How Eric Schmidt Changed the Culture inside Google

As we know, a company's culture defined how it performs. Often in our courses like How to Be a Better Manager (details at here), people often asked if an organization's culture can be changed. Some companies like Google have a culture of innovation, whereas others have a culture of following the leader. Is one better than the other?

If you think that your existing culture is no good, it's time to change. There are 5 steps to change an organization's culture as detailed in the best-selling book "How Google Works" by Eric Schmidt:

First, recognize the problem. What is the culture that defines the company today, not the one that is described in the mission and value statements. In other words, the real culture that people live in day by day.
Second, what problem has this culture caused the business? Draw a connection between the culture and the problem, but do not criticise the culture. For any criticism will only alienate people.
Third, let people know the seriousness of the problem and its inherent culture. Let people feel the pain in their existing culture.
Then articulate a new culture you envision, write the future by taking specific steps to start moving that way.
Share the new culture, get buy-in and challenges to the new culture. Only when the new culture is understood will people start to believe in it, and when they do, that's when their behaviour will change.

Remember, changing a culture takes time, and most importantly, patience and compassion. Only when the culture change can you see behaviour changed. Related articles:

Comments

What an Executive Coach and Business Coach Does

The Secret Under the Mattress: Why would a 79-year Man Bet So Big on 4D?

It was 2007 when we discovered his secret. While moving my father’s mattress, we found them: heaps and heaps of Singapore Pools 4D tickets. They were stacked in layers, a paper trail of lost hopes. What shocked us most wasn’t just the volume, but the stakes. He wasn’t betting a few dollars for fun. He was punting hundreds of dollars per draw—nearly ten times a month. At the time, my siblings and I were furious. Our father was a 79-year-old retiree. We wondered, with a mix of anger and confusion, why a man at his stage of life would need to win such "big money." What was he going to do with the money? We saw it as a reckless habit, a sign of poor judgment in his final years. Some of us would say, "If I were to give him money to buy 4D, why don't I use the money and buy 4D myself? At least I have better discipline". It has taken me two decades, and the experience of raising my own three grown-up children, to finally see the truth that was hidden under that matt...

Head Bleeding when the Chair Falls

The Weight of Silence: What Were We Really Arguing About? My earliest memories are punctuated by the sound of shouting. In 1970, when I was barely 6 years old, I stood as a small witness to the fierce quarrels between my father and my late eldest brother Kah Yang (he passed away in 1971 at the age of 17). As I grew up, these contradictions became the soundtrack of our lives, usually centered around our family's shoe shop and clothing stalls in Chinatown. In the court of family opinion, the verdict was almost always the same: my father was "wrong." He was judged as a man who didn't fulfill his role, who wasn't "burdening" enough for the family’s success. But as I look back from the vantage point of 2026, I have to ask: Was that actually true? Let me finally put to rest what my father did right: the truths that were buried under decades of criticism: Unseen Labor: He worked grueling, long hours. I remember him hauling boxes of goods and equipment to set u...

Business and Money Tips

Search This Blog