The Google
Garage: A Great Place To Go Gaga
Google it:
innovation doesn’t necessarily concern products. It can also reveal itself in, among
other things, new approaches to stimulating creativity on the work floor. This
is exactly what Google Inc. has decided to try. Now, before you start reading on,
I invite you to look at this two-minute video, which presents an example of how
Google attempts to innovate their business culture.
The Google
Garage was created as an environment to encourage Googlers – yes, this is what their
employees call themselves, geeky, I know – to work on their own wild and crazy
ideas, virtually without any restrictions. This way, Google tries to stimulate cross-pollination
between different departments. People from Marketing, Corporate Engineering,
People Operations, etc. get to meet and exchange their thoughts in the Google
Garage. This is, in my opinion, a very effective and innovative way of improving
overall employee satisfaction, as well as an original technique to create an
open and relaxed corporate culture.
By giving employees
time to work on their personal projects, Google shows their genuine concern for
its workforce. I personally believe this is one of the reasons why Google, with
its renowned culture of experimentation, is also known to be a fun place to work.
What do you think of Google, their corporate culture and ideas like the Google
Garage? Would you like to work for the American search engine? I know I would!
If you want
more information about The Google Garage, just google it (duh), or go to http://lmgtfy.com/?q=google+garage.
This would be an excellent way to make sure cross-pollination happens between several university departments as well: the Linguistics and Communications department, for instance, are actually often interested in the very same things, but simply because they hardly ever meet (Blandijn - Korte Meer), there is no interaction! More Googleness at UGent, I say!
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAgree! If only there were some kind of credit system for this, where the projects would be considered equal to a 3-credit course, for example.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI do fear, however, we will have to wait for a change of economic climate first. I don't see the university injecting money in projects like these on the one hand, whilst simultaneously pushing through serious budget cuts on the other.