Google, le chaos et les erreurs, sources d’innovations

Fortune, fait parraître l’article Chaos by design, The inside story of disorder, disarray, and uncertainty at Google. And why it’s all part of the plan. (They hope.). On y apprend que les erreurs et le chaos, sont acceptés et même encouragés dans l’entreprise. S’il n’y a pas d’erreurs, c’est qu’il n’y a pas de risque et l’entreprise n’évolue pas. S’il n’y a pas de chaos, il n’y a pas d’innovation.

Sandberg recently committed an error that cost Google several million dollars — “Bad decision, moved too quickly, no controls in place, wasted some money,” is all she’ll say about it — and when she realized the magnitude of her mistake, she walked across the street to inform Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and unofficial thought leader. “God, I feel really bad about this,” Sandberg told Page, who accepted her apology. But as she turned to leave, Page said something that surprised her. “I’m so glad you made this mistake,” he said. “Because I want to run a company where we are moving too quickly and doing too much, not being too cautious and doing too little. If we don’t have any of these mistakes, we’re just not taking enough risk.”

When a million-dollar mistake earns a pat on the back, it’s obvious this isn’t your normal corporation

What emerges from months of interviews with employees ranging from fresh-out-of-college hires to the CEO is that Google firmly believes it has a framework for figuring out the future. It should come as no surprise that the plan is as irreverent, self-confident, and presumptuous as the company itself. Google’s executives don’t articulate it this way, but the framework can be found in the title of Shona Brown’s book: structured chaos. Indeed, along with Googleyness, chaos is among the most important aspects of Google’s self-image. Understanding how Google thinks about chaos — like Page’s teachable moment after Sandberg’s million-dollar mistake — is critical to divining where the company goes next. “Are lots of questions hanging out there in the market?” asks Sandberg. “Sure. Because we don’t always have an answer. We’re willing to tolerate that ambiguity and chaos because that’s where the room is for innovation.” Good strategy — if it actually works.

Via Mitch Joël

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