The Snitch

Apparently Google wants to do more than just help employees develop their career and skill sets as they are interested in employees’ spirituality.  At a recently held a spirituality seminar called “Happiness and Its Causes”,  one of Google’s top employees talked about a new school on Google University – the School of Personal Growth.

Chade-Meng Tan, a panelist at the conference and one of Google’s early engineers suggested that Google’s School of Personal Growth is a futuristic model for every workplace. “Google wants to help Googlers grow as human beings on all levels,” Tan said in his presentation.  Employees can take classes that deal with mental development, emotional development, holistic health and well-being, and a Buddhist notion of “beyond the self”. Classes are aptly named “The Neuroscience of Empathy” and “Search Inside Yourself.”

The company’s strategy is to boost the brainstorming powers of Google’s  crème de la crème and their powers of self- examination. Monika Broecker, a former leadership coach and therapist with Google, who was an architect of the program, said, “It’s very effective because studies have proven that if people are relaxed and open, they won’t repeat the same ideas and mistakes. They become more creative.”

Have you heard of any other companies engaging in such less conventional programs? It does sound useful to me, because when everything else seems to be falling apart or stressing you out, it would definitely be useful to locate the inner strength to help tide you over.

Google has made no public announcement about their educational endeavor but to read more, click here.