I just read about Google’s 20 Percent Time corporate philosophy here that explains what that means:
The 20 percent time is a well-known part of our philosophy here, enabling engineers to spend one day a week working on projects that aren’t necessarily in our job descriptions.
I’ve been wanting to do this for our team for a while … I’m shooting for the summer to be able to do something like this.
I’ve thought of them as “Learn and Grow” days, some kind of project sabbaticals, where they can flex their creative muscles on a project they are passionate about.
We talked yesterday at our mini-retreat in Oklahoma City about focusing on doing things we’re passionate about (that of course make money, and pay our salaries).
This notion of 20 Percent Time, one day a week working on something outside of your responsibilities grows on me.
As a manager and business owner, I value innovation — it keeps our business on the edge and differentiates us from others in our field. As an employee, I always valued having the freedom to be creative, to innovate, to do new things, to … learn and grow, personally.
Those kinds of learning opportunities are win-win … the business benefits from innovation; the employee/team member grows personally and hopefully has more self-fulfillment as part of his/her job.
