ESL Business Teacher Resource Articles: Relationships s2

Corporate Structures

Pre-talk:

● What are your coworkers like?

● Are you involved in hiring people? Do you want to be?

● Why is it hard to hire good people?

Picture Talk: ● What is the impact of hiring someone bad?

● How do we know if we hired the wrong person?

● How do we improve hiring practices?

Headline: Is This Book The Secret Behind Google’s Amazing Success? (Source: by Dan Pontefract)

Article Highlights:

Nine days ago, Laszlo’s book, Work Rules! Why Google’s Rules Will Work for You, was delivered to my home by a man clad entirely in brown.

The book is a true masterpiece. There are boatloads of stories from within Google, as well as great anecdotes from other organizations and other experiences that Laszlo has witnessed. There is data (but not too much data) and no less than 259 references. The rules make such sense, I can see the book becoming a key reading in MBA programs going forward. The final gem from the book is in fact the final chapter, “What You Can Do Starting Tomorrow.”

If you’re looking for a quick summary guide on ten steps (and a quick summary of the Work Rules!) that can potentially transform your organization, team or workplace, Bock highlights them here, including:

1. Give your work meaning. I couldn’t agree more, as Bock writes, “everyone wants their work to have purpose.”

2. Trust your people. Trust is one of the 15 leadership attributes I wrote about in FLAT ARMY, so once again, I’m in complete agreement with Laszlo.

3. Hire only people who are better than you. And importantly, “hire by committee.”

4. Don’t confuse development with managing performance. Development is an ongoing conversation, not an annual measurement. 5. Focus on the two tails. Bock believes the organization should focus on the very, very good (power law distribution theory) and the very, very bad. For the good, learn everything you can from them. For the bad, help them learn, refocus or if all else fails, exit them.

6. Be frugal and generous. Not everything has to cost money, from a development, learning, inspirational perspective.

7. Pay unfairly. 90% or more of the value on your teams comes from the top 10%, so pay them accordingly. (A new-ish take on the Pareto Principle aided by the “power law” distribution theory.)

8. Nudge. In essence, be a pest such that you are pushing collaborative, sharing behaviour.

9. Manage the rising expectations. There is tuition value in mistakes.

10. Enjoy! And then go back to No. 1 and start again. “Building a great culture and environment requires constant learning and renewal.”

Discussion:

1. Does your work have purpose? How so? 2. Do you trust your team? How so? 3. Do you hire people better than you? 4. Why would someone not hire someone better than them? 5. Do you manage performance? How so? 6. Why should we study success and failure? a. How have you implemented the lessons? 7. Would you rather spend more time hiring A+ people than B+ people and having to train them? Why? 8. Do you think everyone should earn the same salary? Why (not)? 9. Do you push coworkers to share and collaboarte information? a. What is the impact of pestering in such a manner? 10. If someone makes a big mistake, should they be fired? Why (not)? 11. Do you think too much freedom at work is a bad thing? a. Example: Google allows 20% of your time to be devoted to what ever project you want (entreprenuarial spirit) 12. If we push employees to work harder, would we have better results? a. Should we continue to raise the bar constantly?