There’s an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review about Google’s approach to management when it comes to oversight of engineers. While the piece is more focused on personnel management, attributes can easily carry over to project management.
The article, “How Google Sold Its Engineers on Management,” says, “And most engineers, not just those at Google, want to spend their time designing and debugging, not communicating with bosses or supervising other workers’ progress. In their hearts they’ve long believed that management is more destructive than beneficial, a distraction from ‘real work and tangible, goal-directed tasks.”
Does that sound familiar? Here are some of the things Google does that could help project managers.
Give People Room to Innovate
Software engineer Eric Flatt said one successful tenet at Google is giving supervisors a large number of people to oversee. As the article explains, “Google … has some layers but not as many as you might expect in an organization with more than 37,000 employees: just 5,000 managers, 1,000 directors, and 100 vice presidents. It’s not uncommon to find engineering managers with 30 direct reports.
“Flatt says that’s by design, to prevent micromanaging. ‘There is only so much you can meddle when you have 30 people on your team, so you have to focus on creating the best environment for engineers to make things happen, he notes. Google gives its rank and file room to make decisions and innovate.”
Quality Managers Mean Quality Results
The article also said, “… high-scoring managers saw less turnover on their teams than the others did—and retention was related more strongly to manager quality than to seniority, performance, tenure, or promotions. The data also showed a tight connection between managers’ quality and workers’ happiness: Employees with high-scoring bosses consistently reported greater satisfaction in multiple areas, including innovation, work-life balance, and career development.”
What Good Managers Do
“The key behaviors [of good managers] primarily describe leaders of small and medium-sized groups and teams and are especially relevant to first- and second-level managers. They involve developing and motivating direct reports, as well as communicating strategy and eliminating roadblocks—all vital activities that people tend to overlook in the press of their day-to-day responsibilities.”
Also, Google’s management policies are guidelines, not rigid formulas. The mammoth search engine, which has built itself on specific, definable data, realizes project management (i.e. personnel management) cannot always be precisely quantified.
Give Career Advice
OK, how does that factor into project management? It does, surprisingly, when applied correctly. As stated above, engineers hate being micromanaged but they do like good career advice. On a broader level that means let the members of your project team do the job at hand but explain to them how it fits into the broader picture and why its success is important to them.
Have Good Managers Share
This culls a bit from the Google philosophy. Sometimes project managers would do best to have other project managers talk with their team. This could be other project managers within your organization if your company is large enough.
Or, consider going to outside project managers who might be willing to talk to your team. Obviously guidelines have to be set about not sharing confidential information but it could be healthy for your team to hear what works from others. It’s the classic case of sometimes believing outside experts before internals.
There you have it. Google can be good for project management – and beyond simply using its search engine capabilities. Embrace its focus on people skills and make your projects that much more manageable.