Some tips from Google
We often talk about Google being one of the most innovative companies. They are famous for allowing their people to spend up to 20% of their time on any project that interests them. Here is an interview from Time magazine with Google CEO Eric Schmidt in which he reveals some fascinating insights. First the emphasis that Google places on collaboration and secondly the use of questioning. ‘We run the company by questions, not by answers.’
He talks about some of Google’s big questions and strategic challenges, ‘You ask it as a question, rather than a pithy answer, and that stimulates conversation. Out of the conversation comes innovation. Innovation is not something that I just wake up one day and say ‘I want to innovate.’ I think you get a better innovative culture if you ask it as a question.’