Tag Archives: google

Posted on

At Google, Starbucks (and Life Outside of Work), Success = Connection

IMG_0655

The New York Times has had a number of great articles related to connection and how it leads to success at work and in life.  In an article about what Google discovered from Project Oxygen, a rigorous study of its successful managers, Laszlo Bock, the leader of the study stated:

“In the Google context, we’d always believed that to be a manager, particularly on the engineering side, you need to be as deep or deeper a technical expert than the people who work for you…It turns out that that’s absolutely the least important thing. It’s important, but pales in comparison. Much more important is just making that connection and being accessible.” (italics mine)

Posted on

Google Lives Up to Values

Google just announced it will shut down its China-based search engine over the Chinese government’s censorship activities.  Here’s a New York Times article about it.  Earlier I wrote in “A Test of Google’s Character” that Google should live up to its values and I described some of the benefits of doing so.

Posted on

Is China the Next Enron?

In his The New York Times column, Tom Friedman asks and answers the question: Is China the next Enron?  He argues that Chinese censorship of the web restricts knowledge flows and doing so diminishes the rate of innovation.  There is compelling historical evidence to support Friedman’s view.  As I explained in my book Fired Up or Burned Out:

The danger to nations that reduce knowledge flow is apparent throughout history. By isolating themselves and their countries, the leaders of civilizations have missed opportunities for innovation and growth. China in 1400 had the best and largest fleet of ships in the world (over a period of three years the Chinese built or refitted 1,681 ships). With their enormous fleet, the Chinese sailed to Indonesia, Arabia, East Africa, and India. Gradually, however, the Chinese emperor’s attitude toward the benefits of foreign travel shifted as he favored domestic agriculture over maritime interests. By 1436, the Chinese were diverting resources from maintaining the ships, and by 150o, anyone who built a ship with more than two masts was subject to the death penalty. In 1525, the Chinese authorities ordered all oceangoing ships to be destroyed and their owners arrested.

A period of Chinese isolation from the rest of the world began. At the time of the ships’ destruction China led the world in innovation. It had developed gunpowder, deep drilling, printing, paper, porcelain, cast iron, and the compass. China’s isolation, however, prevented it from knowing about developments beyond its borders, the ideas and information that had contributed to its high rate of innovation when Chinese ships were sailing the world. In recent decades, economic reforms and social freedoms have reconnected China to the broader world, resulting in increased Chinese economic growth.

Like the Chinese civilization, the Arab-Islamic civilization became isolated in the sixteenth century as its leaders adopted the view that the world beyond them had little to offer. As a result of the isolationism adopted by the Chinese and Arab-Islamic civilizations, both began a period of steady decline in innovation and economic output.

Posted on

A Test of Google’s Character

I hope Google is considering what I presented at it’s Mountain View, California headquarters last summer as it decides how to respond to the Chinese government’s apparent hacking of Google’s servers to access information on Chinese human rights protestors. If evidence becomes clear that the Chinese government is responsible for the attack, Google’s response will have an significant effect on the firm’s reputation, consumer brand, employer brand and employee engagement. This is a test of Google’s corporate character and whether or not it will live up to its aspiration “don’t be evil” and its belief in supporting a free marketplace of ideas. Human rights abuses and censorship in China are no secret. To be indifferent to China’s actions in this instance, however, is to provide silent assent. What company or leader would want such a legacy?

The Chinese Government-Google showdown reminds me of a line from Elie Wiesel’s profound speech entitled “The Perils of Indifference.” In it, Wiesel states:

“Why did some of America’s largest corporations continue to do business with Hitler’s Germany until 1942? It has been suggested, and it was documented, that the Wehrmacht could not have conducted its invasion of France without oil obtained from American sources. How is one to explain their indifference?”

It would be wise for Google’s leaders to read Wiesel’s speech and consider how history will eventually record their decision. Some decisions reflect inflection points for a firm and for history itself. As historian David McCullough reminds us in the preface to his book Brave Companions,

“…while there are indeed great, often unfathomable forces in history before which even the most exceptional of individuals seem insignificant, the wonder is how often events turn upon a single personality, or the quality we call character.”

This can be said for corporate character too.

—

Note: Above is a video of a presentation I gave on leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation at Google’s corporate headquarters, the Googleplex, last summer. On this rare occasion, I presented alone. Normally I present with my colleague Jason Pankau because better together.  As Jason says, “Mike’s the serious one, I’m the fun one.”

Posted on

Out-behave Your Competitors

John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach, once said character is more important than reputation because reputation is who people think you are but character is who you really are.  Last night at a packed event in Manhattan I heard LRN’s Dov Seidman make the case that in a connected world “how” we do what we do is every bit as important as what we do.  In other words, with everyone able to blog, take pictures or shoot video of you on their phones then upload the content on the world wide web (that becomes easily accessible via Google), an organization’s character (or “how” an organization does what it does) has become much, much more important.   Dov went even further and said that wise organizations will out-behave their competitors to gain a competitive advantage.

Following are some points I wrote down during the discussion Dov Seidman had with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman:

Historically we never imputed character to an organization but in a flat, connected world we can.

Today you can’t manage your reputation as you could in the past. You must earn it.

New leaders know you can’t have power over people.  Today you can only have power through people.

Out-behave is not presently a word in the dictionary.  Dov encouraged the audience to help change that.

The paradox of success.  When you pursue success, happiness eludes you.  When you pursue significance, you discover happiness.

I’ve been working on an article about Wall Street entitled “Goldman Is Great, But Is It Good?”  The article explores what it would take to make a better, healthier, more effective Wall Street.  Many of Dov’s ideas about getting the “hows” right are germaine to Wall Street’s future.

What do you think?  Has the internet made corporate character more important?  Should organizations strive to out-behave their competitors?

Michael Lee Stallard speaks, teaches and writes about leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation at leading organizations including Google, GE, NASA, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia. Most recently, Michael and his colleague Jason Pankau filmed a 90-minute program for Linkage’s Thought Leaders Series that will be released in January of 2010. Michael wrote the guest editorial for Talent Management magazine’s January 2010 edition and last month his article on how the force of connection boosts productivity and innovation was featured as the lead article in the UK’s Developing HR Strategy Journal. Click on these links to learn more about Michael and Jason in the media and their speaking engagements.

Posted on

Google Beams, Curiosity and Innovation

Last week when I toured Google’s corporate headquarters, the “Googleplex,” I was shown a monitor that had an image of the planet earth with multicolored beams of light shooting up from the various contintents. The beams represented Google searches that were presently being conducted from those locations. (For example, when I searched on Google this morning for an article on “augmented intelligence,” it would have appeared on Google’s global search monitor as a beam of light shooting up from Greenwich, Connecticut where I live.)

What stood out to me when I observed Google’s global search monitor was that locations such as North America, East Asia and Western Europe were aflame with Google beams of search activity whereas some regions like Africa and much of South America were largely dark.

If Google searches can be thought of as a proxy for curiosity and learning, then locations (nations and organizations) that are aflame with search activity are preferable to locations that are dark.