Google: Ten Golden Rules

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10296177/site/newsweek

Google: Ten Golden Rules

Getting the most out of knowledge workers will be the key to business success for the next quarter century. Here's how we do it at Google.

Issues 2006 - At google, we think business guru Peter Drucker well understood how to manage the new breed of "knowledge workers." After all, Drucker invented the term in 1959. He says knowledge workers believe they are paid to be effective, not to work 9 to 5, and that smart businesses will "strip away everything that gets in their knowledge workers' way." Those that succeed will attract the best performers, securing "the single biggest factor for competitive advantage in the next 25 years."

At Google, we seek that advantage. The ongoing debate about whether big corporations are mismanaging knowledge workers is one we take very seriously, because those who don't get it right will be gone. We've drawn on good ideas we've seen elsewhere and come up with a few of our own. What follows are seven key principles we use to make knowledge workers most effective. As in most technology companies, many of our employees are engineers, so we will focus on that particular group, but many of the policies apply to all sorts of knowledge workers.

 

Hire by committee. Virtually every person who interviews at Google talks to at least half-a-dozen interviewers, drawn from both management and potential colleagues. Everyone's opinion counts, making the hiring process more fair and pushing standards higher. Yes, it takes longer, but we think it's worth it. If you hire great people and involve them intensively in the hiring process, you'll get more great people. We started building this positive feedback loop when the company was founded, and it has had a huge payoff.

Cater to their every need. As Drucker says, the goal is to "strip away everything that gets in their way." We provide a standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses—just about anything a hardworking engineer might want. Let's face it: programmers want to program, they don't want to do their laundry. So we make it easy for them to do both.

Pack them in. Almost every project at Google is a team project, and teams have to communicate. The best way to make communication easy is to put team members within a few feet of each other. The result is that virtually everyone at Google shares an office. This way, when a programmer needs to confer with a colleague, there is immediate access: no telephone tag, no e-mail delay, no waiting for a reply. Of course, there are many conference rooms that people can use for detailed discussion so that they don't disturb their office mates. Even the CEO shared an office at Google for several months after he arrived. Sitting next to a knowledgeable employee was an incredibly effective educational experience.

Make coordination easy. Because all members of a team are within a few feet of one another, it is relatively easy to coordinate projects. In addition to physical proximity, each Googler e-mails a snippet once a week to his work group describing what he has done in the last week. This gives everyone an easy way to track what everyone else is up to, making it much easier to monitor progress and synchronize work flow.

Eat your own dog food. Google workers use the company's tools intensively. The most obvious tool is the Web, with an internal Web page for virtually every project and every task. They are all indexed and available to project participants on an as-needed basis. We also make extensive use of other information-management tools, some of which are eventually rolled out as products. For example, one of the reasons for Gmail's success is that it was beta tested within the company for many months. The use of e-mail is critical within the organization, so Gmail had to be tuned to satisfy the needs of some of our most demanding customers—our knowledge workers.

Encourage creativity. Google engineers can spend up to 20 percent of their time on a project of their choice. There is, of course, an approval process and some oversight, but basically we want to allow creative people to be creative. One of our not-so-secret weapons is our ideas mailing list: a companywide suggestion box where people can post ideas ranging from parking procedures to the next killer app. The software allows for everyone to comment on and rate ideas, permitting the best ideas to percolate to the top.

Strive to reach consensus. Modern corporate mythology has the unique decision maker as hero. We adhere to the view that the "many are smarter than the few," and solicit a broad base of views before reaching any decision. At Google, the role of the manager is that of an aggregator of viewpoints, not the dictator of decisions. Building a consensus sometimes takes longer, but always produces a more committed team and better decisions

Don't be evil. Much has been written about Google's slogan, but we really try to live by it, particularly in the ranks of management. As in every organization, people are passionate about their views. But nobody throws chairs at Google, unlike management practices used at some other well-known technology companies. We foster to create an atmosphere of tolerance and respect, not a company full of yes men.

Data drive decisions. At Google, almost every decision is based on quantitative analysis. We've built systems to manage information, not only on the Internet at large, but also internally. We have dozens of analysts who plow through the data, analyze performance metrics and plot trends to keep us as up to date as possible. We have a raft of online "dashboards" for every business we work in that provide up-to-the-minute snapshots of where we are.

Communicate effectively. Every Friday we have an all-hands assembly with announcements, introductions and questions and answers. (Oh, yes, and some food and drink.) This allows management to stay in touch with what our knowledge workers are thinking and vice versa. Google has remarkably broad dissemination of information within the organization and remarkably few serious leaks. Contrary to what some might think, we believe it is the first fact that causes the second: a trusted work force is a loyal work force.

Of course, we're not the only company that follows these practices. Many of them are common around Silicon Valley. And we recognize that our management techniques have to evolve as the company grows. There are several problems that we (and other companies like us) face.

 

One is "techno arrogance." Engineers are competitive by nature and they have low tolerance for those who aren't as driven or as knowledgeable as they are. But almost all engineering projects are team projects; having a smart but inflexible person on a team can be deadly. If we see a recommendation that says "smartest person I've ever known" combined with "I wouldn't ever want to work with them again," we decline to make them an offer. One reason for extensive peer interviews is to make sure that teams are enthused about the new team member. Many of our best people are terrific role models in terms of team building, and we want to keep it that way.

 

A related problem is the not-invented-here syndrome. A good engineer is always convinced that he can build a better system than the existing ones, leading to the refrain "Don't buy it, build it." Well, they may be right, but we have to focus on those projects with the biggest payoff. Sometimes this means going outside the company for products and services.

 

Another issue that we will face in the coming years is the maturation of the company, the industry and our work force. We, along with other firms in this industry, are in a rapid growth stage now, but that won't go on forever. Some of our new workers are fresh out of college; others have families and extensive job experience. Their interests and needs are different. We need to provide benefits and a work environment that will be attractive to all ages.

 

A final issue is making sure that as Google grows, communication procedures keep pace with our increasing scale. The Friday meetings are great for the Mountain View team, but Google is now a global organization.

 

We have focused on managing creativity and innovation, but that's not the only thing that matters at Google. We also have to manage day-to-day operations, and it's not an easy task. We are building technology infrastructure that is dramatically larger, more complex and more demanding than anything that has been built in history. Those who plan, implement and maintain these systems, which are growing to meet a constantly rising set of demands, have to have strong incentives, too. At Google, operations are not just an afterthought: they are critical to the company's success, and we want to have just as much effort and creativity in this domain as in new product development.

 

Schmidt is CEO of Google. Varian is a Berkeley professor and consultant with Google.

 

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10296177/site/newsweek

 

 今天，从网上搜到了这篇文章的翻译，放上来：

美东时间12月2日消息，在与加州大学伯克利分校信息管理学院院长哈里?瓦里安（Hal Varian）的一次讨论中，Google公司CEO Eric Schmidt讲述了这家搜索巨头公司在产生和保留知识型员工方面遵循的几条原则。该文被美国《新闻周刊》（Newsweek）刊登，以下是Schmidt的观点摘录。

　　抓住知识型员工将是未来四分之一世纪企业成功的关键。下面就是Google在这方面的做法。

　　在Google，我们认为商业管理学的宗师彼得?德鲁克对于如何管理“知识型员工”的理解最为深刻。毕竟，这个词是由德鲁克于1959年发明。德鲁克说知识型员工相信自己拿工资是为了出效率，而不是为了完成朝九晚五的呆板工作，而聪明的企业会“排除任何影响‘知识型员工’工作的障碍”。这些成功经验将吸引最好的员工，并且保证“未来25年竞争优势的唯一且最大的因素。”

　　在Google，我们寻求这种优势。当前关于大型企业是否对于知识型员工处置失当的争论是我们慎重对待的问题之一，这是因为无法正确处理该问题的企业将被出局。我们从其他地方以及内部讨论得出得到很多好的想法。以下七条就是我们在最大化知识化员工效率方面所采用的关键原则。与大多数技术公司一样，我们的许多员工都是工程师级别的，因此我们将以这个特殊群体为主，但其中很多原则对于所有知识型员工均适用。

　　组织委员会，严格招聘

　　实质上每个参加Google面试的人至少与六位面试官交谈过，后者均是公司管理层面或潜在同事组成的。每个人的观点都算数，从而使招聘程序更加公平，标准更高。当然，花费的时间会长一些，但我们认为值得。如果希望招到优秀的员工，那么经过严格的招聘程序，你会得到更加优秀的员工。公司创立之初我们就开始构建这种积极的反馈循环，直到现在已经从中获得了巨大回报。

　　满足员工的所有需要

　　正如德鲁克所说，管理目标是“排除任何影响他们工作的障碍。”我们为他们提供了一整套标准的额外利益，但首先是一流的餐饮设施、体育馆、洗衣房、按摩室、理发厅、洗车房、干洗房、接送班车等，几乎任何一位勤奋工作的工程师所需的一切。我们可以这样分析：程序师乐意开发程序，他们不喜欢洗衣服。那么我们就让这两件事情变得同时简单起来。

　　拉近员工距离

　　Google的几乎每个项目都是小组项目，每个小组之间都必须进行交流合作。最好的让交流变得简单的方式就是让每个小组成员都近在咫尺。因此实质上Google的所有员工分享一间办公室。这样，当某位程序师需要与一位同事协商时，就能马上找到对方：没有电话号码标签、没有电子邮件拖延、不用等待答复。当然，Google还有很多会议室供人们进行详细讨论，从而不会打扰各自的办公助手。即使是公司CEO，在来到Google后数月才得到一间办公室。和一个学识丰富的员工比邻而居，委实是一种高效的培训经验。

　　使合作简单协调

　　由于一个小组的所有成员都近在咫尺，因此在协调项目开展方面就相对容易些。除了身体保持近距离外，每位Google员工每周还向其所在工作组发送电子邮件回报上周的工作成绩。这样就能让每个人都能简单地跟踪其他成员的工作进度，更加容易地监控工作进程，并同步工作流程。

　　身体力行，使用自己的产品

　　Google员工都很频繁地使用公司开发的各种工具。最常见的就是为所有项目和任务而建内部网页组成的网络。这些网页都被索引并以按需访问的策略向项目参与者开放。我们对其他信息管理工具的用户进行了扩展，其中某些将最终以产品的形式对外推出。譬如Gmail成功的原因之一就是它曾在公司内部测试达数月之久。电子邮件主要用于组织信息，所以Gmail被不断改进，直至满足最大需求的消费者――我们的知识型员工的需要。（编译Lela）

鼓励创新

　　Google工程师们可把20％的工作时间放在自选项目开发上。当然其中必须有一个批准过程以及某些失败，但基本上我们希望让所有富有创意的人们发挥创意。我们有一个公开的秘密武器，就是创意邮件目录：一个全公司共用的建议箱。任何人都可以把自己的创意发送到这里，从停车程序 到下一代应用程序等等。在这里所有人都可以对创意发表评论、进行评价，从而促使最佳创意浮出水面。

　　尽可能统一意见

　　现代企业神话中都有一个英雄般的独特决议制订者。我们坚信“群众的智慧”这一理念，并希望在确定任何决议之前收集广泛的观点作为分析基础。在Google，管理者的角色是一个观点的收集者，而不是决策的独裁者。统一大多数人的意见有时要花费较长时间，但通常可以组成一个更加忠诚的工作组和更为明智的决策。

　　不作恶

　　很多人曾经对Google的这一口号做过描写，但我们确实试图以此为工作指导，尤其在管理方面。就像任何组织的成员都对他们的观点充满热情一样。但在Google，不会有人反对这一原则，不想其他某些知名技术公司管理习惯那样。我们努力创建一种充满宽容和尊重的工作氛围，而不是让公司里充满满嘴只会说是的人。

　　数据决定决策

　　在Google，几乎所有决策都是基于大量分析后得出。我们创建了多种管理信息的系统，不止是大方面的互联网，还有内部联网。我们有很多分析师专门研究数据，分析各种执行标准然后总结出发展趋势，从而使我们尽可能地跟上时代的步伐。我们为每个研究项目都建立了大量在线“仪表板”，从中获得最新的状态现状。

　　有效地交流

　　每周五公司所有员工都集合在一起，共同获得公司公告，业务介绍，解决各种问题（还有一些食物和饮料）。通过这种方式，管理层能够密切接触并及时了解知识型员工的所想，员工也能对管理层的想法有所了解。Google对组织内的信息分发进行了极大的扩展，并重点弥补了少数严重疏漏。与某些外界想法不同，我们认为值得信赖的劳动力才是忠实的工作团队是所有结果的第一真理。

　　发展道路上的潜在障碍

　　当然，我们公司不止遵守以上规则，其中许多在硅谷非常普遍。同时，我们意识到随着公司的发展，我们必须不断改进自己的管理技术。我们（以及其他类似于我们的公司）还面临很多问题。

　　第一就是“技术自大”问题。工程师们之间的竞争是自然的，并且他们难以容忍那些积极性或学识不如自己的人。但几乎所有工程项目都是小组项目，因此小组中出现头脑聪明但顽固不化的人对于整个工作都是致命的。如果我们在一封推荐信中看到“我所见过的最聪明的人”以及“我再也不想跟他们一起工作”的字眼，那么我们绝对不会通过他们的提议。普及同级人员面试的原因之一就是为了确保小组成员热情欢迎新成员的加入。我们的很多优秀员工在小组创建等方面都是楷模，因此我们希望继续保持这种方式。

　　与之相关的就是NIH症候群（not-invented-here syndrome，“与我无关综合症”）。一个好的工程师通常坚信自己能够开发一套比现有系统更加完善的系统，并且以“创建而不购买”为信念。当然，他们或许是正确的，但我们却必须以极大的代价关注这些项目。有时这也意味着超出了公司的产品和服务界限。

　　还有一个问题也是我们未来几年将要面对，即公司、产业及内部劳动力将最终成熟起来。不止是我们，连同业内其他公司目前都处于一个告诉发展阶段，但这个阶段不会成为永久。我们中的很多员工都是刚走出校园的大学毕业生；其他的都有家庭以及丰富的工作经验。他们有着不同的兴趣和需求，因此我们必须提供可吸引所有年龄段员工的福利和工作环境。

　　最后的问题是确保Google成长过程中，通讯程序能够跟的上公司的扩展。周五例会对于山景镇的工作小组非常适用，但是现在的Google已经成为一个全球组织。

　　我们一直注重创新和改革，但这并不是Google的唯一。我们还必须管理日常运作，这也不是一项简单的任务。我们将建造比历史上已存的，更加庞大、复杂和要求更加严格的技术基础设施。这些系统必须持续发展不断满足不断增加的一系列要求，因此计划、执行并维护这些系统的人还必须具有强烈的积极性。在Google，日常运作不是简单的事后三思：它们对于公司的成功有着至关重要的作用，同时我们希望在新产品开发中，能够取得像现在的统治领域一样的成绩和发明。（编译Lela）