Workrules 150512050006 Lva1 App6892

by laszlo bock
#WORKRULES | WORKRULES.NET
We spend more time working than

doing anything else in our lives.
But for most of the four billion of us with jobs, work is just a means
to an end. Or worse, its a downright miserable experience.
It doesnt have toand shouldntbe this way.

After I arrived at Google in 2006, I began
to notice places that took a better approach.
Companies like Wegmans, Brandix, and Costco put their people first. Maybe it was
possible to build a great business while also treating people really, really well.
Maybe we just had to do things dierently.
Larry and Sergey, for example, founded Google with a strong

vision about the kind of company they wanted to create.
Google operates on the belief that people are fundamentally good.
As head of People Operations, my job is to find and grow

our employees, self-dubbed Googlers, and keep them happy.
So far, the eects of this philosophy are promising.
Google is not alone when it comes to being a great

place to work. Lots of other companies and researchers
are doing things to make work better for people.
burn
r
e
t
f
a
g
n
i
d
a
re
Anyone can replicate this approach, and Ill gladly

share some of the science and experiences that have
helped us get where we are today.
Culture underpins everything we do at Google.
Its easy to think culture is what you see on the surface. That bean bags
and lava lamps, along with our profit margins, are the secret to our success.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
01
03
02
There are three defining aspects of Googles culture:

finding a compelling mission, being transparent, and giving our people a voice.
(All of these are free!)
If you want to attract the most talented people on the planet, you need to
craft a goal that inspires them. Amy Wrzesniewski (Yale), Adam Grant (Wharton),
and others have shown this increases both productivity and happiness.
Be transparent. Encourage people to think and act like owners.

Youll be surprised what people can do when you simply trust them
to do the right thing.
MITs Richard Locke compared two garment plants in Mexico, one tightly controlled
and another that was self-run by workers. Not only were the workers with more
freedom more productive, they also earned higher wages and had lower costs.
Dr. Kamal Birdi studied productivity at 308 companies and found the same thing.
To find the best people, you have to be willing to wait. A bad hire can be toxic.
Set the bar high, never compromise on quality, and find someone who is better
than you in some meaningful way. Youll end up with a much stronger team.
Separate conversations about rewards from conversations

about development. Combining the two kills learning.
In 1969, Edward Deci and Richard Ryan found that attaching incentives
to tasks reduced intrinsic motivation, leading to less time and eort spent
completing them, especially when those incentives were later removed.
Dont surprise people. Tell them if theyre low performers and help them learn or
find new rolespeople need to know how theyre doing in order to grow. Put your best
people under a microscope to find outand replicatewhat makes them succeed.
The most meaningful things you can do for your employees are free,
or close to it. Save your biggest checks for when they need it most.
Brandix, a Sri Lankan clothing manufacturer, provides its mostly female

workforce with supplemental food and medicine when theyre pregnant.
Your best people are worth far, far more than your average people.
Make sure they feel it. Otherwise youre just giving them a reason to quit.
Small signals can cause large changes in behavior.
Often times, nudges are surprisingly simple. Between 2007 and 2008,
Atul Gawande had eight hospitals around the world start using a safety checklist
before performing surgery. The rate of patient deaths dropped by almost half.
Human beings are complicated, thorny, and messy. Youre never going to
please everyone, but dont let that prevent you from trying new things. Tell people
around you that youre going to be experimenting to balance expectations.
finish
start
Dont rush to do everything at once. Building a great culture and

environment requires constant learning, experimentation, and renewal.
But its worth it.
!
e
r
o
m
These were just some of the bigger lessons weve learned over the years.
I have a lot more to sharefrom interview questions to fixing performance
management to how nudges helped me lose 30 poundsyou can read about
the solutions to more specific problems in the book.
work sucks
sucks
work
do something
do nothing
work rules
rules
work
I cant be the only person whos ever thought, work sucks.

And I definitely am not the only person whos ever done
something about it.
Technology has made it easier to try new things and share whats eective,
giving us an unprecedented opportunity to change the meaning of work.
So go experiment with something new

when it comes to how you work.
Then its your turn to share what you know. If enough of us try,
maybe well have a shot at making work more meaningful for
everyone in the world.

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by laszlo bock

We spend more time working than

It doesnt have toand shouldntbe this way.

Larry and Sergey, for example, founded Google with a strong

As head of People Operations, my job is to find and grow

So far, the eects of this philosophy are promising.

Google is not alone when it comes to being a great

Anyone can replicate this approach, and Ill gladly

Culture underpins everything we do at Google.

There are three defining aspects of Googles culture:

Be transparent. Encourage people to think and act like owners.

Separate conversations about rewards from conversations

Brandix, a Sri Lankan clothing manufacturer, provides its mostly female

Small signals can cause large changes in behavior.

Dont rush to do everything at once. Building a great culture and

I cant be the only person whos ever thought, work sucks.

So go experiment with something new

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