Meet Google's culture czar

There's no question that Google is a trendsetter. The company made Web search sexy, and lucrative. It established the foundation for an ecosystem that allows any old little Web site to make money off advertising.

Stacy Savides Sullivan, chief culture officer, GoogleWith its lava lamps, simple doodle design, pampered employees and millionaires in its rank and file, it has become a cultural icon and an emblem of the gold-rush promise of the Web.

Google was ranked by Fortune magazine as the best place in the US to work, and it has reached another zenith by becoming the most popular Web site. It's even become a verb in the dictionary.

And it may even have started a new trend by creating a job that carries the title "chief culture officer." Stacy Savides Sullivan is that person at Google. (Editors' note: Google doesn't seem to be unique with that title, rare though it is. A quick Google search -- what else? -- turns up a handful of institutions that have, or once had, a chief culture officer, including IT services company Kanbay International and AegisLiving, an assisted-living program in Redmond, Wash.)

Sullivan's mission is simple: retain the company's unique culture and keep the Googlers happy. In an exclusive interview, she tells ZDNet Australia sister site CNET News.com how she does just that.

Q: How long have you had that title?
Sullivan: I've had that role since last summer, and in addition to being chief culture officer I'm also director of human resources.

What do you do as chief culture officer?
Sullivan: I work with employees around the world to figure out ways to maintain and enhance and develop our culture and how to keep the core values we had in the very beginning -- a flat organisation, a lack of hierarchy, a collaborative environment -- to keep these as we continue to grow and spread them and filtrate them into our new offices around the world.

We want all of our employees to play a part in being involved in keeping our culture the way it is today but also growing and developing it. So some of it is coming up with different programs or processes, and just being there to talk with people when they have issues, setting up Web sites where people can report bugs in their culture and ideas on how to improve it, and those types of thing.

Google's office

It's hard to imagine how you can keep a flat organisation with 12,000 employees. But what are the characteristics of the Google culture in general?
Sullivan: I would characterise the culture as one that is team-oriented, very collaborative and encouraging people to think nontraditionally, different from where they ever worked before -- working with integrity and for the good of the company and for the good of the world, which is tied to our overall mission of making information accessible to the world.

Who came up with the idea of having a Google chief culture officer?
Sullivan: It was something that [Google co-founders] Larry Page and Sergey Brin came up with last summer.

Do you know of any other chief culture officers?
Sullivan: No.

What are some of the challenges you are finding in your role, maybe related to the hyper growth of the company?
Sullivan: I think one of the hardest things to do is ensure that we are hiring people who possess the kind of traits that we're looking for in a Google-y employee. Google-y is defined as somebody who is fairly flexible, adaptable and not focusing on titles and hierarchy, and just gets stuff done.

So, we put a lot of focus in our hiring processes when we are interviewing to try to determine first and foremost does the person have the skill set and experience potential to do the job from a background standpoint in addition to academics and credentials. But also are they going to be good culture or team fits.

Can you give me an example of a question that might be posed to someone during an interview to determine whether they are Google-y enough?

When I'm doing the interview myself I always start by telling them that we will try to assess how successful they are going to be at the company and how much they are going to enjoy it and how much they are going to thrive.

Sullivan: You know, there are no standard questions that I know of. But we might ask a question. This is just hypothetical, but it could be "How many bread boxes could you fit in an airplane?" or something like that. That's certainly not going to show if somebody is adaptable or flexible, but it's certainly going to show someone's thought process and reasoning, the way they can rationalise a true answer to something. Obviously, there's no right answer, but we're just trying to figure out how people think and the kind of the steps that they take.

When I'm doing the interview myself I always start by telling them that we will try to assess how successful they are going to be at the company and how much they are going to enjoy it and how much they are going to thrive. We know that they're qualified, that they're likely capable to do the job because they've gone through screening processes, but there are other questions we're trying to ask people around preferences, past experiences and areas they've really excelled in.

I've heard about a happiness survey at Google. Can you tell me more about that?
Sullivan: The last few years we've been doing a happiness survey as part of our annual global company survey. Four or five years ago, Larry and Sergey wanted to find out how happy people are and what it's going to take to keep them working at the company.

We're trying to figure out how committed people are to the company, what's causing that commitment level to be high or low, what makes a difference to them and their management and direct managers. The results ended up being centred a lot on career development and growth. So career development is more of a focus than giving more stock options or increasing salaries.

What do you think is the most appreciated perk? What do you get the most positive feedback on?
Sullivan: It would have to be the food. We have some type of lunch in every field office right now, every Google office. In places where we have room to have a cafeteria, we have our own and we hire our own chefs. But in many of those places we just bring in catered food. Here in Mountain View, we started having the cafes back in '99. And the reason why it is such an incredible perk is it keeps people on campus, it's all organic, it's healthy. At the headquarters we have breakfast, lunch and dinner.

How are you dealing with the possibility that there will be an exodus of people leaving when their options fully vest after four years?
Sullivan: Well, we have people now that are hitting their fourth year, actually, last year and this year. So, we are tracking it and watching for when different people are coming up each month and we're starting to touch base with them, asking: how are you doing? Are you working on something interesting? Do you like what you're doing? If not, what is one or two things that would make your life better here or increase your commitment level?

So we're trying the personal touch approach right now because for many of these people providing more money or stock isn't really going to be the key driver to keeping them at Google. So to answer your question, yes, we're definitely concerned about it and we will continue to be concerned about it, probably forever.

So how is the transferable stock-option program going (which lets employees sell their vested options in an online auction and make money now rather than risk making less if the stock price falls)?
Sullivan: It's too early to comment. People are excited that we're trying it, though, and the idea has been well-received.

What's the most fun or crazy part of your job?
Sullivan: I think planning the ski trips over the years has been crazy. We've done Google-wide ski trips since 1999. Different groups go up and we spend the night and there's a lot of team-building and bonding. Those have actually been the most memorable and actually the most fun [events].

What have we not covered that you think is germane to what you do at Google?
Sullivan: I think for any company that is growing as quickly as we are the work-life balance component is actually quite high. We don't typically have early-morning meetings or late-night meetings. And people are welcome to do things via conference call at home and we pay for people to connect from home. We have a good paternity-leave policy where the dads can take off a couple of weeks when their spouse has had a child and we pay for peoples' meals when they have new babies for the first few weeks.

We've all heard about the ability for people to bring their dogs to work. And you have such a litany of perks and benefits and things that would encourage people to stay or even join. And we have a benefit where we reimburse people up to US$5,000 if they buy a hybrid or electric car. And we have shuttle service [for commuters] to and from San Francisco, the East Bay, Santa Cruz.

Talkback

I agree.

Reading that interview made me throw up in my mouth.

AnonymousAnonymous April 30th, 2007
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Jealous

Catered lunches every day, free transportation (in some areas), reimbursement for some personal vehicles, ski trips, paternity leave, stock options, and a whole host of other benefits including health dental and vision. There is a reason Google was ranked number 1. Sounds to me like someone's jealous, maybe you just aren't good enough to work there?

AnonymousAnonymous April 30th, 2007
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What're you, stupid?

Oh no! A company that has a soft spot for its staff! Bad, bad Google.

Show me another company with 12,000 employees that goes out of its way to keep them ALL happy.

Oh ya. Where do you work?

You're an idiot.

Whatsizface

WhatsizfaceWhatsizface April 30th, 2007
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Re: What a load of touchly feely cr*p.

Its OK. With an attitude like that you wouldn't work there anyway. :)

AnonymousAnonymous April 30th, 2007
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It obviously doesn't work...


The Anonymous Coward is obviously correct. It must be terrible working for a company which is making money hand over fist, a company which works hard on retention, a company which seems to take the idea of the 'learning organization' seriously, a company which competes for employees as vigorously as it competes for customers.

ZentinalZentinal May 1st, 2007
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Work load

Yeah, I'd love to know what's the average hours per week they do over there. I'd love to apply for a job at Google myself, but I'm really turned off by the idea of having to move to their offices.

AnonymousAnonymous May 1st, 2007
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Stop....stop....

...you're making me vomit into my mouth again....

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..................

Tell Elvis I said Hi, ok ?

AnonymousAnonymous May 2nd, 2007
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What a load of touchly feely cr*p.

Hmmm.....looks like Google sucks after all.

Count me out.

Cheers!

AnonymousAnonymous April 30th, 2007
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At what cost?

And I wonder how many hours a week you're expected to work for all that. :)

AnonymousAnonymous May 1st, 2007
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Hmm

Managing a company of 12,000 people that effectively is probably an insurmountable challenge, but it is very nice to think that someone has an ideal such as this that they are working towards. I don't understand why someone would label that effort 'crap'.

AnonymousAnonymous May 1st, 2007
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Negative comments typical

Fascinating read, and refreshing to see genuine industrial idealism at work. I suspect the comments posted so far are from the sort of miserable boss Australian industry is famous for, or from the sort of poor sack who works for those sort of clowns.

The Google experiment may not wind up being any more effective than any other idealistic approach, but it just might, too, and they're to be applauded for putting stock into a happy, creative workforce.

Steve JaySteve Jay May 2nd, 2007
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How about a 30+ year old business example?

Southwest Airlines not only has a chief Culture Officer (President Colleen Barrett) but a full-on Culture Committee! We've been managing the culture of SWA for over 30 years and 32,000+ Employees. All of this in what has been called the most-unionized airline in the business! Our Culture is the #1 reason we have survived as an airline (fuel costs notwithstanding) all this time, with a unbroken record of profitable quarters dating back to 1991.

ReenieReenie May 5th, 2007
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Where are the angry employees?

So you don't believe that Google is a great place to work? Then I ask you: Where are the tell-all articles and the leaked memos from dissatisfied employees? Because I can tell you from my experience working in automotive-- if your workers are disgruntled the news is going to know about it and your secrets are not safe. I just don't see that with this company.

I think the problem is that too many of us have been raised in a cannibalistic version of the workplace and have only seen life one way: dog eat dog and greed rules the day. Who's to say that Google's hiring process doesn't focus on people that like to work for the sake of satisfaction? Sorry if you're jealous, but don't knock it until you know what the fck you're talking about. I think that personally, just knowing that they're making the effort is enough for me to jump at any chance they'd give me.

In the end, I'd say their success speaks for itself. You can say that it's hooey all you want, but whatever they're doing, it's working.

AnonymousAnonymous May 31st, 2007
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well...

not everybody wants to work in a cult. imagine the politics, cliques, and infighting. do you really think you can have a start-up atmosphere at a large company?

anyway, it's all a little disingenuous, isn't it--keeping a level structure, focusing on "career development", etc?

AnonymousAnonymous April 30th, 2007
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Are you braindead?

Oh no....a company that employes someone to make the appropriate noises about caring for staff etc etc...

One day, when you're all grown up, you'll realise the difference between spin and reality.

Untill then, shut your g*ddamn mouth and don't try to comment on things you know absolutely nothing about.

Idiot.

AnonymousAnonymous May 1st, 2007
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Jealous? Stupid? Only someone so naive could suggest that.

Lunches, perks, et al cost bugger all - human dignity, a sense of self and privacy are worth everything. Having worked for one of the other San Jose-based internet giants I can confirm they certainly are cultish organisations run by nerdy, sociopaths that were very probably unpopular at school and are now using a HR-sponsored form of eugenics to create the perfect race to work in and run their businesses. Phew, glad that's off my chest.

I wouldn't trade my soul for a few sandwiches and a dental check-up.

L

AnonymousAnonymous May 10th, 2007
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so?

Find me any organization that truly prevents infighting and polticization. Under what pretenses do they operate? How big are they (obviosuly an org of less than 50 people doesn't have many of these problems)? Google hires the best and the brightest from all over the world and it recognizes that it must focus on attracting and retaining top talent. Given the circumstances and environment that google operates in, i would not be suprised to find that 80% or more of value-adding (read: not custodians, secretaries, etc..) employees are smart enough to belong to Mensa. To develop an atmosphere where people like these feel challenged and motivated is no easy task, and they have apparently done a great job of it. Kudos to google

AnonymousAnonymous May 1st, 2007
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Very professional

I think my 20 years in high-tech, managing some award winning product lines qualifies me as "grown up" and knowing "the difference between spin and reality".

Some day when you start acting like a professional... oh wait. That will probably never happen.

You're a waste of keystrokes.

AnonymousAnonymous August 22nd, 2007
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