Laszlo Bock: We spend more time working than we do anything else. More time even than we spend with our loved ones! And yet, for too many people, their job is just a means to an end. But work can and should be so much more.
We’ve learned a lot over the years about what makes work more meaningful and productive – we’ve studied this at Google, reviewed the academic research and listened to companies far away from Silicon Valley doing inspiring things on the people front. I wanted this book to provide insights from all these sources to help others bring more happiness to the workplace, and to help us all find more inspiration and meaning in the work we do.
Amit: Is there anything we can do from a leadership or management standpoint to make work more meaningful for our teams?
Laszlo: Absolutely. Here are a few:
Be predictable and act in a consistent way. If your team can predict what you’re going to do nine times out of 10, and if your decisions are driven by a clear set of principles, they won’t have to come to you every single day on every single issue. This way, whether you give your team narrow guardrails or wide ones, they know that within that span they can do anything and can define their jobs. And that’s empowering.
Serve your team. Our role as managers is to make our team more effective and excited about the work they do. If we focus only on our own achievements, we minimize the work of our team — and by extension, the work of the rest of the company as a whole.
Delegate certain tasks rather than trying to do everything yourself. Management assignments that are time drains for you can actually be quite empowering for your employees — and they give them the chance to expand their scope and responsibility.
Amit: How do we motivate managers to lead better?
Laszlo: At Google, we use a manager feedback system that gives managers regular feedback from their teams, without tying that feedback directly to consequences (promotion, bonus, etc.) so managers don’t feel defensive and can go back to their team and ask “how do I get better?”
Amit: At one of my first internal Google events after joining the company, I saw Larry (Larry Page, CEO) speak, in what was also one of his first engagements since taking over as CEO. Someone from the audience said, “my Android phone is running out of battery,” and he responded with, “Why don’t you give it to me, and I’ll fix it for you.” He proceeded to take the phone and try to fix the battery problem. At that moment, I thought, “this is a company that I want to be a part of.” I saw a leadership style I could relate to. Do you have any favorite leadership tips from other executives here?
Laszlo: Urs Hoelzle, our SVP of Technical Infrastructure, has this great rule: if you get an answer you don’t understand, it’s ok to escalate it, because you deserve a clear answer that makes sense to you. As managers, we should be fine when someone from our team escalates to better understand a decision. It’s not a threat. It’s not going to make us look bad. We learn something while our team has a chance to feel empowered and motivated by the new knowledge.
Amit: What’s on the horizon in the world of making people happy when they work?
Laszlo: Right now we’re doing research around unconscious bias, with the hope that we can make a profound difference in how people treat each other. It’s hard to change a person’s fundamental beliefs, but you can manage outward expression of beliefs. We find that when people take a moment to reflect, they respond rationally, rather than impulsively. And when people do this, they make less biased, better decisions.
Amit: Any interesting work trivia or seeds of wisdom that I haven’t asked about yet?
Laszlo: I started writing “Work Rules!” in Google Docs — it was second nature to me. I could keep all my ideas and iterations and collect feedback from friends and colleagues in one central place, without worrying about dozens of drafts floating around. But the publishing industry works in Microsoft Word for the most part, and by the end of our editing process, we were down to handwritten notes in pencil and paper. When I introduced my editor to Docs, and showed her how we would collaborate, redline, suggest and track changes, she was blown away and said “this is amazing!”
But it seems that education systems have not yet responded to this demand; only a third of executives say they’re satisfied with the level of attainment of young people entering the workplace. Even more striking is that 51% of executives say a skills gap is hampering their organisation's performance. Students and educators paint a similar picture.
Panelists echoed the EIU research by suggesting that education systems often lack the capacity to teach a wider range of skills—namely problem-solving, digital literacy, leadership and creativity—that would complement more conventional skills, such as numeracy and literacy. Time constraints, lack of flexibility and a reluctance to innovate with the curriculum are a few of the causes mentioned. For Jouni Kangasniemi, senior advisor to Finland's Ministry of Education and Culture, the key question was how to really embed these skills throughout the curriculum rather than just add them to the mix of skills and subjects.
Progress is being made, however, and panelists shared examples of how the education system is adapting to changing demands. Examples from the Finnish education system, presented by Mr Kangasniemi, suggest that learning results in this area improve when teachers have a certain degree of freedom and trust to adjust the curriculum to the learning styles of the students. Teaching becomes more personalised and student-focused, and supports learning, with questions exchanged collaboratively between teachers and students rather than teachers simply presenting answers and facts.
Technology also has a central role in skills development. According to the EIU research, 85% of teachers report that IT advances are changing the way they teach—but only 23% of 18-25-year-olds think their education system is very effective at making full use of the technologies now available. With the pace of technological change accelerating, education systems should respond by offering training and platforms for teachers that effectively use technology and better equip students for both today’s and tomorrow’s workplace.
Jaime Casap, global education specialist at Google, stressed the need to focus on teaching mindsets, rather than skills. "Skills can become obsolete—there is a finite timeline when they can be used or applied," Casap argues, whereas an inquisitive approach that seeks to solve problems will always be necessary, no matter what issues humanity will need to grapple with in the future. The question is how we can build a culture and environment—and education models—that prepare students to meet any challenge as future digital leaders.
You might imagine it would be difficult to recap the highlights from more than 60 hours of programming, but we noticed a handful of common themes. Speakers and participants seemed to broadly agree about the challenges we face in our education systems, the changes we want to see and the steps we need to take to get there. It feels as if people around the world are joining forces to tackle big issues and achieve their goals together.
Check out the highlight reel that includes the most prominent themes from the conference:
The skills and mindset that will prepare students for the future
The need to let students and teachers learn from failure
The importance of giving students choice and voice
The power of technology to open doors
If you missed Education on Air, don’t worry. All the sessions are available on demand, so you can check out any of the keynotes, panel discussions and workshops that you missed. Just like the live conference, you can tune in from anywhere.
Stay tuned to this blog to get more news from Education on Air, including the “Skills of the Future” research you heard highlighted by Zoe Tabary of the Economist Intelligence Unit. We also want to hear from you. Let us know what you’d like to hear about at our next event. Add your voice in the comments under this tweet and this Google+ post.
Go ahead, get involved. Anyone can do it — even Gus.
You can create and edit assignments on the go, including the ability to make a copy for every student.
Just take a photo to create a post or assignment, so you can easily share those whiteboard notes with the class or assign the math problem that you jotted down on that napkin.
You’ll see these new features rolling out this week, and you can find more about how they work here.
We also wanted to take a moment to look back: since Classroom became available, students have turned in more than 70 million assignments and we’ve added more than 20 new features that you told us were important:
The ability to have multiple teachers in a class, so that teaching teams can work together.
Prep for classes ahead of time with draft assignments and posts.
Autosaved grades allow you to grade in batches.
A mobile app for Android and iOS lets you access your classes anywhere, even without cellular data or a WiFi connection.
With the teacher assignments page, you can view all of your assignments and track student progress in one place.
Stream settings give you control over class discussions; plus you can mute individual students and view deleted items.
Archive your finished classes and save everything for next semester.
Download grades as a batch, easily exporting them to any gradebook.
48 new visual themes and the ability to upload your own so you can customize your class.
+mentions let you instantly add students or other teachers into a conversation, making it easier to follow a comment thread.
Students can mark assignments as “done” when they don’t need to submit anything online.
And many more...
Look for more updates from us soon. Now we’re off to (virtually) hug a favorite teacher. Join us!
