Work Rules! Quotes

“Breaking down a huge question (“Do you know anyone we should hire?”) into lots of small, manageable ones (“Do you know anyone who would be a good salesperson in New York?”) garners us more, higher-quality referrals.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Steven Pinker, in The Better Angels of Our Nature, argues that the world has become a better place over time, at least when measured by incidences of violence. In the pre-state, hunter-gatherer era, 15 percent of people died violently, declining to 3 percent in the early Roman, British, and Islamic empires. By the twentieth century, homicide in European countries had dropped by another order of magnitude. Today, rates of violent death are even lower. Pinker explains that “human nature has always comprised inclinations toward violence and inclinations that counteract them—such as self-control, empathy, fairness and reason.… Violence has declined because historical circumstances have increasingly favored our better angels.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Jonathan Rosenberg once told me, “A crisis is an opportunity to have impact. Drop everything and deal with the crisis.” Changing the timing of performance reviews is perhaps a trivial kind of crisis, but I dropped everything and spent the next eight hours making phone calls until well past midnight. We ended up with a better answer, shaped by the people who were most affected, and I gained a broader network of people I could turn to for counsel and help.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of psychology at Florida State University, has studied the acquisition of expert-level skill for decades. The conventional wisdom is that it takes ten thousand hours of effort to become an expert. Ericsson instead found that it’s not about how much time you spend learning, but rather how you spend that time. He finds evidence that people who attain mastery of a field, whether they are violinists, surgeons, athletes,144 or even spelling bee champions,145 approach learning in a different way from the rest of us. They shard their activities into tiny actions, like hitting the same golf shot in the rain for hours, and repeat them relentlessly. Each time, they observe what happens, make minor—almost imperceptible—adjustments, and improve. Ericsson refers to this as deliberate practice: intentional repetitions of similar, small tasks with immediate feedback, correction, and experimentation.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Poor performance is rarely because the person is incompetent or a bad person. It’s typically a result of a gap in skill (which is either fixable or not) or will (where the person is not motivated to do the work). In the latter case, it could be a personal issue or a useful sign that there is something bigger wrong with the team that needs to be addressed.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“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.37 It’s”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Like any place, we of course have exceptions and failures, but 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.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“I didn’t have the benefit of having worked under both CEOs, but 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 declare a major. Welch is best known for Six Sigma—a set of tools to improve quality and efficiency—and his focus on people. Immelt instead emphasized sales and marketing, most visibly through GE’s branded “ecomagination” efforts to make and be perceived as a maker of greener products.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Welch and Conaty had implemented a 20-70-10 performance ranking system, where GE employees were sorted into three groups: the top 20 percent, the middle 70 percent, and the bottom 10 percent. The top workers were lionized and rewarded with choice assignments, leadership training programs, and stock options. The bottom 10 percent were fired. Under Immelt, the forced distribution was softened and the crisp labels of “top 20 percent,” “middle 70 percent,” and “bottom 10 percent” were replaced with euphemisms: “top talent,” “highly valued,” and “needs improvement.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“WORK RULES…FOR BUILDING A GREAT CULTURE Think of your work as a calling, with a mission that matters. Give people slightly more trust, freedom, and authority than you are comfortable giving them. If you’re not nervous, you haven’t given them enough.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Ray Dalio, explains: “My most important principle is that getting at the truth… is essential for getting better. We get at truth through radical transparency and putting aside our ego barriers in order to explore our mistakes and personal weaknesses so that we can improve.”57”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“I once gave a talk in Chicago to a group of local chief human resources officers (CHROs) about Google’s culture. After the presentation, one CHRO stood up and sneered, “This is all well and good for Google. You have huge profit margins and can afford to treat your people so well. We can’t all do that.” I was going to explain that most of what we did cost us little to nothing. And that even in a time of flat wages you can still make work better, make people happier. Indeed, it’s when the economy is at its worst that treating people well matters most. Before”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“When employees trust the leadership, they become brand ambassadors and in turn cause progressive change in their families, society, and environment. The return on investment to business is automatic, with greater productivity, business growth, and inspired customers.” Contrast”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Some organizations will declare defeat, pointing to the smallest backsliding as evidence that people can’t be trusted, that employees need rules and oversight to force them to serve the company. “We tried it this way,” they’ll declare, “and look where it got us. Employees got mad, or wasted money, or wasted my time.” Other leaders will prove to be made of sterner stuff. Those of you who, in the face of fear and failure, persevere and hold true to your principles, who interpose yourselves between the forces and faces buffeting the organization, will mold the soul of the institution with your words and deeds. And these will be the organizations that people will want to be a part of.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Human beings are complicated, thorny, messy things. But those unquantifiable qualities are also what make magic happen.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Innovation thrives on creativity and experimentation, but it also requires thoughtful pruning.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“A newly hired person actually destroys value.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Imagine how work would feel for you if, instead of people coming to you with anxiety and desperation, they shared their gratitude for making their lives easier and for being there when they most needed support. The”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Find ways to say yes. Employees will reward you by making your workplace more vibrant, fun, and productive. One”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“If your best person is worth ten of the average people, you must pay “unfairly.” Otherwise, you’re just giving them a reason to quit. At”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“The biggest lesson was that rewarding smart failure was vital to support a culture of risk-taking. Chris”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“We’ve found that trusting people to do the right thing generally results in them doing the right thing. Allowing people to reward one another facilitates a culture of recognition and service, and is a way to show employees that they should be thinking like owners rather than serfs.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Ten percent of productivity comes from the top percentile and 26% of output derives from the top 5% of workers.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Fairness is when pay is commensurate with contribution.liv As a result, there ought to be tremendous variance in pay for individuals.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Pay unfairly: Your best people are better than you think, and worth more than you pay them In”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“One of the core principles of Google has always been “Don’t politick. Use data.” As”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Senior executives shouldn’t be wasting time debating whether the best background color for an ad is yellow or blue. Just run an experiment.”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Pay unfairly. Celebrate accomplishment, not compensation. Make it easy to spread the love. Reward thoughtful failure. A”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“A learning organization starts with a recognition that all of us want to grow and to help others grow. Yet in many organizations, employees are taught and professionals do the teaching. Why not let people do both?”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead

“Studying your strongest people closely and then building programs to measure and reinforce their best attributes for the entire company changes the character of your company. If you also are able to get those who struggle the most to be substantially better, you’ll have created a cycle of constant improvement. Sebastien”
― Laszlo Bock, Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead