In 2009, Google embarked upon code project oxygen, which was reviewed and talked about widely. From the early days of Google, people questioned the value of managers. As one engineer put it, “we are a company built by engineers for engineers.” Most engineers spend their time designing and debugging, not communicating with bosses or supervising other workers’ progress. A few years into the company’s life, the founders wondered whether Google needed any managers at all. In 2002, they experimented with a completely flat organization, eliminating engineering managers and the experiment lasted only a few months. As the company grew, the founders soon realized that managers contributed in many important ways.
The challenge Google faced: Do managers matter? If highly skilled hires do not value management, how can Google run the place effectively? How do you turn doubters into believers, persuading them to spend time managing others? Google began to test its assumptions about management’s merits and then make the case. Google Project Oxygen, a multiyear research findings showed eight key management behaviors which is now being cultivated through communication and training. By November 2012, the company had shown statistically significant improvements in multiple areas of managerial effectiveness clearly proving that managers indeed really mattered.
The case for managers
To act on that finding, Google first had to figure out what its best managers did. Therefore, the researchers followed up with double-blind qualitative interviews with high- and low-scoring managers. The sophisticated multivariate statistical techniques showed that even “the smallest incremental increases in manager quality were quite powerful.” After much review, Oxygen identified eight behaviors shared by high-scoring managers. The list of behaviors served 3 important functions:
- Giving employees a shared vocabulary for discussing management,
- Offering them straightforward guidelines for improving it
- and encapsulating the full range of management responsibilities.
Google built assessments and training programs around the Oxygen findings. In “vision” classes, for example, participants practiced writing vision statements for their departments or teams and bringing the ideas to life with compelling stories. To complement the training, the development team, set up panel discussions featuring high-scoring managers from each function. Google is now rewarding these behaviors, which was so hard to promote earlier. The company has revamped its selection criteria for its Great Manager Award to reflect the following 8 Oxygen behaviors:
1.Be a good coach
- Provide specific, constructive feedback, balancing the negative and the positive.
- Have regular one-on-ones, presenting solutions to problems tailored to your employees’ specific strengths.
2.Empower your team and don’t micromanage
- Balance giving freedom to your employees, while still being available for advice. Make “stretch” assignments to help the team tackle big problems.
3.Express interest in team members’ success and personal well-being
- Get to know your employees as people, with lives outside of work.
- Make new members of your team feel welcome and help ease their transition
4.Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented
- Focus on what employees want the team to achieve and how they can help achieve it.
- Help the teams prioritize work and use seniority to remove roadblocks.
5.Be a good communicator and listen to your team
- Communication is two-way: you both listen and share information.
- Hold all-hands meetings and be straightforward about the messages and goals of the team. Help the team connect the dots.
- Encourage open dialogue and listen to the issues and concerns of your employees.
6.Help your employees with career development
7.Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
- Even in the midst of turmoil, keep the team focused on goals and strategy.
- Involve the team in setting and evolving the team’s vision and making progress toward it.
8.Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team
- Roll up your sleeves and conduct work side by side with the team, when needed.
- Understand the specific challenges of the work.
Three bad behaviors, which need to be discouraged, are:
1 .Have trouble making a transition to the team
- Sometimes, fantastic individual contributors are promoted to managers without the necessary skills to lead people.
- People hired from outside the organization do not always understand the unique aspects of managing at Google.
2. Lack a consistent approach to performance management and career development
- Do not help employees understand how these work at Google and does not coach them on their options to develop and stretch.
- Not proactive, waiting for the employee to come to them
3. Spend too little time managing and communicating
Project Oxygen has lessons for companies. The important one is that managers do matter. It is also important to identify star performers who are required to institutionalize essential behaviors or culture of your organization. These manages must provide steady feedback to guide people to greater levels of achievement — but intervene judiciously and with a light touch. When the process works well, it can yield extraordinary results. Google now has some layers, but not as many as you might expect in an organization with more than 37,000 employees: just 5,000 managers, 1,000 directors and 100 vice presidents.
Source:
- How Google measures high-scoring management. David A Garvin. The Hindu. 11th December 2013
- Google’s 8 Simple Rules for Being a Better Manager. Mark Michelli. 25th January 2013
- Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss. Adam Bryant. New York Times 12th March 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13hire.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Developing Self - Some Positive Reflections 