It’s not a question of literal ownership. The fundamental lesson from Google’s experience is that you must first choose whether you want to be a founder or an employee.We hope to recruit many more in the future. We have been lucky to recruit many creative, principled and hard working stars. Google is organized around the ability to attract and leverage the talent of exceptional technologists and business people. Our employees, who have named themselves Googlers, are everything.Only when companies take steps to give their people more freedom does performance improve.Each of these decisions is instead made either by a group of peers, a committee, or a dedicated, independent team. We deliberately take power and authority over employees away from managers.Inside Google we don’t have a lot of rule books and policy manuals.Two things that should be completely separate: performance evaluation and people development. Voice means giving employees a real say in how the company is run. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Work Rules!

Restricting information should be a conscious effort, and you’d better have a good reason for doing so. Transparency is one of the cornerstones of Google’s culture. Every human being wants to find meaning in his or her work. Decisions by peer groups, committees, or teams. Take power and authority over employees away from managers. That said, if we take author’s word for it, there was a time where these things were working well and there are lessons we can learn from it. Unfortunately, I’ve heard and read enough about Google of late that I know this doesn’t apply anymore. A great book on Google’s completely different style of management.

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