One of the things that I write about sometimes and continue to be fascinated by is how the culture of different organizations contributes to or hinders their success. To that end, lots of people by now have seen Robert Scoble’s interview with Nick Baum and Jason Shellen (also partly reflects the power of online video).
The thing that was so interesting to me about watching that video is not about Google Reader/RSS per se, but getting an indirect taste of Google‘s 20% time culture. For those not already familiar with this, engineers get and are encouraged to spend 20% of their time on projects that are not their day-to-day jobs. Many Google consumer products have come out of this effort.
The people at Google (just like everywhere) work very hard but Google has managed to foster an environment of creativity and relative freedom where engineers’ individual interests and ideas matter. This works for product development in obvious ways and, perhaps less obvious but equally important, for retention.
Talent is partly behind some of the acquisitions Google has made in the past and the quality of your people is what often makes or breaks you. Retention becomes harder as employment has tightened and competition for engineering talent has gotten more intense. And as you move from an entrepreneurial culture to a larger, more mature media company it gets hard to keep people engaged and excited. That’s why giving people the message (and encouragement) to try something new and that their ideas matter is very powerful.
I realize this could be the “Pollyanna-ish” view of an outsider, but I think this is a significant innovation for Google and its employees.
Screenwerk 
November 3, 2006 at 7:55 pm
Actually, I think they got this idea from 3M, who has been doing this for years (decades?). Written about in Jim Collins’ Built to Last.
November 3, 2006 at 8:06 pm
So Mike says this is from 3M. I didn’t read “Good to Great” (one of the few) so I didn’t know the history. Whatever the source, it’s a great idea.