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Google Philosophy

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Google's 80/20 Principle Adopted at New Jersey School. Like most schools, teachers at New Milford High School spend time on duty at lunch, in the halls and at in-school suspension rooms.

Google's 80/20 Principle Adopted at New Jersey School

But this year, the 55 teachers from this New Jersey school didn't have to do these duties for two or three 48-minute periods a week. And only one teacher had these duties at a time instead of two. This simple policy change enables what's been called the 80/20 principle, a theory practiced by Google that employees who spend 20 percent of their time on company-related projects that interest them will work better. In similar fashion, New Milford teachers now have more time to follow their work-related passions, Principal Eric Sheninger said. During these professional development periods, the teachers are coming up with interdisciplinary projects, new assessments and ways to integrate technology into their students' learning. "We really want teachers to be innovative and creative," Sheninger said. The teachers also created a portfolio of what they did.

Google's 80/20 Principle Adopted at New Jersey School. Greatness as the starting point? From: When we were discussing the philosophy of our school division today, I decided to look at the Google philosophy and fell upon this quote: Great just isn’t good enough.

Greatness as the starting point?

We see being great at something as a starting point, not an endpoint. We set ourselves goals we know we can’t reach yet, because we know that by stretching to meet them we can get further than we expected. Through innovation and iteration, we aim to take things that work well and improve upon them in unexpected ways. Would you work for a company like this? Do people want to be a part of something where “greatness” is a minimum standard? When working with kids, can we shoot for anything less? Our philosophy – Company. “The perfect search engine,” says co-founder Larry Page, “would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want.” When Google began, you would have been pleasantly surprised to enter a search query and immediately find the right answer.

Google became successful precisely because we were better and faster at finding the right answer than other search engines at the time. But technology has come a long way since then, and the face of the web has changed. Recognizing that search is a problem that will never be solved, we continue to push the limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use service that anyone seeking information can access, whether they’re at a desk in Boston or on a phone in Bangkok. We’ve also taken the lessons we’ve learned from search to tackle even more challenges. As we keep looking towards the future, these core principles guide our actions. Focus on the user and all else will follow. We do search. Fast is better than slow.

The Google Way: Give Engineers Room. Mix Up the Workweek by Setting Your Own "20-Percent Time" — Online Collaboration. Many large companies have policies that allow employees to spend some of their time working on their own projects.

Mix Up the Workweek by Setting Your Own "20-Percent Time" — Online Collaboration

These programs are often used to entice high-caliber job applicants, as well as encourage innovation. For example, Google has what it calls “20-Percent Time”, where its employees spend one day each workweek on project they’re passionate about, while 3M calls its version “15% culture,” which “encourages technical employees to spend 15 percent of their time on projects of their own choosing and initiative.” This approach doesn’t have to only apply to corporate employees — it can apply to web workers as well. Whether you’re a freelancer or a corporate employee, if your work is measured on your performance rather than your presence, your work hours may be flexible enough to accommodate your own “20-Percent Time.”

But why do it in the first place? Innovation and creativity. Setting Your 20-Percent Time But here’s some more common sense: mark the end of your workday. The 20% Project (like Google) In My Class. *Update: If you’d like to learn more about running your own 20% Project – check out our latest post: Designing 20% Time in Education I recently assigned a new project to my 11th grade English students: The 20% Project.

The 20% Project (like Google) In My Class

Although it’s called a “project”, that term is merely for student understanding and lack of a better word. This project is based on the “20 percent time” Google employees have to work on something other than their job description. It has been well documented, and Google has exponentially grown as a company while giving this 20 percent time. An Influential Idea Katherine von Jan explains how Google’s idea came to be in her article, “Pursue Passion: Demand Google 20% Time at School”: “Google’s “20% Time”, inspired by Sergey Brin’s and Larry Page’s Montessori School experience, is a philosophy and policy that every Google employee spend 20% of their time (the equivalent of a full work day each week) working on ideas and projects that interest that employee.

The 20% Project* 1.