As part of an SPS Commerce book club, I found the following notes and quotes interesting from
Work Rules:
Why:
Page 13: “a manager focuses not on punishments and reward but on clearing roadblocks and inspiring”
Page 14:
“Performance improved only when companies implemented programs to
empower employees, provided learning opportunities that were outside
what people needed to do their jobs, increased their reliance
on teamwork”
Chapter 1: Becoming a Founder
Page 22: “We believe
it is easy to be to pennywise and pound foolish with respect to
benefits that can save employees considerable time and improve their
health and productivity”
Page 34: “moral rather than business goal”
Chapter 2: “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”
Page 39: 5 minutes with customer increased productivity 400%
Page 46: “Openness demonstrates to your employees that you believe they are trustworthy”
Chapter 3: “Lake Wobegon, Where all the New Hires Are Above Average”
Page 59: “Some
experts go so far as to say that 90 percent of training doesn’t cause a
sustained improvement in performance or change in behavior because it’s
neither well designed nor well delivered.”
“There are examples
of people who were mediocre performers and went on to greatness, though
most of those successes are a result of changing the context and type of
work, rather than the benefit of training.”
Page 60: “Companies continue to invest substantially more in training than in hiring”
“The presence of a
huge training budget is not evidence that you’re investing in your
people It’s evidence that you failed to hire the right people to begin
with.”
Page 65: Only hirer people who are better than you in some meaningful way
“But even the best-intentioned managers compromise their standards as searches drags on.”
Page 66: “The pedigree of your college education matters far less than what you have accomplished.”
Page 67: “looking for a wide variety of attributes, among the most important of which are humility and conscientiousness.”
Chapter 4: Searching for the Best
Page 72: Hiring committee composed of people familiar with the job but didn’t have a direct stake.
Page 74: Puzzle billboard made 0 hires.
Page 75: analysis
“revealed that academic performance didn’t predict job performance
beyond the first two to three years after college.”
Page 77: “sixteen years later, about one-third of the original hundred hires are still at Google”
Page 80: "Googler is
provided with weekly updates on the status of their candidates." Asked
for best person for X that they know.
Page 81 "The very best people aren't out there looking for work."
Chapter 5: Don’t Trust Your Gut
Page 88:"For 9 of
the 11 variables, thin-slice judgments correlated significantly with the
final evaluation of the actual interviews."
Page 90:
Explain employee performance:
14% unstructured interview
10% conscientious
7% reference checks
3% years of work experience
29% (best) work sample test
26% general cognitive ability (but tests skew for gender, race, etc)
26% consistent set
of questions with clear criteria - behavior and situation - perceived to
be most fair. Veterans Affairs has samples
Page 96: "score the interview with a consistent rubric"
Page 98: survey every interviewee to refine process
Page 99: emergent leadership ignores formal designation and recedes back into team when not needed.
Page 100: intellectual humility, comfort with ambiguity, evidence of taking courageous and interesting paths
Role related knowledge is least important because it reduces fresh perspective
Page 101: Need mix of generalists and specialists.
Two interviewers
must address each attribute. Written feedback must include attribute,
question, answer, assessment. Allows evaluating interviewers
Page 103: 4 interviews give 86% confidence. Each additional only adds 1%.
Re-evaluate rejected applicants against employees.
Page 105: How much does each level of review help?
Page 106: assessment led by recruiters and they are familiar with many jobs to correctly place candidates.
Dis-interested interviewer and review
Page 113: Average Googler spends 1.5 hours/week on hiring
Chapter 6: Let the Inmates Run the Asylum
Page 118: "could you promote yourself"
Page 121: If senior person sits in the middle, that seat will be left open
Page 122: break the rules when it makes sense. "Always, always make room for a truly exceptional person"
Page 124: Take away management power to free team to innovate.
Page 125: Choose your own title
Page 126: President cleaned up after his own dog
Page 128: "Don't politick. Use data."
Page 132: "A
promotion packet that has no constructive feedback is actually a warning
sign" Publish promotion stats to show that there aren't biases.
Page 137: Engineers
given anonymous performance and pay data and to shape how bonuses would
be allocated. Bonus basis changed to median salary
Page 141: annual survey focused on innovation, execution, and retention
Chapter 7: Why Everyone Hates Performance Management, and What We Decided to Do About It
Page 154: performance systems tend to give generic positive feedback that isn't actionable
Page 164: calibrate ratings across managers
Page 165: start meetings with handout on biases
Page 165: use benchmark people known by multiple managers
Page 170: split annual review from salary discussion so review gets enough focus
make development a constant back-and-forth ... Rather than a year-end surprise
Chapter 8: The Two Tails
Page 184: help worst performers (across company) perform better (separate from performance evaluation) instead of firing them
Page 193: "manager quality was the single best predictor of whether employees would stay or leave"
Page 198: feedback must focus on development rather than rewards and punishments, so the system isn't gamed.
Chapter 9: Building a Learning Institution
Page 206: shard activities into tiny actions and repeat endlessly -- each time experiment, observe, adjust
Page 210:
"exceptional success rarely follows and individual from company to
company" -- use internal best to train more specifically
Page 216: create training offering page -- list your name and what you are willing to teach.
Tech advisors
Page 221: check behavior change of training - wait, ask trainee and their team.
Page 222: check results
Chapter 10: Pay Unfairly
Page 249: gifts are better for celebrating special than cash.
Page 250: Public kudos
Page 252: $175 peer bonus
Page 255: reward smart failures so people take risks
Page 256: People who haven't experienced failures don't learn how to grow and pass them.
Share bad news as openly as good news to avoid blindness and learn from mistakes.
Page 262: many on-site services don't cost anything and just require permission.
Page 263: Take your parent to work day
Page 271: "innovation tends to occur in the structural holes between social groups."
Chapter 11: The Best Things in Life are Free (Or Almost Free)
Chapter 12: Nudge … a Lot
Page 292: Nudges must be thoughtful but not forceful.
Page 294: Data + human nature -> fix dysfunctional team
Half of senior hires fail in 18 months. Have of hourly leave in 120 days.
Page 296: Checklist must be timely
Page 312: Simply providing information didn’t change behavior.
Page 315: Making
unhealthy food less visible than healthy food dropped unhealthy food
consumption – but must have unhealthy choice
Page 316: Offering attic insulation with attic cleaning tripled rate of attic insulation.
Chapter 13: It’s Not All Rainbows and Unicorns
Page 321: 1 major leak/year. Even accidental leaks get people fired.
Page 323: Expose entitlement (without exposing source)
Page 324: Change benefits when reason doesn’t apply anymore.
Page 326: Deal with objections to plans right away and be open to changing the plans.
Page 329: Review
services and cull those that don’t make sense anymore – even if they
have vocal supporters. Need to focus on services with the most need. Be
transparent with rationale.
Page 333: “Nothing was resolved.”
Chapter 14: What You Can Do Starting Tomorrow
Page: 337: “If people are good, they should be free”
Page 343: Performance conversation should be entirely about outcomes – not about process
Study best all-around and specialists
Page 344: “Save your biggest checks for the times when your people are most in need”
Afterword for HR Geeks Only: Building the World’s First People Operations Team
Page 353: Senior management cheat sheets that aren’t shared with senior management.
Page 354: “you must constantly ask yourself whether the principle underpinning each rule is relevant to the case at hand, and fearlessly abandon practice and policy when the situation merits it.”
Page 355: Anticipate needs
Page 356: “You rarely get praised for avoiding a problem.”
Page 358: “Someone [in sales?] who is not promoted after 16 quarters is all but guaranteed to quit.”
Reach out to people who were almost promoted and tell them how to continue growing
Page 359: Experiment. Test on small group or for short time (and tell that it is a test)
Page 361: Hire 1/3 of HR from HR background, 1/3 from consulting strategy, and 1/3 analytic and then mix.
Page 363: Everyone has the opportunity to work in every job, regardless of background.
Page 364: Hired some people without a college degree
Page 375: 2 “Inspired by” photo credits.
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