Google's New Manager Student Workbook | Hacker News Reader

Google's New Manager Student Workbook

docs.google.com

110 pointshliyan11 comments

This is not what Google uses, but shares many similarities, so the title of "Google's" isn't fully correct.

This is an example from https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/

It looks good. Of course the real question is whether it's just lip service to look good, or whether the company as a whole really wholeheartedly embodies these values. From what I heard from Google employees online, in a lot of situations political power plays still trump other values like compassion and empathy.

I think this is a bit too cynical view.

For example, as a society, we are constantly reminding people to not drink and drive. There are still people doing it all the times. That doesn't mean telling people not to drink and drive is a lip service to look good. There can be bad apples anywhere. The fact that they try should be viewed as a positive, not a negative.

I agree focus should be on the positive. At the same time it's important to call out hypocrisy. Big companies oftentimes like to tout guidelines they don't actually follow.

For example, every company nowadays acts like they're big on diversity. Usually they do it to avoid getting sued. But really getting behind empowering women in the workplace does not often factor into any decision-making by HR or management.

One could argue that it is a lip service that was say that as a society yet do not work to improve public transit or take the extreme but reliable step to put breathalyzers in all vehicles.

I find using the "RACI" terminology (slide 16) consistently, both during project planning and execution, helps cut through ambiguity and misunderstanding of who is going to do what. The "Responsible" and "Accountable" roles are a little confusing because the words often synonyms. I remember them as "R" are the people doing the "Real work" and "A" is the manager whose "Ass is on the line" if the project fails. :)

I just recommended it to a mentee today in an email. An exec at a former company loved it, and at first I thought it was goofy, now equally love it. Simple, sweet, very effective.

Not a lot here on managing up, or serving as an effective conduit for decisions made above a manager’s level.

In my experience, these are at least as challenging for someone moving from an individual contributor to a management role.

Do people really have "highest values"? These sort of HR worksheets always make me cringe

Great question. It seems pretty obviously not. Almost any value (x) I can envision a scenario where a "lesser" value (y) would take precedence.

And that's because there's degrees. E.g. sometimes I'd prioritize money over physical safety, if it's a ton of money and a bit of risk.

So yeah... just a bunch of buzzwords afaict.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com