On any given day a typical conversation at say, 10:45am, at Google might go like this….

Googler:  Gee, I’m just not feeling all that creative right now.

Manager: Why don’t you go out for a bike ride along the San Francisco Bay?

Googler: Good idea… (Thinks to herself: should I jump on a bike, rollerblade, or test out one of those new skateboards that Google just bought?)

Manager (10:46am): Cool. Just give me a call if you don’t plan to come back to the office today.

While many of us are sick and tired about hearing about how great it is to work at Google, here’s the bottom line:  Google didn’t invent the idea of treating their employees really well – that was already embedded in the the Silicon Valley culture.

But Google took the idea and ran with it.

Who wouldn’t be motivated in an environment where you are valued, trusted, and allowed to put your creative cap on any way and any time your muse appears? 

What if you are most productive at 11:30pm or 6:30am? What if you can’t think well cooped up in a cubicle in front of a computer screen?

What if you need a room full of white boards where you can write all over them in colourful markers?

Wouldn’t you get that employee some white boards and markers?

Creating motivated people is happening all over Silicon Valley, and it is such a simple formula when you value the way people work best – sometimes that means time off. Three years ago, Netflix CEO Reid Hastings at a Churchill Club forum announced that the company was going to offer employees unlimited vacation time.  It raised eyebrows with Hasting’s fellow panelist, ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who basically asked him what the strategy could be to have such a policy.

The fact of the matter is that Silicon Valley’s leadership has found they get the greatest productivity when they tap into each individual’s rhythm.  In her Google days, Marissa Mayer would ask each of her employee what they needed or what theirrhythm is (for example, “to be at my kid’s soccer game during the day” or “to be with my college buddies on Tuesday nights”), and committed to following through with her staff’s needs. Motivation shot up to an all time high.   

What to make of Mayer’s decision at Yahoo that employees must now show up at the office? It’s fine-tuning to a particular company’s needs. Meyer says productivity and creativity work best when people are brought together, but continue to respect each other’s rhythm. 

After all, it is that rhythm that makes us all in tune.