Rules of the Garage
By Jennifer Goddard | September 22, 2008
BNET Australia Contributors
Aussie Rules
Biography
BNET Australia Contributors
Brian Haverty is editorial director for CBS Interactive Australia and is responsible for the company's BNET and ZDNet Australia sites.
Robert Gerrish is a coach, author and professional speaker and the founder of Flying Solo, an Australian online community for solo business owners.
Melissa Lourenco is the HR manager for CBS Interactive in Australia.
Chris Golis is the author of The Humm Handbook: Lifting Your Level of Emotional Intelligence. He runs seminars and workshops on EQ.
Suzi Dafnis is Community Director of the Australian Businesswomen's Network.
Yvonne Adele helps organisations build a culture of ideas by teaching people at all levels to access their untapped creative thinking skills.
Computer giant HP described their organisation as a “garage” in their 1999 annual report in honour of the place where the company founders, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, created their first product. Their “rules” of the garage remind us how to stick to the basics and focus on being real:
- Believe you can change the world.
- Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work wherever.
- Know when to work alone and when to work together.
- Share — tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
- No politics. No bureaucracy (these are ridiculous in a garage).
- The customer defines a job well done.
- Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
- Invent different ways of working.
- Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage.
- Believe that together we can do anything.
- Invent.
What rules do you have in your “garage”?
