Newsweek has an article by Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Hal Varian, Berkeley professor and Google consultant, “Google: Ten Golden Rules� lists the ways Google gets the most out of knowledge workers. What’s surprising about this list is that half of the 10 items have to do with interpersonal communication.
Hire by committee. Virtually every person who interviews at Google talks to at least half-a-dozen interviewers, drawn from both management and potential colleagues.
Pack them in. Almost every project at Google is a team project, and teams have to communicate.
Make coordination easy. Because all members of a team are within a few feet of one another, it is relatively easy to coordinate projects.
Strive to reach consensus. At Google, the role of the manager is that of an aggregator of viewpoints, not the dictator of decisions
Communicate effectively. Every Friday we have an all-hands assembly with announcements, introductions and questions and answers. (Oh, yes, and some food and drink.)
You’d think that the IT industry, which is based on facilitating the exchange of information, wouldn’t have communication problems, but you see this kind of list everywhere – reports, presentations, speeches. It’s paradoxical that the people -- the most critical, creative part of the system -- are the cause of most of the communications breakdowns
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