"Work Rules!" is my attempt to make things better. It’s not right that the experience of work, even at some of the best employers, should be so demotivating and dehumanizing. We spend more time working than doing anything else in the world. In fact, for most people, work was just a means to an end, or worse, a downright miserable experience. Yet in too many of them, the one constant seemed to be that people weren’t being treated the way they deserved to be. #WORKRULES | WORKRULES.Since I first started working, I’ve amassed a random walk of jobs that can best be described as a guidance counselor’s nightmare. If enough of us try, maybe we’ll have a shot at making work more meaningful for everyone in the world. To try new things and share what’s effective, giving us an unprecedented opportunity to change the meaning of work. Sucks do nothingdo something I can’t be the only person who’s ever thought, “work sucks.” And I definitely am not the only person who’s ever done something about it. I have a lot more to share-from interview questions to fixing performance management to how nudges helped me lose 30 pounds-you can read about the solutions to more specific problems in the book. Some of the bigger lessons we’ve learned over the years. Building a great culture and environment requires constant learning, experimentation, and renewal. #WORKRULES | WORKRULES.NETĭo everything at once. Tell people around you that you’re going to be experimenting to balance expectations. You’re never going to please everyone, but don’t let that prevent you from trying new things. The rate of patient deaths dropped by almost half. Between 20, Atul Gawande had eight hospitals around the world start using a safety checklist before performing surgery. #WORKRULES | WORKRULES.NETĬhanges in behavior. Otherwise you’re just giving them a reason to quit. #WORKRULES | WORKRULES.NETįar, far more than your average people. Manufacturer, provides its mostly female workforce with supplemental food and medicine when they’re pregnant.
Save your biggest checks for when they need it most. #WORKRULES | WORKRULES.NETĬan do for your employees are free, or close to it. Put your best people under a microscope to find out-and replicate-what makes them succeed. If they’re low performers and help them learn or find new roles-people need to know how they’re doing in order to grow. Richard Ryan found that attaching incentives to tasks reduced intrinsic motivation, leading to less time and effort spent completing them, especially when those incentives were later removed. Separate conversations about rewards fromĬonversations about development.Set the bar high, never compromise on quality, and find someone who is better than you in some meaningful way. Kamal Birdi studied productivity at 308 companies and found the same thing. Not only were the workers with more freedom more productive, they also earned higher wages and had lower costs. Garment plants in Mexico, one tightly controlled and another that was self-run by workers. You’ll be surprised what people can do when you simply trust them to do the right thing. Amy Wrzesniewski (Yale), Adam Grant (Wharton), and others have shown this increases both productivity and happiness. The most talented people on the planet, you need to craft a goal that inspires them. (All of these are free!) #WORKRULES | WORKRULES.NET Three defining aspects of Google’s culture: finding a compelling mission, being transparent, and giving our people a voice. That bean bags and lava lamps, along with our profit margins, are the secret to our success. Replicate this approach, and I’ll gladly share some of the science and experiences that have helped us get where we are today. Lots of other companies and researchers are doing things to make work better for people. My job is to find and grow our employees, self-dubbed “Googlers,” and keep them happy. Google operates on the belief that people are fundamentally good. #WORKRULES | WORKRULES.NETįounded Google with a strong vision about the kind of company they wanted to create. Maybe we just had to do things differently. Maybe it was possible to build a great business while also treating people really, really well. #WORKRULES | WORKRULES.NETĬostco put their people first. After I arrived at Google in 2006, I began to notice places that took a better approach. Or worse, it’s a downright miserable experience. #WORKRULES | WORKRULES.NETįour billion of us with jobs, work is just a means to an end.