Eric
Schmidt was the CEO of Google for ten years and within this time he expanded
Google
globally. Schmidt’s ability to play an influential role in shaping Google’s
culture is based on his concept that “You need to develop a culture where people actually are going to do
what they’re going to do, and you’re trying to assist them.” Schmidt's description of the
Google’s Culture make sense to me because at Google their culture is about the
people working there, and their ability to be innovative, diverse and creative
because this is what sets Google a part from everyone else. Schmidt touches on
in his presentation that when “recruiting you need to look at whether they’re sort of compatible with
the other people” and this was a very important point I feel because above
skills comes the need to work as a team. If people are incapable of working
with others then there is unnecessary drama within the atmosphere, which in my
opinion leads to a lack of trust and dedication. For example, I have a coworker
that is always stabbing others in the back. She has even gone as far as
reaching top management to make claims that were off the wall ridiculous. This
coworker is someone no one wants to work with or be around and it is so bad
that an upcoming conference the entire department chose a different day then
she did just so no one was stuck with her all day. This employee is not dumb
but she is very difficult and spiteful which is why she always has an agenda of
how she will use experiences to her favor. With Google’s strategy to analyze
potential employees to determine if they not only are capable of their job
responsibilities but also to perform well with others is extremely important in
creating a healthy functioning culture.
In Schmidt’s presentation he described how Google uses this the 70–20–10. The 70 percent is devoted
to Google’s core business, 20 percent is focused on adjacent business, and then
10 percent is concentrated on others. Schmidt advises that this type of
‘allocation principle” is always adjusting to meet the percentages. I believe this is a reasonable way to view the
work that most people are doing in your workplace because personally I know
that I cannot give 100 percent of my time to my core responsibilities because
of the other businesses and interests I have.
This is an honest outlook on how people perform and what they do and by
putting this out in the open people will most likely be more honest with their
time in my opinion because they will not have to hide or feel guilty. Allowing
10 percent of people’s time at work to focus whatever they are interested in
also fosters creativity and innovation, which will be beneficial for Google. I
know personally when I am at work there are times where I wonder why something
is a certain way so I start digging deeper to find some resolution. This is not
something I tell people, but it makes me more educated to perform my job duties
when I can better understand why something is a certain way. I think this is a
brilliant strategy using the 70-20-10 model and I would only hope more
organizations become aware of the benefits.
In the
presentation Schmidt also encourages that companies to add discord and
deadlines to their meetings in order to develop better conversations and a
consensus. He feels strongly that this is the key to success because it opens the
door for others that are more likely to shy away rom speaking up to give their
point of views and this opens a critically thought conversation. I agree this
would promote a healthy argument and a diverse perspective on a solution; however
I would be cautious as to who adopts this concept because unless the
organization followed his prior concept of hiring only compatible individuals
this could backfire. Personally I know that in the Financial Aid Department we
are always arguing and this makes the environment very uncomfortable for other
employees and management within the same meeting. Instead of coming to a
healthy consensus the meeting turns into yelling and fighting and everyone
wants to win even if they are wrong because it was such a public event. There
is a lot of prideful employees that I feel cannot handle this kind of conversation
because they become too defensive to listen to what others are saying. Walls
come up and information doesn’t penetrate through. As a future leader I feel
that this could be beneficial but you would first have to hand pick types of personalities
in which you as the leader feel you and others could work with through
challenging issues.
What I plan to take away from this exercise
to immediately use in my career is that it is important to recognize different personality
traits at all levels of my organization to better understand some of the
decisions that are made. I also want to look at each individual in my
department and try to recognize their qualities and if they are doing their job
without being told to do it and if they are able to function with minimal help
form our director. Personally I believe we are a very independent department
and I think we function very well because we are not micro managed, I reflected
a lot during this exercise and I see the departments within my organization
that are constantly micro managed are the ones full of deceitful employees. I
believe they are this way because they feel they have to hide from their
management because of the repercussions that would follow. If they adapted the
70-20-10 model within these departments I feel they would increase productivity
and some of the unwanted behaviors would decrease simply because these
employees would be free to explore and investigate things that interest them
without facing any penalties. I know that during the day I need to just check
my email to break away from the day-to-day grind and after I return to work I feel
refreshed and more motivated to keep doing what I need to do. That is why I
choose to devote my day around the 70 percent of my core responsibilities, 20
percent investigating regulations and working on bettering the way in which my
reports are organized and 10 percent to freeing my mind to become more focused.
References
Eric Schmidt on
business culture, technology, and social issues | McKinsey & Company [Video
file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/eric_schmidt_on_business_culture_technology_and_social_issues
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