Since Google is well known for being a great place to work and following on from Tuesday’s post on Google TechTalks Coaching , below is my current list of questions about coaching and mentoring within the Big ‘G’.
To get the creative juices flowing I used my trusty copy of MindGenius and generated a simple outline mind map.
Then as I started to think about the keywords on the mind map, I came up with more questions than the map suggests. The imaginative power of mind maps!
1- Coaches:
1.1 External:
What is the selection process for being chosen as a Google Coach?
1.2 Internal:
Are there internal (full time) coaches within Google?
2- Dreams:
2.1 Vision:
- How do Google staffers find the “Dreams” exercise, along with the “small child” discovery suggestions?
- Are coached employees sharing their “Google Dreams” with others as mentioned on the video? (a kind of “dream teamwork”, if you like!)
3- Coaching:
3.1 Group:
- Is there coaching for teams at Google? (If so, how is this delivered?)
3.2 Private:
- Is coaching done on campus (meeting rooms) or via telephone? (and presumably not from the staffer’s cubicle.)
- In what ways does coaching of the ‘Google Dream’ overlap (or intertwine) with personal dreams expressed by the employee?
3.3 Scale:
- What is the ratio of coaches to eligible employees?
*For coaching to have any noticeable impact on personal (and group) performance, there is an element of “critical mass” which is not necessarily achieved by providing only executive or C-level coaching.)
3.4 Employees:
- How do employees become eligible for individual or group coaching?
(In some corporations, coaching is only an executive or director level ‘perk’ and/or may be used as part of an ‘outplacement’ strategy for politely culling unwanted senior staff. Sad but true.)
3.5 Locations:
- In which Google sites are coaches available?
(although phone or Net-based video-conference coaching can be done regardless of location, time zones and other regional factors are important.)
4- Trust:
4.1 HR:
- What is the involvement of Human Resources department in the administration of the career coaching programs?
- In what way is the coaching assessed or monitored to be of benefit to Google and to the employee?
4.2 Confidentiality:
- How private and confidential are the coaching sessions?
(These are 2 of the main benefits in using external coaches – plus there is reduced possibility of a conflict of interest).
5- Mentoring:
5.1 Formalized?:
- Is there a mentoring program and in what ways does it overlap or coexist with coaching?
(Mentors are usually existing employees with knowledge and guidance to share. This is different from coaching, where the coach is helping the client walk their own path – in this case one that is also hopefully in broad alignment with the Google highway.)
5.2 Managers:
- In what ways are managers (and relevant non-managers too) trained (and coached) to be effective mentors?
Well, that’s it for 23:53 hours on a Friday night!
While I don’t expect Google to reveal “competitive advantage” information, I believe there’s a lot of benefit to be gained by sharing yet more reasons why Google is rated to be such an impressive company to work for.
I will post further on this topic when appropriate.
- Mark ‘Do No Evil’ McClure 
