長期以來，科技界都受到“奇葩面試題”的誤導。如今，始作俑者谷歌都轉變思路，利用全新理念及工具來判斷應聘者素質。

“一輛校車可以裝多少個高爾夫球？”

曾幾何時，谷歌和其他大型科技公司都以這種奇葩面試題而聞名于世。背后的原因似乎不難理解：這些古怪問題可以判斷出一位潛在員工的思維獨創性和分析能力，從而幫助公司招聘到具備創造力的優秀人才。

問題在于，谷歌發現，這種策略實際上并不能預測人們的工作能力。相反，該公司意識到，最好向潛在員工提出一些與他們未來實際工作相關的問題。這一轉變是人力資源學者們多年來潛心研究的結果。

吸取這種教訓后，谷歌現在已經成為“循證管理”的擁護者，致力于充分利用其人力分析部門的內部數據，同時與學術界密切合作。

谷歌還推出了一個名為re:Work的新網站，希望借助這一令人印象深刻的舉措，將這種全新的管理理念傳播出去，為其他公司提供幫助。這家網站試圖通過分享最佳管理實踐，“將工作變得更好”。

這家網站被描述為谷歌的經驗庫，收集了谷歌和其他公司的大量案例研究。目前，re:Work尚處在起步階段。不過，已有的大量信息主要圍繞四個關鍵領域——招聘、管理、多元化和分析。

此外，網站上分享的信息，也為我們提供了寶貴的機會，深入了解谷歌如何讓員工保持高水平的創造力和創新力。

以下是re:Work網站上總結的谷歌促進創新的最佳實踐。

預測績效

實際上，通過奇葩難題來判斷員工創造力的公司，遠不只谷歌一家，但谷歌卻是第一家公開承認這種做法無效的公司。

一家公司往往很難準確識別和管理創造型人才，問題的根源在于對創造力本身存在誤解。許多人認為，創造力是一種神奇的事物，是靈光乍現，沒有辦法培養或管理。但多年的創造力研究卻顯示，事實并非如此。

我們不僅可以發現哪些人在工作中會有創造性的表現，還可以通過培訓提高創造力，管理創造性績效。

相比其他不太復雜的績效形式，這種做法可能難度更大，但有研究顯示，有許多方法可以發現創造性人才，在招聘時可根據一系列清晰的特征對求職者進行評估，例如知識、技能、能力，以及諸如個性等其他特征。

培養管理者

說起管理者，谷歌分享了它犯過的另一個錯誤——這家公司曾經認為管理者并不重要，甚至可能會扼殺創造力。后來谷歌發現，如果沒有管理者，員工會因為各種令人分心的任務而不堪重負，最終將傷害創造力。

這種觀點得到了研究的支持。事實上，管理（以及它的近親——領導力）對培養創造力至關重要。

借助于人力分析工具，谷歌發現了8 種有助于提高管理者效率的特征。事實證明，其中有幾種特征能夠對員工創造力產生積極影響。

這些特征包括放權，不進行微觀管理，關心員工的成功和個人福利，為團隊確立共同的愿景和策略，具備一些能夠讓管理者為團隊提供建議和評估創造性想法的技術專長。

管理多元化

許多人相信，多元化肯定能夠提高創新力。你或許認為，將一群不同背景的人放在一起，能夠自動帶來創造性想法。雖然有證據證明，多元視角確實有助于培養創造力，但也可能因為誤解而導致更多沖突。

這個問題的關鍵在于偏見對人們相互交流方式的影響。偏見會影響個人和團隊的合作能力，可能導致團隊成員和領導者因為提出想法的人而反對這種想法，而不管想法本身的好壞——最終將阻礙公司創新。

為了幫助員工了解和管理無意識的偏見，谷歌推出了一系列旨在“排除偏見”的活動，甚至提供工具幫助其他公司組織自己的“排除偏見”討論會。研究顯示，排除偏見討論會中經常討論的一種技巧——更換視角——可以用來利用多元視角的好處，進而促進團隊的創造力。

團隊動力

谷歌在re:Work上發布了一項關于團隊合作的最新研究成果。這項研究顯示，重要的不是團隊中有哪些人，而是團隊成員之間的互動方式。

谷歌提出了預測成功團隊的五個指標：心理安全感，可依賴性，結構與透明，工作的意義和工作的影響。谷歌注意到，對團隊成功影響最大的團隊動力是心理安全感，即在分享想法和彼此示弱的時候，團隊成員的內心究竟有多么舒適自在。

事實證明，心理安全感有助于知識分享，增強活力和促進學習。有鑒于此，它能成為團隊和組織培養創造力的重要方式，一點也不令人意外。

谷歌的新網站re:Work不僅提供促進創新的有用信息和工具，分享自己的最佳實踐，還建立一個“中心”收集“將工作做得更好”的方法，這本身就是一次顯著的創新。（財富中文網）

本文作者塔瑪拉?弗雷德里希現任沃里克大學創業與創新學副教授。

譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

審校：任文科

“How many golf balls could you fit in a school bus?”

This is the kind of question Google and its big tech brethren were once known for asking would-be employees. The reasoning behind the technique seemed intuitive. Ask people odd questions, see how original and well analyzed their thought process was, and you’ll end up hiring creative high-performers.

The trouble is, Google has discovered that the strategy doesn’t actually predict people’s ability to do the job. Instead, it found that it’s best to ask structured questions related to what prospective employees will actually be doing—something that had been studied for many years by HR scholars.

Having learned its lesson, Google has since become a champion of evidence-based management, utilizing internal data through its People Analytics department (its version of HR) and built close relationships with academics. In an impressive move, Google is now paying it forward and trying to help other organizations through its new sitere:Work, which aims to “make work better” by sharing management best practice.

The re:Work site, described as a repository of Google’s experience and case studies from other organizations, is still in its infancy. But there is already a wealth of information around four key areas—hiring, management, diversity, and analytics.

The information shared throughout the site also provides valuable insight into how Google maintains a high level of creativity and innovation in its workforce.

Below are some of Google’s best practices from re:Work that are known to foster innovation.

Predicting performance

Google is not the only organization that has used brainteasers to identify creative individuals, but it may be the first to publicly admit that they are ineffective.

The trouble with accurately identifying and managing creative talent often stems from misconceptions of what creativity is. Many believe that creativity is something magical—a burst of insight—that cannot be developed or managed. Many years of creativity research has shown this is not the case, however.

Not only can we identify individuals likely to perform creatively on the job, we can also train them to be more creative, as well as manage creative performance.

While it may be more difficult than less complex forms of performance, there is research that shows there are methods for identifying creative performers, and a clear pattern of characteristics that can be assessed when hiring, including knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics such as personality.

Developing managers

When it comes to managers, Google GOOG -0.02% shares another mistake it’s made—thinking that managers don’t matter, and may even kill creativity. Instead it found that, without managers, employees were left overwhelmed with distracting tasks which can actually hurt creativity.

The research supports this. Management (and its close cousin, leadership) are actually quite important to fostering creativity.

Using its people analytics tools, Google identifiedeight characteristics in particular that made its managers effective, and several of these have been shown to be positively related to employee creativity.

They include empowering your team and not micromanaging, being attentive to employees’ success and personal well-being, establishing a shared vision and strategy for the team, and having technical expertise that allow them to adequately advise the team and evaluate creative ideas.

Managing diversity

Many believe that diversity is a sure-fire way to increase innovation. You might expect that by assembling a diverse mix of people, you are automatically more likely to get creative ideas from their different perspectives. While there is some evidence to suggest that diverse perspectives do help foster creativity, it can also lead to increased conflict due to misunderstanding.

At the heart of this problem is the effect of bias on the way people interact with one another. Bias can hinder individuals’ and teams’ abilities to work together, and may also lead team members and leaders to dismiss ideas based on who they came from rather than their merit—ultimately hindering the organization’s innovation.

To help employees understand and manage their unconscious biases, Google has developed a set of “unbiasing” programs that help employees understand and manage their biases, and even provide tools for other organizations to facilitate their own unbiasing workshops. Research has shown that perspective-taking, a technique discussed in the unbiasing workshop, can be used to capitalize on the benefits of diverse perspectives and promote creativity in teams.

Team dynamics

A new post to Google’s re:Work blog reveals findings from a new internal study on teamwork. It revealed that it wasn’t who was on the team that mattered so much as how who was on the team interacted.

Google identified five key predictors of successful teams: psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning of work, and impact of work. It noticed that the team dynamic found to have the most significant influence on team success was psychological safety, which is how comfortable team members are in sharing ideas and being vulnerable with one another.

Given that psychological safety has been shown to facilitate knowledge sharing, vitality, as well as learning, it is no surprise that it is consistently found to be one of the key ways in which teams as well as organizations can foster creativity.

Not only does Google’s new re:Work site provide useful information and tools for fostering innovation, its willingness to share its best practices and build a hub of ideas for ways to “make work better” is a remarkable innovation in and of itself.

Tamara Friedrich is an associate professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Warwick. This piece was originally published onThe Conversation.