If you like business stories, you’ll like Googled by Ken Auletta. It’s a year-by-year story of Google’s rise from inception to powerhouse. Auletta asks the requisite provocative questions on privacy, copyright, and censorship, while also highlighting Google’s great achievements to date. It’s a fast read, yet comprehensive.
As a coach, I was struck by Google’s employment policy of giving its engineers and some of its non-engineering staff 20% of their work time for personal projects. This engenders loyalty to management and raises the creativity of the staff, a win-win for company and staff. How could we adopt the 20% policy in our own life and work?
Can we take a day of the week or 2 hours per day to step back from the day-to-day grind and reset, recharge, and refresh by refocusing on something different?
Can we encourage our teams (whether we are a manager or not) to take time to step back and work differently?
Is 20% enough or too much? What is the right frequency — every day, once a week, or monthly? How do we best spend that time?
Filed under: book review, career coaching, life coaching, book review, Google, Googled, Ken Auletta, rest
