Google and Church Planting: The 20% Rule
June 10th, 2007
A tidbit on leadership culture.
I’m currently reading an utterly fascinating book about the startup of the largest search engine on the ‘net: Google. It’s written by David Vise and Mark Malseed, aptly titled The Google Story, and has some great tidbits for church planters. One I’ve gleaned?
But Google had something else special about it that Bharat (inventor of Google News) relished: a rule that software engineers spend at least 20 percent of their time, or one day a week, working on whatever projects interested them. The 20 percent rule was a way of encouraging innovation, and both Brin and Page (founders of Google) saw this as essential to establishing and maintaining the right culture and creating a place where bright technologists would want to work and be motivated to come up with breakthrough ideas….at Google, the 20 percent approach sent the opposite message- spend one day a week on something you, not your boss, are passionate about, and don’t worry about such pedestrian matters as whether the idea could be a moneymaker or something that could be turned into a successful product.
What if we, as leaders of our staffs, took this approach? We came to our staff and said: one day a week is yours. Use it for whatever you want to do related to the church. Don’t go run errands or anything; but be ministerially productive creatively and redemptively. I guarantee a few things would happen: our worship leaders would write more original songs. Our discipleship pastors would write great books on small groups. Ministry ideas would overflow come staff meeting time. “I’ve been working on this, what do you think?” Innovation is key, even in the church, and Google’s 20% rule is a great way to foster it.
June 14th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I have visited google and they get to spend 20% of that time on whatever they want. If you want to use that nugget you found, then apply it just as your first read it - 20% on someting non-work related. That’s what caught your eye, my eye. Why dream about it, then water it down to spending 20% on “ministerial” stuff. If this is where your staff’s heart is, then it will show. I do realize this is a old post, I would really like to hear how you have applied it. Now, going back to the google thing, the employees basically live there. So, by the time Friday “free day” comes along, they’ve already worked like 50 hours. But, as someone has said, creativity is the currency of the 21st century. A little bit on myselft, I came across your site looking for church planting blogs, comments and tips. I have read many of your posts and looked at your site. It gives me something to shoot for as in how to keep people connected and a visual of how your “vision” is being played out. Keep up the good work. Blessings!