Sunday, December 15, 2013

Google Getting it Right

Thanks to Jaki Day for sharing this link on Facebook... I may have missed it otherwise... 
14 ways Google gets it right even after 15 years

Click the picture below to get to the full article:
TAIWAN-US-IT-GOOGLE

The Next Web, www.thenextweb.com, offered up a great synopsis of how Google is still getting things right after 15 years. Everyone knows that I am a Google guy, but looking at this story though an impartial eye I see where Google has done a good job of nailing it. Here are a couple of points I want to touch on where I think all organizations could benefit. 

3. Constant Questioning
I equate this to more self-evaluation... Are you being effective? Could you do something better? Do you take your attitude/ego out of the equation and ask yourself these questions on a daily basis? It seems when attitude/ego are part of things we have difficulty questioning ourselves. If we want to be effective as educators, it would not hurt to remove a bit of ourselves from what we are doing to make sure we are reaching our students. 

7. Acceptance of Failure
Does anyone remember Google Wave, Google Answers, Video Player, or Web Accelerator? Me either, but Google invested a large amount of money into these services over the years. For some reason or another, these ideas did not take hold with consumers at large. Even though Google had a few ideas that did not take, does that make them failures? I'd say Google is as far from being a failure as any company can be. 

The difference between Google and other entities is Google moved on past their failures. As educators we are all going to have ideas that don't germinate for some reason or another. We need to work to get past those times where things aren't going our way and figure out what we can learn from those situations. 

10. Work-Life Balance
I am as guilty of this as anyone else... As educators we all love our jobs and we are constantly looking for ways to be better at what we do. Sometimes for the benefit of those that love us we need to step back and examine our priorities. Google encourages their employees to look at themselves as more than Google employees. We all need to look at ourselves as more than the jobs we do. 

12. Simplicity
In the transition from teaching children to adults, the idea of simplicity of design has become firmly established. Why say something in five words when you only need four? I don't think I am there yet, but I am learning how I can say things a bit better in order to more effectively communicate my message. 

As educators we should always be examining ways we can, "get it right," as mentioned in this article. Google as a company has set the bar for us, but I think we can replicate what they have done. Thoughts?