Tom Preston Werner - Optimize for happiness

Optimizing for
Happiness
Tom Preston-Werner

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Joke about oxford pubs


I cofounded GitHub
Erlang/OTP, Scala, Clojure, Node.js,

Business is
Broken


Business is broken.

ROBERT PROPST


Let me give you an example.
This is Robert Propst, he invented the cubicle in 1968.


I used to spend my days in a place that looked like this.
He must have been some kind of monster, to do that;
to design a system that most efficiently crammed humans into
offices.


Quite the contrary, he worked at Herman Miller.
Back then it the Open Bullpen office was popular.
This is the Action Office.


So what happened to turn Propst’s ideas into this?
Three things:
* Economic way to pack people into offices
* Depreciation laws
* Optimizing for money

“Lots of businesses are run by
crass people who create
hellholes. They make little bitty
cubicles and stuff people in
them. Barren, rat-hole places.”
– Robert Propst


In fact, in his later years, Propst himself denounced what he had
inadvertently created.


And now we know why Robert looks the way he does.

What can we
do about it?


Motivations
Cost Happiness
Quality Control
Speed Agility
Efficiency Impact


Here are a few things that motivate decisions.

Motivations
Cost Happiness
Quality Revenge
Speed Agility
Efficiency Growth


Of these, cost and happiness are the most interesting to
me.
Often at odds, but why?

Investing in
Humans


Investing in business decisions is generally well
understood.
But when it comes to humans, a lot of traditional
knowledge is wrong.

HARRY HARLOW


This is Harry Harlow.
He’s was a professor at the University of Wisconsin.
1949 did primate research with puzzles.
Uncovered intrinsic motivation.

EDWARD DECI


This is Edward Deci.
He’s a professor at the University of Rochester.
1969 Picked up Harlow’s research.

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic
Motivators


He’s done a lot of research on extrinsic vs intrinsic
motivators.
Soma puzzles.
Extrinsic means rewards for work you do.
Intrinsic means being rewarded by the work itself.

Optimize for
Happiness


Ever since we started GitHub, we’ve tried to optimize for
happiness.
Simply because a company with that philosophy is one I’ve
always wanted to work for.
It turns out that by doing that, you can optimize for success at
the same time.

People
Organization
Environment

I’ve identiﬁed three main areas where optimizing for
happiness is effective.

People
Organization
Environment

Companies are made up of people.
People are the most important part of a company.
How do you optimize the hiring process for happiness?


I like to think of a company as a bit like a restaurant.

Hire the Best


Hire the best people you can ﬁnd.
There’s nobody unhappier than someone you just had to ﬁre.
It is our responsibility to hire the best.

Seek and Offer
The 1% Fallacy


Use your network of existing employees and friends.
An offer is a powerful thing.
“Seek and offer” is better than job post blast because it avoids
the 1% fallacy.

Tech Review via
Open Source
Free as in
AWESOME!


Technical interviews are mostly useless.

Riddle Me Not
How many barbers are
there in the UK?


Please please please stop with the riddles. In no circumstance is
that relevant to the job.

Cultural Fit

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com


You can’t judge cultural ﬁt from code. We do our interviews at
a bar or cafe.

Keep them
Happy


DAN PINK


This is Dan Pink. He has a great book called “Drive: The Surprising
Truth about what Motivates Us.”

Mastery
Conferences & Travel
Kindle + Free Books


Health Care
Unmetered Sick Days


Deﬁnitely optimized for cost by most companies.

Vacations
Also unmetered


Responsibility and trust.

Side Projects


In a cost optimized situation, side projects would be prohibited.
Side projects allow us a distraction from everyday mission critical
work.
A collaborative canvas to experiment with others.


My favorite GitHub side project is Hubot
He’s our Campﬁre chat bot written in Node.js.
He can do a lot of things.

What is the ROI of making
my employees happy?


People
Organization
Environment

Flat Lattice
Organization


Made famous by Gore Corp.
- Flat
- Team based
- Personal initiative
- No org charts
- No chains of command

Well De ned Goals


Well De ned Goals
Cheerio!


Help developers work better together.
- Main Site
- Enterprise Site
- Training
- Jobs
- Conferences

Small Teams


Small Teams


Self organizing.
Teams assemble around features based on desire to work on
them.

Self Managed

Autonomy!


One of the tenets of Dan Pink’s keys to worker motivation is
autonomy.
That means being in charge of your destiny.
Enhances intrinsic motivation.

Leadership by
Merit and Ability


Self managed doesn’t me unmanaged.
Leaders arise naturally.
Company of the compelling argument.

No Titles


Titles are harmful.
Reduce ﬂexibility and interest in varied endeavors.

No Meetings


When was the last time a meeting made you happy?
Meetings are optimized for CYA.

Culture of Shipping


Shipping makes people smile.
Getting your work in front of an audience is empowering.

Purpose!


At GitHub, we encourage shipping product as soon as reasonable.

No Work Hours
ROWE


Rigid working hours are optimized for control.
Cali Ressler and Jodi Thompson, HR at Best Buy.
Gap in 2008. Turnover dropped by 50%, engagement up 13%.
Predicated on trust.

Less Burnout


What is the ROI of working
together happily?


Campfire
From 37signals



Serious Room


Danger Room

Brick & Mortar
From Earthen Materials



Had to be awesome. Held out 6 months to ﬁnd the perfect spot.
Open layout, creative space.

STEVEN JOHNSON


This is Steven Johnson.
He has a book called “Where do Good Ideas come From?”

Good Ideas
Liquid Networks
Serendipity


Liquid = lots of nodes ﬂoating around
Serendipity = nodes hitting each other


MIT Building 20, built in 1943 as a temporary building for the
Radiation Laboratory.
Dozens of occupants.
Everything from acoustics to guided missiles to model train
club was here.
Successful because of easy modiﬁcation and ﬂuidity.


Microsoft Research building 99 built in 2007.
Designed with ﬂexibility in mind.
Reconﬁgurable walls, glass walled naturally lit conference
rooms, and a huge atrium.


Collaborative spaces built in.


Open, casual meeting areas featured prominently.


Flexible work space


This is our bar. We like to collect ﬁne whiskies and gins to
share with visitors and after hours.


And this is the kegerator I built.
But it’s not really about the beer.
It’s about bringing people together in casual conversation
where serendipitous ideas can be made.


Drinkups let us connect with our users.
Costs money but makes us happy and engaged.

What is the ROI of creating
a happy workplace?


GitHub



These are my cofounders.
We built everything by hand.

Bootstrapped
and Profitable


No VC money means no outside interference.

In nite Runway


GitHub Employee Count



1. We have lots of users.
2. We have lots of repos.
3. We have lots of famous projects.

People
Organization
Environment

When it comes to your people, your organization, and your environment...

What is the ROI of
happiness?


What is the ROI on happiness?

Thank You
@mojombo


Questions?


Tom Preston Werner - Optimize for happiness

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