Google Management Methods: A Partial CAT scan
June 8, 2021
The document “Thoughts on Cadence” is online as of June 7, 2021, at 6 am US Eastern. If you are a fan of management thrillers, you will want to snag this 14 page X Ray at www.shorturl.at/dgCY6 or maybe www.shorturl.at/cdBE2. (No guarantee how long the link will be valid. Because… Google, you know.)
“Cadence” was in the early 2000s, popular among those exposed to MBA think. The idea was that a giant, profit centric organization was organized. Yep, I know that sounds pretty crazy, but “cadence” implied going through training, getting in sync, and repeating the important things. Hut one two three four or humming along to a catchy tune crafted by Philip Glass. Thus, the essay by a person using the identifier Shishir Mehrotra, who is positioned as a Xoogler once involved in the YouTube business. A book may be forthcoming with the working title Rituals of Great Teams. I immediately thought of the activities once conducted at Templo Mayor by the fun loving Aztecs.
I am not going to walk through the oh, so logical explanation of the Google Management Method’s YouTube team. I want to highlight the information in the Tricks section. With such a Campbell soup approach to manufacturing great experiences, these magical manipulations reveal more of the Google method circa 2015. Procedures can change is six years. Heck, this morning, Google told me I used YouTube too much. I do upload a video every two weeks, so now “that’s enough” it seems.
Now to the tricks.
The section is short and it appears these are designed to be “productivity techniques.” It is not clear if the tricks are standard operating procedure, but let’s look at these six items.
First, one must color one’s calendar.
Second, have a single goal for each meeting.
Third, stand up and share notes and goals.
Fourth, audit the meetings.
Fifth, print your pre reading.
Sixth, have a consistent personal schedule.
Anyone exposed to meetings at a Google type of company knows that the calendar drives the day. But what happens when people are late, don’t attend, or play with their laptops and mobile phones during the meeting. Plus, the “organizer” often changes the meeting because a more important Google type person adds a meeting to the organizer’s calendar. Yep, hey, sorry really improves productivity. In my limited experience, none of these disruptions ever occur. Nope. Never. Consequently, the color of the calendar box, the idea of the meeting itself, and the concept of a consistent personal schedule are out the window.
Now the single goal thing is interesting. In Google type companies, there are multiple goals because each person in the meeting has an agenda: A lateral move or arabesque to get on a hot project, get out of the meeting to go get a Philz coffee, or nuke the people in the meeting who don’t understand the value of ethical behavior.
The print idea is interesting. In my experience, I am not sure printed material is as plentiful in meetings as it was when I worked at some big outfits. Who knows? Maybe 2015 thumb typers, GenXers, and Millennials did embrace the paper thing.
Thus, the tricks seem like a semi-formed listicle. With management precepts like the ones in the “Cadence” document, I can see why the Google does a bang up job on human resource management, content filtering, and thrilling people with deprecated features. Sorry, Gran, your pix of the grandchildren are gone now but the videos of the kids romping in the backyard pool are still available on YouTube.
Great stuff! Productivity come alive.
Stephen E Arnold, June 8, 2021
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