The mark of a great book is whether it inspires you to take action. If we use this as a success criterion, “Work Rules!” would have passed with flying colours because when I read Laszlo’s persuasive prose about conveying high expectations, I literally stopped reading and fiddled around with Canva. The outcome? An AI-generated poster aimed at telling my students to capitalise and punctuate their sentences when they text me!
Laszlo Bock previously worked as the Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google. Through his lens, I got to realise just what a remarkable workplace Google is. Right off the bat, he wrote about how employees are treated like founders and have the capacity to execute leadership, regardless of their rank. Now, I don’t know if he’s painting an overly rosy view of things, but in Singapore, we are constantly reminded about our position: School Leaders, Key Personnel and Happy Ordinary Teachers. This leads to people throwing “not my pay scale” as a reason to deflect from challenges. Not gonna put myself on a pedestal since I brandish that phrase sometimes too, but I wonder if our local conditions actually foster a sense of learned helplessness - there is little point in effecting change because we must follow protocols.
Laszlo also listed down Google’s initiatives that makes work fun and dynamic. Examples abound, including 20% time to work on passion projects, interest groups in which Googlers share their mastery of personal pursuits, opportunities to teach others how to attain your area of expertise. He framed it as “offer[ing] a refreshing change of mental scenery, making people more productive when they return to work.” Very soul-stirring words - to the extent that I asked my HOD whether I can attend a literacy seminar for inculcating bilingualism during curriculum time!
The last thing I took away from the book was the power of nudges. How Googlers were prodded to do stuff they would have otherwise forgotten. Nudges need not be elaborate either - an email notification sent at the right moment to encourage Googlers to top up their 401(K) had far-reaching impact. I will like to nudge my students at the right timing. ⏱️