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

Here is a sample of the decisions managers at Google cannot make unilaterally:

three defining aspects of our culture: mission, transparency, and voice.

Ed Schein, now retired from the MIT School of Management, taught that a group’s culture can be studied in three ways: by looking at its “artifacts,” such as physical space and behaviors; by surveying the beliefs and values espoused by group members; or by digging deeper into the underlying assumptions behind those values.

A focus on pleasing your manager, however, means it can be perilous to have a frank discussion with her.

We deliberately take power and authority over employees away from managers.

Having workers meet the people they are helping is the greatest motivator, even if they only meet for a few minutes. It imbues one’s work with a significance that transcends careerism or money.

“You can’t understand Google … unless you know that both Larry and Sergey were Montessori kids.”

If you believe people are good, you must be unafraid to share information with them

only when companies took steps to give their people more freedom did performance improve.