Culture Matters: A Look at Google

The thing about culture is that you can not really copy it. Culture makes a company unique. Sure, as a leader I can copy what other companies are doing, but it won’t be the same. There is no magic formula. Yet, some things work here.

In this lecture from Jonathon Rosenberg, VP-Product Develop at Google, arguable one of the most innovative success stories of the current time, quickly (in 45 minutes) outlines some of the What about culture he is a part of; 15 plus 1 of the differences about Google’s culture that make a difference. No one will be able to copy this, and get it like Google gets it, but by starting with Mr. Rosenberg’s plus 1 difference, we can contextualize the other 15.

I really recommend watching the video for the back story and examples offered to explain the atomization of this culture.

Plus 1

Mr. Rosenberg, spurred by the audience to tell lots of stories (teaching point: the potential for storytelling to a have big impact on culture is huge) he highlights his plus 1 point at the beginning, quoting John Wooden “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” He ends by recommending the best thing do for yourself and the people around you is “learn how to learn.”

What can we learn from Google?

Here is Jonathon Rosenberg’s top 15 list.

• Hire great people, not just good people.
  Great people hire other great people. Good people are often threatened by greatness and don’t hire them.

• Ideas come from everywhere.
  Implement a system to receive them
  Reward winning ideas by showcasing them in front of peers and get people to vote

• Commitment to sharing and openness.
  If you hire great people, trust them and share everything. Everything is on Google’s intranet and the people that don’t use it, don’t get the information they need. You win by being better at what you do, not by keeping it a secret.

• Morph ideas- don’t kill them.
  Users come first, not the money. Many companies get addicted to revenue. The customer is in control.

• Data drives all decisions.
  Source data from systems they trust. Nobody shows up to a meeting saying “I think” without source data to back it up and that can be argued and scrutinized by everybody in the room.

• Iterate products.
  “Did engineers ever exceed expectations on one of your product development plans? asks Sergey. No, Rosenberg responds. Then don’t write them.”

• A vision that stands the test of time, and is internalized by all.
  “Google is more like a university than a company,” says Rosenberg. Their vision means something to them.

• Think Big.
  The antibodies of most companies kill big ideas. At Google, if you come in with an idea that solves a problem for the Bay Area of California, you’ll be challenged “to solve it for the known Universe.” Goals are not expected to be exceeded but moved toward. Objectives for key results are often well received at the 60% mark.

• Bet on the trends, don’t fall victim to them.

• Except a smaller part of a larger pie.
  Rather than hanging on for a big piece of small (even shrinking) pie.

• Feed the winners, starve the losers.
  This is based on functional orientation to getting work done.
• Avoid “Hippos.”
  Apparently, the hippopotamus kills more people annually than any other animal (I didn’t know that). In companies, Hippos are “highly paid people with opinions.” Apparently, they kill more companies than any other kind of people! .
  
  
• Never surrender to “the weenies.”
  Accountant and lawyer types. Weenies tend to legislate to, in my words, the lowest common denominator; in Rosenberg’s words, they optimize the null set.
• Reward innovation.
  Not to everybody in the form of profit sharing…pay the best people big money. Yeah, it’s not fair, and get over it.

Why this culture exists at Google at not at other companies, I think, begins to speak to the next level of inquiry beneath these insights into a culture itself. Why Google is successful with their culture is more important information in mapping, connecting and transferring these ideas to possibilities in other organizations. For that kind of exercise, we need good maps and that gets me back to “keys that unlock the codes of an adaptive workforce.”