MINDS w/ Wayne Rosing 04/15/2010 Summary
Yesterday, 10 entrepreneurs and myself were fortunate to spend 2 hours learning from an expert in "compounding creativity".
Wayne Rosing is an executive outlier; it's even fitting to call him an executive outlaw.
He is a man that wants world-perspective changing results. He thrives on grandiose ideas. And he has the intelligence and unconventional managing know-how to get it done.
It all started in the 70's working on the frontier of personal computing stations. During this era, punch card computing was the norm. You'd pay expensive rates to use a large computer machine. You had to be fortunate enough to live close to one. You had to wait your turn. The computer was inhibiting and accessible to very few. He believed there must be a better way. And the better way was through personal workstations.
While at Apple, he worked on a project called "Lisa". From this project came many foundational blocks for the Macintosh computer. A mouse, a computer screen, and a keyboard.
He then moved on to Sun Microsystems helping create the foundation for Java and servers connecting many personal workstations, both were creative solutions to the rapidly growing computer industry.
After a brief retirement (retirement is overrated), and an extremely successful stint at a lesser known company, he was one of 60 plus engineers interviewed for the vice president of engineering job at Google.
At the time, there were 60 - 70 engineers on staff. Google was a risk, and they were paying less than going Silicon Valley rates for talent. Even though they had over $30m in venture funding they were "froogle".
He believed in their culture and understood how to leverage it. He got hired.
Wayne's goal was to grow this base to 1000 engineers in five years.
To do so he would implement an approach that challenged the board member's belief system. The board members wanted a tie wearing, stiff engineer. They wanted a man of order and strict guidelines. If they were to be 1000 engineers large, they needed a hard handed leader.
What Mr. Rosing, disguised in casual attire, brought them was a genius in compounding creativity. It all starts with who you hire. He hired only the "insanely brilliant". He hired social personalities. He wanted the best and brightest, but ones that could work on team projects.
He convinced these talents that Google was worth their time. He got them to buy into the mission of organizing the world's information. They could have influence in their position. Their ideas would have impact.
Then he provided the environment for these groups, no larger than eight, to thrive. They would quickly create projects, power forward, complete the mission, then dissemble the team leaving the members open to form with others on other projects. Think of a flock of birds coming together then separating, repeatedly forming a beautiful sight.
He implemented the 20% rule for which Google is known. 20% of their time would be spent on a personal interest project outside their main project in efforts to better Google's reach. Often these projects were placed on Google Labs for the world to determine if the project was worth their resources. Gmail came out of this along with many others.
His approach was to provide the most fertile environment for ideas to grow and compound off themselves. Thus, he was more of a guide than a manager.
To further paint the picture of his management style, when brought forth a pair of arguing employees, he would give them the option of having their fate settled over a coin toss or they could work it out and come to an agreement. 66% of the time they worked it out.
Google is now a huge success, changing the way we all see and interact with information.
His next conquest is in the astronomy field. Las Cumbres Observatory. He once again has hired the best and the brightest. They are sociable beings. And they have bought into the mission of revolutionizing the understanding of the universe via a global network of telescopes. He is managing them with the same style as he did at Google, an executive outlaw. Only this time 80% of their work is personal projects. Scientific understandings are changing because of their work.
The creativity is compounding.
