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

Making the templates more specific reduced the time spent writing reviews by 27 percent, and for the first time, 75 percent of peers felt that writing the reviews was helpful, up 26 points (on a scale of 100) from the prior year. Those using the discussion guide with their managers rated their performance conversations 14 points more favorably than

allow outcomes to be calibrated across groups.

world. Amy Wrzesniewski of Yale University told me people see their work as just a job (“a necessity that’s not a major positive in their lives”), a career (something to “win” or “advance”), or a calling (“a source of enjoyment and fulfillment where you’re doing socially useful work”). You would expect that it’s easier to consider some occupations

Examples of interview questions include: Tell me about a time your behavior had a positive impact on your team. (Follow-ups: What was your primary goal and why? How did your teammates respond? Moving forward, what’s your plan?) Tell me about a time when you effectively managed your team to achieve a goal. What did your approach look like? (Follow-u

On the topic of goals, the academic research agrees with your intuition: Having goals improves performance.113 Spending hours cascading goals up and down the company, however, does not.114 It takes way too much time and it’s too hard to make sure all the goals line up.

I had the pleasure of working with Frank Wagner, who is now one of our key People Operations leaders at Google, in 1994, when we were consultants. In the minutes before every client meeting, he would take me aside and ask me questions: “What are your goals for this meeting?” “How do you think each client will respond?” “How do you plan to introduce

The mythologist Joseph Campbell argued that there are just a few archetypal stories that underpin most myths around the world. We are called to an adventure, face a series of trials, become wiser, and then find some manner of mastery or peace.

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.

Yet everyone in People Operations has a few traits in common. Each one is a gifted problem solver. Each has a dose of intellectual humility, which makes them open to the possibilities that they could be wrong and always have more to learn. And each is tremendously conscientious, caring deeply about Googlers and the company.