谷歌人才輩出的奧秘

School's in Session at Google

谷歌公司(Google Inc.)首席執行長佩奇(Larry Page)在過去一年試圖重新將一種緊迫感帶給這家公司，同時試圖讓谷歌確立業務重心。用佩奇的話講，就是要做到“有的放矢”(more wood behind fewer arrows)。為了應對Facebook Inc.、蘋果公司(Apple Inc.)和亞馬遜公司(Amazon.com Inc.)所帶來的種種威脅，谷歌做出了很大努力，在其中扮演重要角色的就是該公司已經推出兩年的學習和領導力發展計劃GoogleEDU。
Google Inc. Chief Executive Larry Page has spent the past year trying to bring a renewed sense of urgency and focus to the search company, in what he calls putting 'more wood behind fewer arrows.' Playing a big part in that effort to battle threats from Facebook Inc., Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., is GoogleEDU, the company's two-year-old learning and leadership-development program.

GoogleEDU用一種全新的方式將公司內部的學習確定下來。這一計劃依靠數據分析和其它手段以確保員工學到為了保持公司利潤增長所需要的各種知識。
GoogleEDU is formalizing learning at the company in an entirely new way, relying on data analytics and other measures to ensure it is teaching employees what they need to know to keep profits humming.

去年，相比以往，谷歌向更多員工提供了更多培訓課程。其全球33,100位員工中，約有三分之一參加了這一內部培訓項目。谷歌裁減了用處不大的課程，并對剩下課程進行改進。谷歌負責領導力和人才管理的副總裁梅(Karen May)說，重要的是，GoogleEDU和我們的整體業務戰略一致。梅曾負責GoogleEDU的改造。
Last year, Google offered more classes to more employees than it ever has before, with about a third of its 33,100-strong global workforce going through the in-house program. It cut classes that didn't work and retooled others. 'What's important is that it aligns with our overall business strategy,' says Karen May, Google's vice president of leadership and talent, who has led the revamping of GoogleEDU.

各大公司一直試圖通過培訓和領導力項目提高員工的工作表現。美國培訓與發展協會(American Society for Training and Development)的數據表明，2010年美國企業在員工學習和發展上的花費為1,715億美元，這是所能獲得的最新數據。例如，通用電氣公司(General Electric Co.)的網站顯示，該公司每年花在員工培訓和教育項目上的資金高達10億美元。
Companies have long sought to boost their employees' performance through training and leadership programs. U.S. businesses spent $171.5 billion on learning and development in 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the American Society for Training and Development. General Electric Co., for example, spends $1 billion annually on training and education programs for its employees, according to its website.


想要讓這些培訓項目發揮作用并不容易。管理專家說，派員工參加培訓班是一件好事。但想要讓學習成果得以固化，員工必須將它們應用到日常工作中去。斯坦福大學(Stanford University)教授布拉德福德(David Bradford)說，常見的情況是，員工上完一節課后說，哎呀，講的真是不錯。但重返工作崗位之后還是老樣子。布拉德福德還是該校高管領導力項目的主任。
Getting these programs to work, though, is tricky. Management experts say it is all well and good to send employees to classes, but to get the lessons to stick, employees need to apply them to their daily work lives. Employees often take a class and 'say, 'Gee, this is great,' and go back to their jobs and do the same old thing,' says Professor David Bradford, director of the executive program in leadership at Stanford University.


谷歌認為，它已經找到一種方法能讓學習成果固化下來。在何時向某位員工提供培訓課程一事上，谷歌變得更加精準。它利用下屬對經理的評價向經理建議有關課程。這種評價類似大學生每學期末給老師填寫的教學反饋。谷歌像往常一樣對數據非常癡迷，它利用從現任和前任員工那里搜集到的統計數據向處于職業生涯不同階段的經理推薦特定課程。所謂“不同階段”是指比如搬到了一個新的城市或加入了一個新的團隊。
Google thinks it has found a way to make its learning stick. It has become more exacting about when it offers classes and to whom. It uses employee reviews of managers─similar to the instructor reviews that college students fill out at the end of a semester─to suggest courses to managers. Ever data-obsessed, Google uses statistics gathered from current and former employees to recommend certain courses to managers at different points in their career, say after a move to a new city or joining a new team.


改造谷歌的培訓計劃在當前顯得尤為關鍵。年收入達380億美元的谷歌去年新招了8,000名員工，這是該公司歷史上新增員工最多的一年。作為改造GoogleEDU的組成部分，該公司的人才管理團隊（在硅谷人們不說“人力資源管理”）也開始思考如何讓這一大批新員工更好地融入公司。所招新人中，既有經理，也有普通員工。
The revamp of Google's training programs is particularly critical now. The company, with $38 billion in annual revenue, hired 8,000 employees last year, the biggest annual head-count increase in its history. As part of revamping GoogleEDU, the company's people team (they don't call it human resources in Silicon Valley) also began thinking about how to better integrate the influx of new employees, made up of managers as well as rank-and-file staff.


梅說，在谷歌，管理人員對下屬的權威主要來自創意和說服力，而不是職位，在這樣一種氛圍中，從其他公司過來的管理人員可能會感到不適應。提拔和加薪決定常常是由同級和上級一致做出的。員工不必僅僅因為管理人員是自己的上司就得聽他或她的話。這跟大多數實行自上而下等級式管理的傳統企業存在極大差別。
Experienced managers who join Google from other companies can find it difficult to operate in a culture where power over subordinates is derived from one's ideas and powers of persuasion, not job titles, says Ms. May. Decisions on promotions and raises are often made by consensus among peers and superiors. An employee isn't necessarily going to obey a manager just because he or she is a manager. This is radically different from most traditional corporations, which have a top-down, hierarchical style of management.

曾是谷歌用戶體驗設計師、2011年離開谷歌的萊德勒(Scott Lederer)說，在谷歌要做的勸說工作比在其他公司多得多，因為谷歌人是非常聰明的，他們不會僅僅因為你的頭銜就按你說的做，你必須證明自己的觀點。
'There's a lot more persuasion involved because Googlers are really smart,' says Scott Lederer, a former Google user-experience designer who left the company in 2011. 'They are not going to do something for you just because of your title. You really have to make your case.'


梅說，因此谷歌為新進的管理人員和高級管理人員開設了一門特殊課程，教他們怎樣以更聰明的方式對別人施加影響。她說，公司等級結構不那么森嚴的好處之一就是，你不一定非要擁有相關職權才能發號施令。
Thus Google offers a special class for new managers and executives where they are taught how to exert influence in more subtle ways, says Ms. May. 'One of the practicalities of a less hierarchical company is that you aren't necessarily going to have the position power to decree something or dictate something,' she says.


另外，谷歌也已經開始根據員工的工作領域(工程或銷售)和職業階段(初級開發員或高級經理)開設特殊課程。領導力培訓與開發公司Baldoni Consulting LLC的總裁巴爾多尼(John Baldoni)說，這種課程越有針對性越好，因為它具體而實際。他說，領導力開發培訓容易出現無的放矢的問題，不能結合受訓人的具體情況有針對性地進行培訓。
Google has also begun offering specific classes based on an employee's work area (engineering versus sales) and career stage (junior developer versus senior manager). 'The more targeted it is, the better, because it is specific and actionable,' says John Baldoni, president of Baldoni Consulting LLC, a leadership coaching-and-development firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich. 'The downside of leadership development is that it is too often amorphous and doesn't speak to people in the language that they need at a specific time.'

谷歌不會在招進新管理人員的時候馬上把自己的績效評估流程告訴他們，而是在他們即將給下屬做績效評估的時候才提供這方面的培訓。如果一位部門經理剛剛接手一名此前在其他地方為谷歌工作的員工，那么谷歌就會給這名經理發一份電子郵件提醒說，新員工們普遍反映，經理把新員工介紹給辦公室其他成員、或與新員工一道了解團隊的目標是很有好處的。
Rather than train a new manager in how the Google performance evaluation process works as soon as they are hired, they'll instead receive the training just before performance reviews begin. If a manager is taking on a new team member who is transferring from a Google office in a different location, he or she will receive an email as a reminder that new employees have said it is helpful when managers introduce them to others in the office or review the team's goals with the new employee.

梅說，我們努力將學習體驗變得個性化、個人化，而更加個性化、更有針對性的建議正是這種努力的一部分。
'More individualized, customized recommendations are part of how, as we grow, we're trying to individualize and personalize the learning experience here,' Ms. May says.

谷歌拒絕透露其員工流失率，也不透露改革后的GoogleEDU對挽留員工或提振員工士氣有何影響。梅說，在我們的總體滿意度評分中，我們確實看到了投資于員工培訓帶來的變化。
Google won't reveal its attrition rate or what impact the revamped GoogleEDU has had on retention or employee morale. 'We do see in our overall satisfaction scores that it does make a difference when we invest in people,' says Ms. May.

谷歌對員工培訓的重視早就被員工們看在了眼里。一些員工說，谷歌提供的培訓課程比他們工作過的任何一家公司都要多。2010年離開谷歌的莫羅(Jason Morrow)說，持續教育已經融入谷歌公司的文化。
The company's focus on learning has long been apparent to employees, some of whom say they were offered more classes at Google than at any other company at which they've worked. Jason Morrow, who left Google in 2010, says that continuing education is 'baked into the culture' of the company.

一位2007年離開谷歌的前員工回憶說，甚至在GoogleEDU計劃于2010年成型之前，谷歌也會給那些大有希望的年輕產品經理指派職業與管理導師，教他們怎樣更好地為加薪而談判，怎樣提高演說技能，或怎樣一一列舉某位員工應該或不應該離開谷歌創辦自己公司的理由。他說這些項目大大提高了員工的忠誠度。
Even before the formation of GoogleEDU in 2010, Google would assign promising young product managers career and management coaches who would teach them how to negotiate better salaries, improve their presentation skills, or talk through the reasons why someone should or shouldn't leave to found a start-up, remembers one former employee who left the company in 2007. He says that such programs 'engendered a lot of loyalty' among employees.

梅說，我們不遺余力地招到合適的人員，我們希望他們把自己的全部潛能都發揮出來。
'We work really hard to get the right people,' says Ms. May. 'We want them to reach their full potential.'

JOSEPH WALKER