Introduction: All organizations are facing unprecedented changes and challenges brought about by the blending of natural and man-made conditions. They drive people to rethink the tools, technologies and conditions needed for development and innovation. In this article, Google Vice President and Chief Internet Communications Officer Vinton G. Cerf shares 5 aspects of fostering a culture of innovation.
Technology alone cannot achieve a sustainable competitive advantage
To create a more innovative business, you must rethink how employees, organizational structures, and workflows interact every day-we call this organizational culture . The team on which the organization develops must have systems and processes that enable them to maintain a high degree of participation, improve work efficiency, and have long-term prospects.
At Google, we spent many years thinking about how to maintain and improve such a culture that can promote change and innovation. In the process of exploration, we have always adhered to a series of core principles that can enrich our thinking and support Google’s culture for the past two decades.
Always measure, make decisions and ensure transparency in the process of cultivating culture
Measurement is at the core of everything we do at Google.
We measure everything-from how the system works to work efficiency, to how people feel. The data we collect is very valuable, it can help us reveal problems faster. After collecting the data, we still need to spend some time explaining it, but at least we have the basis for judging the health of the organization.
"A necessary recognition is that the feedback system can only function effectively when people believe that their feedback will bring about change."
The culture of measurement drives the collection of anecdotal information and quantitative data. Both of these are things that must be understood before making changes. We carry out many different forms of measurement, such as the annual anonymous employee satisfaction survey that encourages everyone to participate. Data over the years and such a feedback mechanism help us make decisions and change the way we work as needed.
Once we have collected the data and made a decision, it is time to put these changes into practice. A necessary recognition is that the feedback system can only work effectively when people believe that their feedback will bring about change. Therefore, the trick is to seriously deal with the received information and take action after asking the question .
Transparency is another important part of Google’s culture. At its core, we must be highly transparent about the feedback we receive and how we respond . The company's high degree of transparency can increase customer trust on the one hand, and increase employee trust on the other. People need to understand why we prioritize certain changes. This is the core of the company's development genes.
Don't be afraid to fail
Sometimes, science as a discipline learns more from failure than from success. If you ask why something does not work, you will often learn more than it actually works. Therefore, even at Google, we will try many things that do not work, learn from them and improve our practical methods. In the end, we hope that after accumulating experience, things that want to work can really work. Science is so. So is Google.
You must allow failure. I am not saying that we should always fail. That is a problem! What I want to talk about is the freedom to try things without absolute certainty of success. This is the fundamental difference between engineering development and research.
With a research mindset, you won't know the answer from the beginning. The engineering development way of thinking makes you think you know the answer, and all you need to do is construct that answer. But the following may happen: you first construct the answer you thought, and then it doesn't work. These two ways of thinking will interact in the most wonderful way. The engineer said: "I built it, but it was useless." The researcher said, "Why not?" The engineer said, "I don't know, can you help?" Then, they worked together to discover why the known implementation plan The root cause of this failure is to learn from it and develop a new design that takes this into account.
At Google, we take many different paths when we explore new features in the system, and we often encourage people to try different paths that sometimes find dead ends. We will not blame each other, but share the fact that we have encountered a dead end with others so that everyone can learn from it. This is how we improve everyone's ability to work.
Remember, cultivating culture is a long-term job
With the passage of time, the company’s personnel changes and the company’s expansion, let us remind everyone of the cultural norms that we want to maintain.
"You must review important cultural elements regularly."
For example, one of the goals Google is trying to achieve is to give people the opportunity to experiment freely. Therefore, the company has formulated a policy that allows engineers to spend 20% of their time on things outside of their daily work. People spend this 20% of their time absorbing knowledge outside of work. This policy has become an important factor in maintaining employee satisfaction.
As we grow, the 20% rule is gradually forgotten. Until we remind everyone that the 20% policy is very important to Google and is a cultural element we want to adhere to. In short, you must regularly review important cultural elements.
Keep an open mind
If I want to provide advice to corporate CIOs, one thing I must say is: don’t assume that you have all the answers. In fact, it is more likely that you do not have most of the answers. Therefore, seize every opportunity to share knowledge with your colleagues, friends and even competitors, and learn better from others, so as to solve the same problems you encounter. An open mind is your friend. Don't always want to take all the credit for yourself. Acknowledging the contributions of others is important because it will motivate them to continue contributing their own strength. This open spirit is as important as an open way of thinking.
Technology alone cannot guarantee success. You need a culture that supports change and accelerated progress, paving the way for innovation. People have been empowering technology, especially now. Even in different places, team members must work together to solve important problems. Cultivating a culture of innovation helps to discover new opportunities and take quick action to put new ideas into practice to seize the opportunity in the competition.
Related Reading:
Lighter pQRNN: based on projection, achieve fast and parallel NLP processing
TensorFlow Recommenders is now open source, taking the recommendation system to the next level!
[Live Preview] Google Cloud talks to PingCAP, exploring the secrets of TiDB core database migration
AI for good: Real-time sign language detection promotes accessibility of video conferences