Work Rules:Post #4--Empowerment

Empowerment. Get rid of status. Google only has 4 employment levels: individual contributor, manager, director, and vice president. Making decisions needs to rely more on data than emotion or opinion. Does not mean emotion doesn’t factor in—just means it’s not the key driver. My favorite chapter title: “Let the Inmates Run the Asylum—Take power from your managers and trust your people to run things.” Clearly at a company the size of Google, rules are required; however, Googlers are encouraged to break the rules when it makes more sense. By taking power away from managers, they become more like coaches and less like referees.