Worked as a tutor, teacher, baker, lifeguard, librarian… Every place I worked there was a gap between values that was taught and what was lived.
At Google I was hired to run People Operations. Human Resources is one of the hardest jobs out there. And everyone out there thinks they can do your job better than you.
Find the best people. Grow them as fast as possible. Then keep them.
Humu – make work better for everyone – everywhere – through science, machine learning, and a little bit of love.
We spend more time working than anything else in the world (Work 9 hours, Sleep 8 hours, Family 3 hours, Friends 2 hours, Game of Thrones 1 hour, Eat 1 hour)
The experience of work should be meaningful.
Google believed in open source. The idea to make the best software was to make it open. They wanted to open source the people side as well.
Often I hear that this is not universal, but they’re wrong. It works everywhere. We have far more in common than what separates us.
Met with Jack from Wegmans on panel. We agreed on everything. Their principle was treat your people right and they will take care of you.
I’m going to share with you science and some practical examples,.
Give your work meaning.
You want to have a mission that matters.
Goal of #1 or #2 vs. Goal of to make the world better
The need for aspiration is a human thing.
Yale University, Amy Wrzesniewski, research on how many felt meaning in work. She found you have to remind people of why they do what they do.
There are people who remember the duty but forget the joy.
Adam Grant, Professor at Wharton, Give & Take. He talks about mission. He went to a call center that raised money for scholarships. People in Group A (control) raised $1300/week. Had people read essays about job, etc with no change. Had people write essays about how scholarships changed them, people read them, went to $3100/week. Had scholarship recipients come in, once a month for five minutes, now they raised $5000/week.
Step 1 – Figure out why you are doing the work you are doing. Put a reminder on your calendar. A sticker on your laptop.
Step 2 – Go to the people around you and find out the motive. People who are connected to something bigger, share that story.
Step 3 – Have people come in who are connected to what you do. Share their story.
Step 4 – Do it over and over again.
Meaning matters!
Do you believe human beings are fundamentally good or evil? I’m going to assert that humans are fundamentally good. Huge mistake most companies make is that they don’t trust their people.
Trust your people.
Circle of trust. Don’t trust Lex Luthor.
The only thing that has been able to drive performance is having a goal.
Google had goal-setting system. Everyone had a goal. They posted on company intranet.
Bureaucracy Oscars – asked people to tell us how to make Google better. Most of it was easy stuff to fix.
Zingerman’s – grocer in Michigans – anyone at Zingermans is able to see P&L statements for any thing.
If you show people stuff, they’ll make better decisions. If you believe people are fundamentally good, they’ll do the right thing. They’ll repay you by being more creative and adding value to organization.
Scientist at MIT, Richard Locke. Nike in Mexico. Controlled with low freedom = lower production, lower wages, higher costs. Gave other ability to self-run = greater freedom, greater productivity, greater wages, lower costs. Cost of production went from $0.18 to $0.11.
What drives performance? Give your people greater freedom than you’re comfortable with.
If you’re in a manufacturing area, give them a suggestion box. Next level, give the team the ability to figure out how to fix it. Give them a small budget to fix it.
Hire people who are better than you.
We all think we’re good at hiring. We do a poor job of interview.
Two researchers looked to see if we did a good job of interviewing. Had college sophomores watch video without sound. They made same assessment. Gave them 10 second segment without sound, the college sophomore made same assessment as 9 of 11 assessors.
Two simplest rules: don’t let the people who are interviewing make the hiring decision. Have them write up what they saw and have someone else make the decision. Only hire people better than you.
We need to keep coming back and doing this over and over again. It’s like lather, rinse, repeat.
Episode of the Simpsons – Sign at Homer’s desk that says “Don’t forget you’re here forever.”
