·
Does Schmidt's
description of the Google Culture make sense to you?
·
Is this a reasonable way
to view the work that most people are doing in your workplace?
·
As a leader, does it
take courage to have and to implement this point of view?
·
Could this approach
backfire?
·
What can you take away
from this exercise to immediately use in your career?
In
the video, Hiring and Recruiting, Eric
Schmidt describes Google’s culture in
a very open and personalized way, allowing us to see the strategies Google has
used in the past to be successful with their hiring and recruiting techniques. Schmidt
informs listeners that it is imperative that the culture of an organization is
determined early on to ensure that the correct people are hired into a company.
He states that the recruiting and hiring efforts that are made for an
organization make an enormous difference as to who is hired at every level.
Schmidt moves on to discuss his frustrations as textbooks tend to generalize
this information, and managers rarely implement the necessary actions needed to
choose workers who will create positive change within an organization as well
as the cutting edge knowledge and drive needed to be leaders in their
respective fields.
When I watched the video the first time, I must admit
that Schmidt’s description of Google’s culture did not make much sense to me.
Instead of watching the video once and making an initial judgment, I decided to
watch the video and few more times so I would be able to obtain an alternate
view of what was being discussed. I did my best to critically think about the
message that Schmidt was trying to provide his listeners with. All of a sudden I began to understand why
Schmidt was being so honest about Google’s culture. Schmidt clearly understood
the importance of the recruiting and hiring process and wanted to share what he
felt made Google successful.
To do this Schmidt informs us that Google concentrates on
hiring individuals based off of their academic qualifications, intellectual flexibility,
passion, commitment, and intelligence. Schmidt also addresses the fact that Google
does not necessarily hire based off of personality or interpersonal skill sets as
they may need the individuals who do not meet this mold. While it is important
that management ensures there is some level of compatibility between members
they must also ensure that the needs of the company are being met. When I finally
understood that this is what Schmidt was referring to, I was able to better
comprehend his reasoning behind describing Google’s culture in such a way.
I believe Schmidt’s vision of the 70, 20, 10 business
culture is effective as it allows for employees to work hard in the areas they
have a passion for while also allowing them the flexibility to research and practice
other areas of interests. While this may be an organizational understanding throughout
Google, I believe that in other organizations, such as my own, the individuals
who control this culture are the direct departmental managers rather than upper
level leadership. For instance, my last director was extremely flexible,
especially when it came to his employees caring for their sick children. If we
were a few minutes late to work he didn’t mind, as long as the time was made up
during the day, if we missed a day, he would allow for us to make up the time
as long as it was within the same pay period. His flexibility was indescribable
and to date I have never had a manager who was so caring and open to other ways
of managing his team.
During our organizational restructure my team and I experienced
a few changes in management within a short period of time. When our new
director came onto the team we didn’t know what to expect so we left our minds
open to the new changes that would occur. Immediately we noticed a difference
in management style. There was barely any flexibility and no down time what so
ever. Our team was watched so closely we felt stifled and micromanaged.
Tension, frustration and conflict began to arise on the team to no end. The team
went from feeling like empowered employees to feeling robotic and
unappreciated. We understood the need for a structured environment, however we
wished there was a way to have a more balanced agreement as to the flexibility
our team needed to operate effectively.
The
interesting part about all of this was that the leader above our department
manager was very flexible and caring and seemed to have more understanding of
the teams need for balance than our direct manager. This experience made me
realize that every organization implements its culture and vision differently.
Some may be able to implement it all across the board while others do not. This
I believe is in part to what Schmidt was talking about when he stated that the
culture of the organization is based off of who is hired and the importance of
the compatibility of the people who are brought into an organization.
In my opinion I believe that Schmidt had courage to
implement his point of view as it wasn’t a cookie cutter way of looking at things.
He understood the need for a vision and culture and knew what was necessary to
make an organization successful however he also was able to think outside the
box and implement a culture he felt would best fit the wants and needs of the
organization. While Schmidt’s vision for Google proved to be successful, there
was also room for backfire and failure as there is with any organization’s implementation
of culture.
Choosing
the right people for the right job is half the battle when creating a culture.
Implementation of that culture and instilling it within those who work for the
organization is what I believe to be the true challenge. In any business there
will be those who challenge the mission, vision and culture of an organization.
It is up to leadership to determine who these individuals are so they may be
trained to understand and respect the culture of the business. If ample
opportunity is provided these individuals and no change is made on their behalf
to respect and follow the organizational culture, mission and vision, then it
may be necessary for them to be let go as the organizations culture may always
be challenged and is essentially put at risk.
What I took away from this exercise is that if I was to
ever start my own business I would want to ensure that my company is run with a
strong vision, mission and culture that can be loved and respected by organizational
members at all levels. For a few months now my husband and I have had this idea
to start a business that we truly believe in. When the topic of discussion
first came up, one of the first things that I mentioned was that the culture of
the organization needed to be promoted as one of the most important aspects of
the company to make it successful.
As
we would be dealing with students, professors, and other educational
businesses, I wanted our student population to know how much they were cared
for and the importance of their success. I wanted my employees to be
understanding and compassionate and to instill a passion within the students
who would be using my facility. I understood what it meant to be a student and the
need for a place where their successes could be promoted and recognized and where
ample opportunity would be given to use the resources necessary for students to
be successful in their careers. While this business venture may only be a dream
right now, I believe that if it were to become a reality that there would be an
enormous amount of room in order for it to be successful. I hope one day I am offered
the opportunity to at least promote my plan to someone who could see its full
potential.
Cassandra R.
References
Schmidt, E. (2011, May). Eric Schmidt on
business culture, technology, and social issues |
McKinsey & Company
[Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/eric_schmidt_on_business_culture_technology_and_social_issues
