Episode 46 - Google & Building the Perfect Team

What does the perfect corporate team look like? Is it all introverts? All Extroverts? Is it a team full of all-stars? Google found the answer...and it’s surprising.

Google has licked a lot of interesting problems within its corporate structure. By turning its vast analytics network (not to mention a lot of capital and resources) onto its human resources problems, Google has found solutions to the optimum time for maternity leave, th perfect number of new hiree interviews, the best employee perks, and whether meddlesome middle managers are actually helpful. You name it - anything within the corporate structure, Google has developed a model for it. Except for one thing: how to build the perfect corporate team.

To discover both the best team composition, and the best structure for a corporate meeting, Google had to dig deep and develop new methods within its People Operations division - AKA Google’s human resources. After all, maybe it does take a rocket scientist to answer the question; do we get straight down to business in the boardroom, or do we engage in pre-meeting small-talk?

During the episode Todd and Joe will also share their own boardroom horror stories. Compare best and worst team-building exercises. And discuss why high-fives and ass-slaps make NBA teams score more points, according to science.