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

by Laszlo Bock

Frustrated because even the best-designed business plans fell apart when people didn’t believe in them. Frustrated because leaders always spoke of putting people first, and then treated them like replaceable gears.

It just didn’t make sense to me that no matter where I turned, people weren’t treated better in their jobs. You spend more time working than doing anything else in life.

It’s not right that the experience of work, even at some of the best employers, should be so demotivating and dehumanizing.

it dawned on me how deeply a CEO’s persona and focus can shape an institution.

Most CEOs are very good at many things, but they become CEOs for being superbly distinctive at one or two, which tend to be matched to a company’s needs at that time.

Even CEOs need to declar...

Google is the most sought-after place to work on the planet according to LinkedIn,5 and we receive more than two million applications every year, representing individuals from every background and part of the world.

making Google twenty-five times more selective than Harvard,7 Yale,8 or Princeton.9

This book is the story of how we think about our people, what we’ve learned over the past fifteen years, and what you can do to put people first and transform how you live and lead.

Command-oriented, low-freedom management is common because it’s profitable, it requires less effort, and most managers are terrified of the alternative.

It’s easy to run a team that does what they are told.

the power dynamic at the heart of management pulls against freedom.

Employees are dependent on their managers and want to please them.

A focus on pleasing your manager, however, means it can be perilous to have a fr...

Nobody produces their best work entangled in this Gordian knot of spoken and unspoken agendas and emotions.

Google’s approach is to cleave the knot.

We deliberately take power and authority over employees a...

Each of these decisions is instead made either by a group of peers, a committee, or a dedicated, independent team.

the default leadership style at Google is one where a manager focuses not on punishments or rewards but on clearing roadblocks and inspiring her team.

The good news is that any team can be built around the principles that Google has used.

These companies had all launched traditional operations programs like “total quality management” and “just-in-time inventory control.” Birdi found that these programs sometimes improved productivity in one company or another,

but “we found no overall performance effect” when the companies were looked at in aggregate. In other words, there was no evidence suggesting that any of these operations initiatives would reliably and consistently improve performance.

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

All it takes is a belief that people are fundamentally good—and enough courage to treat your people like owners instead of machines.

Machines do their jobs; owners do whatever is needed to make their companies and teams successful.

People spend most of their lives at work, but work is a grinding experience for most—a means to a...

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. We humans live through narrative, viewing history through a lens of stories that we tell ourselves. No wonder that we find common threads in the tapestries of one another’s lives.

Larry and Sergey had ambitions beyond developing a great search engine.

They started out knowing how they wanted people to be treated.

they both wanted to create a company where work was meaningful, employees felt free to pursue their passions, and people ...

Talented people are attracted to Google because we empower them to change the world;

Our main benefit is a workplace with important projects, where employees can contribute and grow.

We are focused on providing an environment where talented, hard working people are rewarded for their contributions to Google and for making the world a better place.

being a founder doesn’t mean starting a new company.

It is within anyone’s grasp to be the founder and culture-creator of their own team,

The fundamental lesson from Google’s experience is that you must first choose whether you want to be a founder or an employee.

It’s not a question of literal ownership. It’s a question of attitude.

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.

“People interpret strong cultures based on the artifacts, because they’re the most visible,

but the values and assumptions underneath matter much more.”

All this fun might sound too frivolous to take seriously, but fun is an important part of Google,

creating an opportunity for unguarded exploration and discovery.

Yet fun is an outcome of who we are, rather than the defining characteristic. It doesn’t explain how Google works or why ...

To understand that, you have to explore the three defining aspects of our culture: missio...

Google’s mission is the first cornerstone of our culture.

Our mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Google’s mission is distinctive both in its simplicity and in what it doesn’t talk about. There’s no mention of profit or market.

No mention of customers, shareholders, or users. No mention of why this is our mission or to what end we pursue these goals.