A few months back I published an article that examined elements from Geoff Colvin’s book, Talent is Overrated. One of Colvin’s key points was how companies cultivate creativity and then use it to create better and more productive employees. Colvin used Google as one of his examples and wrote extensively about their philosophy behind fostering a very employee-friendly work environment and how it promotes and maintains productivity.
Colvin’s example made me want to learn even more about Google. They provide so much to workers, I was secretly hoping to find an in-house orchestra in which I could apply. Among the list of benefits Google offers employees is free organic cuisine, excellent health care benefits, the ability to bring dogs to the office, the list goes on. But one of my favorite benefits was their 20% of work time per week in which engineers are allowed to use for whatever projects they are passionate about. For Google, the 20% time has allowed for employees to come up with some of Google’s most popular added features as well as finding new ways of making Google’s service better, faster, and more fun.
