This Time Photo Essay shows a 'thin slice' of life at Google's corporate headquarters.
I was particularly struck by one picture. The huge white board used to capture employee crazy ideas.
That reminded me of what we tried to do when I worked in the Information Systems department of a large Canadian Oil & Gas firm. Looking for innovation one of the techies created the "Crazy Ideas Task Force".
One day he came to me and said, in effect, "Lyle. You're pretty crazy. The ideas the Crazy Ideas Task Force is coming up with aren't 'crazy' enough. What do you suggest?"
I suggested that he take sheets of flip chart paper and write a question/problem, e.g. how can we increase productivity, and one whacked out suggestion, e.g. fire all managers, on them. Then he should post them up on the walls of bathroom stalls and tape a flip chart pen next to them. By the way, this necessitated sneaking into the women's washrooms after hours. But, he did it!
I've always been curious about what happened -- I left the company's employ shortly after that and never did hear the final results.
I do know that the action did stir things up!
