Nooglers and Googlers
Imagine loving your job enough to wear a hat like this during your induction ?
The Ideas Machine went to Google HQ at Mountain View and we saw some pretty neat stuff. Gushing about Google is being added to our CV as we write. Couple of things in particular hit home; they have their own language and it touches everything they do, think, write and speak about. New staff become Nooglers, they are accompanied by Googlers, they even wear a hat identifying them as a new kid on the block- far from being a humiliation, it’s a badge of honour, it’s an ‘offer’ and a sign you want help, and Nooglers love it. Genuinely.
Second, they measure everything ( eeekk!) so their meetings being 25 minutes not 30 is based on a measure of diminishing returns, their performance reviews focus on 1 thing to do more of and one thing to improve.. ONE. They know one is the right number because they measured it! They know prototyping makes a difference in their innovation processes because it helps them fail faster, up to 15% faster in fact, they measured that too. What struck me was the lack of dissonance in this quantitative approach to stuff in a corporate environment that retains a sense of discovery, unknown, innovation and uncertainty- we came away feeling slightly better about the prospect of Google running the world.
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