Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

by Laszlo Bock

Overview

From the visionary head of Google's innovative People Operations comes a groundbreaking inquiry into the philosophy of work — and a blueprint for attracting the most spectacular talent to your business and ensuring that they succeed.


"We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. It's not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanizing." So says Laszlo Bock, former head of People Operations at the company that transformed how the world interacts with knowledge.

This insight is the heart of Work Rules!, a compelling and surprisingly playful manifesto that offers lessons including:

• Take away managers' power over employees
• Learn from your best employees-and your worst
• Hire only people who are smarter than you are, no matter how long it takes to find them
• Pay unfairly (it's more fair!)
• Don't trust your gut: Use data to predict and shape the future
• Default to open-be transparent and welcome feedback
• If you're comfortable with the amount of freedom you've given your employees, you haven't gone far enough.

Drawing on the latest research in behavioral economics and a profound grasp of human psychology, Work Rules! also provides teaching examples from a range of industries-including lauded companies that happen to be hideous places to work and little-known companies that achieve spectacular results by valuing and listening to their employees. Bock takes us inside one of history's most explosively successful businesses to reveal why Google is consistently rated one of the best places to work in the world, distilling 15 years of intensive worker R&D into principles that are easy to put into action, whether you're a team of one or a team of thousands.

Work Rules! shows how to strike a balance between creativity and structure, leading to success you can measure in quality of life as well as market share. Read it to build a better company from within rather than from above; read it to reawaken your joy in what you do.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455554799
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	04/07/2015
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	638,802
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Laszlo Bock led Google's people function, responsible for attracting, developing, retaining, and delighting "Googlers." Bock's earlier experience spans executive roles at the General Electric Company, management consulting at McKinsey & Company, start-ups, non-profits, and acting.

During Bock's tenure, Google was named the Best Company to Work For more than thirty times around the world and received more than 100 awards as an employer of choice. In 2010, he was named Human Resources Executive of the Year by Human Resources Executive magazine.

Table of Contents

Preface: A Guidance Counselor's Nightmare 1

Why Google's Rules Will Work for You 7

1 Becoming a Founder 17

2 "Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast" 29

3 Lake Wobegon, Where All the New Hires Are Above Average 54

4 Searching for the Best 69

5 Don't Trust Your Gut 87

6 Let the Inmates Run the Asylum 118

7 Why Everyone Hates Performance Management, and What We Decided to Do About It 150

8 The Two Tails 178

9 Building a Learning Institution 204

10 Pay Unfairly 225

11 The Best Things in Life Are Free (or Almost Free) 260

12 Nudge… a Lot 283

13 It's Not All Rainbows and Unicorns 318

14 What You Can Do Starting Tomorrow 336

Afterword for HR Geeks Only: Building the World's First People Operations Team 349

Work Rules 367

Acknowledgments 371

Photo Credits 375

Notes 377

Index 397

About the Author 405

Editorial Reviews

01/19/2015
Bock, Google’s head of people operations, debuts with a book about how Google hires and manages its employees. Most people know about the company’s free lunches and shuttle services, but, according to him, there is more behind Google’s five-time Fortune ranking as “Best Company to Work For.” The company aims to “keep people in an environment of freedom, creativity, and play.” However, there are rules underlying this culture, and values underlying these rules, to each of which Bock devotes one of the book’s 14 chapters. Its bedrock is trust in the fundamental goodness of people. Some rules are easier to accept than others. For example, “given limited resources, invest your HR dollars first in recruiting.” Less obvious is, “Swallow hard and pay unfairly.” No matter the rule, however, its explanation is thorough. Regarding pay, Bock cites a “power law distribution” that proves “your best people are better than you think, and worth more than you pay them.” This book is for those who are curious about Google, but especially for business leaders, all of whom, according to Bock, would benefit from adopting these rules themselves. Anecdotes about Google’s founding and history mingle with discussions of management theory, psychology, and behavioral economics to create a fascinating and accessible read. Agent: Amanda Urban, ICM. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"The book is a true masterpiece."—Forbes.com

"An intriguing profile of an innovative company that continues to shake up the world."—Kirkus Reviews

"Good guidance from the head of Google's innovative People Operations, who wants to show companies how to attract and keep the best managers...Love the read-it-two-ways title."—Library Journal

"Anecdotes about Google's founding and history mingle with discussions of management theory, psychology, and behavioral economics to create a fascinating and accessible read."—Publishers Weekly

"WORK RULES! delivers on its promise. Befitting a volume written deep within the algorithm factory, WORK RULES! is dense with data and counterintuitive conclusions for anyone looking to make the workplace a better place."—Forbes

"WORK RULES! offers a bold, inspiring, and actionable vision that will transform the future of work. It should be mandatory reading for everyone who leads, manages, or has a job."—Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of 5 books and organizational psychologist

"Laszlo Bock's book is a dazzling revelation: at once an all-access backstage pass to one of the smartest organizations on the planet, and also an immensely useful blueprint for creating a culture of creativity. It should be given to every leader, every entrepreneur, every manager, every student, and every human being who wants to understand how to build a successful, cohesive, high-performing workplace."—Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code

"Laszlo Bock has written a remarkable book that reveals the secrets of becoming a talent powerhouse. He shows the many benefits of a high freedom culture with a mission that matters. And along the way, he topples pillar after pillar of conventional wisdom on hiring, training, assessing, and compensating the people who power your organization. If you're looking for forehead-smacking insights along with an array of savvy new practices, WORK RULES! is an essential read."—Dan Pink, author of Drive and To Sell Is Human

"WORK RULES! is spectacular. I spent weeks with it, because I wanted to take such careful, detailed notes. I plan to share it with our entire Quiet Revolution team-and I'm sure that all company founders will do the same."—Susan Cain, co-founder of Quiet Revolution and author of Quiet

"WORK RULES! is an exceptional book aimed at any manager who wants great ideas for encouraging success from their team . . . an instant classic for the management shelf."—Ram Charan, coauthor of Execution and advisor to boards and CEOs

"With a clear-eyed, data-driven look into today's workplace, Bock reveals the non-traditional practices that can fundamentally transform businesses of all kinds."—Indra K. Nooyi, chairman and CEO, PepsiCo

"The finest book on organizational culture that I have ever read. WORK RULES! is the essential playbook for creating high-performance cultures that liberate people to do their most important work."—Tom Gardner, founder and CEO, Motley Fool

"WORK RULES! is more than a must-read business book. It's a handbook for high-performance teams that win."—John Doerr, managing director, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

"Some will think that WORK RULES! is a book about Google. It is, but mostly it is much more: a book about how to build people operating systems that permit any organization to get the smartest decisions from their workforce. Clearly written, evidence-based, with practical guidance and a cogent underlying philosophy, WORK RULES! needs to rule the world of work."—Jeffrey Pfeffer, author of Leadership B.S.

"WORK RULES! is a surprising, unconventional book that is required reading for anyone looking for a job in the tech sector, and for every entrepreneur seeking new modes of innovative thinking."—Peter H. Diamandis, chairman, XPRIZE; exec. chairman, Singularity

"A riveting ringside view of people operations at Google. A deft marriage of research and practice that is full of practical tips. It is an indispensable book for all people managers."—Robert I. Sutton and Hayagreeva Rao, co-authors of Scaling up Excellence

"As a company renowned for questioning our assumptions, it should be no surprise that Google has developed unique and profoundly effective approaches to culture, talent and leadership. By debunking many accepted HR practices WORK RULES! establishes itself as a new testament for managing talent in modern times."—Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO and author of Change By Design

"Laszlo Bock has done far more than codify Google's recipe for its high-freedom, high-performance workplace, he has created the essential guide for unleashing talent in the digital age. Intelligent, playful, and practical, WORK RULES! is for all leaders who want to inspire brilliance and bring out the best of humanity in their workforce."—Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers and Rookie Smarts

From the Publisher

★ 02/15/2015
Who's not curious about what makes Google a worker's paradise and a household word among profitable businesses? Agreeing with Ron Friedman's (The Best Place To Work) contention that gains in job satisfaction and concomitant increases in innovation and productivity are within the reach of every organization—regardless of funds available for employee perks—Google's top human-resources professional, Bock, offers tips from management research and examples gleaned from experience to illustrate how "the best way to arrive at the beating heart of great management is to strip away all the tools on which most managers rely." Readers persisting after the preface's assault on conventional management theory and practice stand an excellent chance of emulating Google's success in attracting, developing, and retaining employees who Bock characterizes as "the most talented people on the planet." Counterintuitive chapter titles include "Don't Trust Your Gut" (advocating use of structured interviews over subjective measures and methods not predictive of future performance) and "Pay Unfairly" (explaining how rigid pay structures can motivate highest performers to quit). Each section concludes with three-to-four takeaways encapsulating the author's message. VERDICT Bock makes a persuasive case for ceding power to individual employees and teams. For visionary managers. [See Prepub Alert, 10/27/14.]—Elizabeth Wood, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH

Library Journal

2015-01-04
The head of "People Operations" at Google discusses how the company grew into a world leader in its field and why economics was not necessarily the primary driver of its development.Bock's account of the company's origin and growth challenges traditional top-down business models based on monetary incentives and bonuses to mobilize and motivate employees in pursuit of corporate goals. As the author tells it, "Googlers" have built a self-replicating culture of continuous innovation and improvement, from the eponymous search engine to Android phones and operating system and self-driving cars. Trust is at the company's core. Each of their highly qualified employees is free to contribute their best and help others solve problems, transparently, with research supported by rigorously tested data. "Inside Google," writes the author, "we don't have a lot of rule books and policy manuals." Nonetheless, Bock offers his own interpretation in the form of 10 work rules that can help transform a workplace into a "high freedom environment." These include giving your own work meaning, focusing on turning overperformers into teachers and working with underachievers to do better, not confusing development with managing performance, and being both frugal and generous. Bock insists that "culture eats strategy for breakfast," and he dismisses the "up or out model of management" associated with former GE head Jack Welch—this scheme rigorously ranks workers annually and dumps the bottom 10 percent. As Bock shows, Google couldn't afford the luxury of wasting one of its largest investments: the associates. Compensation, promotion policy, management practices and performance management are all designed to foster associates' contributions to building a "learning institution." A perfect example is Google, writes the author, which is "twenty five times" more exclusive than Harvard and "profoundly suspicious of power." An intriguing profile of an innovative company that continues to shake up the world.

Kirkus Reviews

Bock explains why so many creative people want to work at Google. A human resource professional and natural-sounding speaker, he delivers his book with a combination of boyish wonder and a matter-of-fact conviction. But the discussion is also a compelling reminder that it’s beneficial for all employees to be creative, to think expansively, and to put their hearts and souls into helping customers live better lives. With his engaging delivery, Bock makes suggestions for starting your own utopian workplace: Create an environment that allows everyone to stay focused on his or her vision, be transparent with each other, and feel empowered to express thoughts and ideas. T.W. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2015 - AudioFile