-best performer. Not a model employee, but Jim was now better than 49 others, where previously he was only better than four. Imagine the possibilities if you could get all the company's worst performers to improve as much as Jim did. Better yet, what if the bottom 49 were still better than the competition?

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How can a small business benefit from the dogfooding technique as covered in Work Rules!?

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Small businesses can benefit from the "dogfooding" technique by using their own products or services in real-world scenarios before releasing them to the market. This allows them to identify and fix any issues or shortcomings, thereby improving the quality of the product or service. It also helps the business to better understand the customer's perspective, which can lead to improvements in customer service and satisfaction.

How does the dogfooding technique challenge existing practices in product development?

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The "dogfooding" technique challenges existing practices in product development by encouraging companies to use their own products in real-world scenarios before releasing them to the market. This approach allows for practical, firsthand feedback and the opportunity to refine and improve the product based on actual user experience. It challenges the traditional model of product development where products are often developed in isolation and then tested in controlled environments, which may not accurately represent the conditions in which the product will be used.

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The transparency of Google's culture also provides a natural avenue to improve the company's performance. Google uses a powerful technique commonly used by technology firms called "dogfooding," where Googlers are the first real users to try new products (such as Google Glass and self-driving cars) to provide open feedback on practical daily use so teams can refine the products further before going to market. The term "dogfooding" originates with the makers of Kal Kan pet foods, who literally used to eat their own dog food.

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What are some of the most innovative or surprising ideas presented in Work Rules?

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Some of the most innovative ideas presented in "Work Rules!" include the concept of radical transparency, where even sensitive information is shared openly within the company. This approach helps to reduce internal conflict and politicking. Another surprising idea is the practice of involving the person being discussed in an email thread, which encourages direct communication and quick resolution of issues.

How does the concept of transparency in 'Work Rules!' challenge existing practices in human resource management?

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The concept of transparency in 'Work Rules!' challenges existing practices in human resource management by promoting open communication and reducing conflict and politicking. Traditional HR practices often involve closed-door discussions and decisions made behind the scenes. However, in 'Work Rules!', transparency is encouraged, even to the point of including the subject of a complaint in the email thread. This approach forces quick resolution of issues and reduces the chances of internal rivalry and backstabbing. It's a significant shift from conventional HR practices, promoting a more open and honest work environment.

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Transparency also helps with the softer side of things by curbing conflict, internal rivalry, politicking and "backstabbing." If you write a nasty email about someone at Google, you should not be surprised to see that person added to the email thread. Bock recalls the first time he ever complained about someone in an email and his manager promptly copied that person, forcing them to resolve the issue quickly.

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Google is open about its deep skepticism of management. Not managers per se, but it is "profoundly suspicious of power, and the way managers have historically abused it. Google has found the sweet spot between every manager's susceptibility to the conveniences and small thrills of power and employees' inherent conditioning to create their own hierarchies, yield to authority or defer to a superior.

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If you want a non-hierarchical environment, you need physical reminders of the company's values. Google wants its people to behave like owners in a non-hierarchical workplace, rather than employees, so it eliminates signifiers and symbols of hierarchy. For instance, the most senior executives receive the same benefits as its newest hires.

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Google deliberately levels the playing field between managers and employees in many ways. Unlike most companies, Google has no executive dining rooms, parking spots or pensions, and it makes compensation programs available to all employees, not just senior executives.

Google also takes away the proverbial sticks and carrots that managers typically dangle in front of employees. There are many decisions Google managers cannot make:

• Whom to hire;
• Whom to fire;
• How someone's performance is rated;
• How much of a salary increase, bonus or stock grant to give someone;
• Who is selected to win an award for great management;
• Whom to promote when code is sufficient quality to be incorporated into Google's software code base;
• The final design of a product and when to launch it.

Alternatively, each of these decisions is made by either a group of peers, a committee or a dedicated, independent team. Google believes the best way to see the heart of great management is to strip away all the tools on which managers most rely.

In closing, Bock imparts that "Google has a constant paranoia about losing the culture, and has a constant, creeping sense of dissatisfaction with the current culture." But he considers that a good thing and would be concerned if the company stopped worrying. The feeling of being on the brink of losing a great culture keeps everyone vigilant to protect it.

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