How Google Tackles Burnout: A Unique Program To Keep Employees Happy and Productive

Coming up in today’s edition:

1. Inside look at Google’s system to reduce employee burnout

2. A step-by-step framework that you can adopt to prevent burnout in your team

3. A question to ask to help your team with their workload

1. GOOGLE’S “SEARCH INSIDE YOURSELF” PROGRAM

In the early days of Google, employee #107 was a software engineer named Chade-Meng Tan, who would change the course of the company forever.

He was surrounded by high performers who had no problem “turning it on”.

But they did have a real problem in being able to “turn it off”.

They struggled to take short breaks let alone disconnect from work in the evenings or weekends.

Tan had the wisdom to foresee if they continued this style of work - stress without rest - then there would be several burned out, unproductive, unhappy employees.

Fortunately, outside of Google, Tan was an avid practitioner of mindfulness meditation, a Buddhist style of sitting meditation in which the practitioner focuses solely on the breath.

This type of meditation was one of the key ingredients of England Football’s successful Euros campaign:

Tan used this practise successfully to transition from the intense stress he experienced personally at work to a more restful state at home. This was exactly what Google employees needed at the time.

In 2007, he launched “Search Inside Yourself”, a 7-week mindfulness meditation course for Google employees.

He was first met with resistance as many questioned what a mystical, candle-lit, deep-chanting practice could do to make them perform better.

But Tan eventually had one cohort who went through the course and instantly became raving fans. They felt calmer, clear-headed and more focused.

Word spread like wildfire throughout Google until the leadership team approached Tan to ask him to teach mindfulness meditation full-time and lead a new department called Personal Growth.

The Search Inside Yourself movement continued to grow beyond the walls of Google where Tan remains Chairman of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute that teaches mindfulness to organisations all around the world.

Key Benefits:

• Improved ability to quieten your mind

• Better transition from stress to rest

• Improved listening skills

• More control of your emotional reactions

• Reduced anxiety

• Improved sleep

That last benefit of sleep is why founder of fitness tracking app Whoop (Will Ahmed) has been so interested in the topic.

He now does transcendental meditation every day for about 20 minutes.

In his interview with global football superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, the pair talked in detail about its importance to elite performance ❤️

You can see the impact of this practise in Ronaldo’s Whoop scores and other football stars like Virgil Van Dijk here.

Brain studies are now showing the immense and measurable benefits of mindfulness meditation.

Even starting with a few minutes every day, increases the grey matter in the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex - one of the most evolved parts of the brain that separates us from more primitive animals.

In addition to higher order thinking, the prefrontal cortext allows us to respond thoughtfully to situations instead of instinctively reacting.

It is vital when we transition out of stress and into rest.

Why Elite Endurance Athletes Are Adopting This Approach

Running and meditation may seem like they have little in common.

But you’d be wrong to think that.

When pain sets in during a hard, long workout, emotionally charged thoughts can lead to panic as you question if your body can make it.

Heart rates rise and muscles tense.

As a result, both enjoyment and performance plummet.

But for the best endurance athletes in the world like Russ Cook who ran the entire length of Africa, it’s not that they don’t feel pain or discomfort, they just react differently.

Rather than panicking, the are able to have what psychologists call a “calm conversion”:

The amygdala, the emotional centre of the brain that triggers our stress response, doesn’t get hijacked.

This was demonstrated by a study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where they used fMRI scans to see inside novice vs. expert meditators brains when a stress response was evoked with a scalding hot wire.

• Novice meditators - had a spike of amygdala activity

• Expert meditators - had low levels of amygdala activity

Essentially, expert meditators were able to “turn off” their stress response, disconnecting the stimulus from an extended emotional reaction.

Research also showed that following hard training, the HRV of elite athletes returns to baseline (pre-exercise value) faster than the HRV of non elites.

15 minutes after strenuous exercise the HRV of:

• Elite athletes had returned to 80% of its baseline

• Non elite athletes had only returned to 25% of its baseline

Developing your mindful muscle should be a non-negotiable for high performance in business as well as sports.

It lets you devote all your physical and mental energy to completing the task at hand, not to worrying about it.

2. A STEP-BY-STEP FRAMEWORK YOU CAN IMPLEMENT TO PREVENT BURNOUT

Here are three main factors that can lead to burnout and some strategies for you to help prevent it:

1) Emotional and Mental Exhaustion

High-pressure environments demand emotional energy.

Coaches like Phil Jackson (NBA) are known for mindfulness techniques to help teams stay present and resilient - check out the article I wrote here on his energy management technique.

Other tactics you can implement:

Integrate Mindfulness: Encourage techniques like visualisation or mindfulness meditation like Google’s Search Inside Yourself Program.

• Start meetings with 2 minutes of guided breathing.

• Encourage employees or colleagues to to use apps like Calm or Headspace.

Celebrate Small Wins: The best coaches celebrate milestones like a great practice session or individual growth. In business, recognise achievements weekly, no matter how small.

• Create a “Wins Wall” on Slack or at team stand-ups.

Here is a great example in practise when Manager Thomas Frank celebrated lots of little wins for both the team and individual players post the Newcastle win 👇

2) Overworking and Lack of Boundaries

In elite sports, overtraining can lead to injuries and diminished performance. Elite coaches, like those in professional football, incorporate mandatory rest days into their training schedules to ensure athletes recover physically and mentally and avoid burnout.

Set Work-Life Boundaries: Similar to sports, we can implement recovery or “no work zones”. Setting clear work hours and “no-email” zones during evenings or weekends can be a game-changer.

• 95% of emails can wait till the morning.

If you really need to send it to get it off your mind/todo list, schedule emails to go out during office hours using tools like Outlook or Gmail’s delayed delivery.

Delegate Effectively: Elite coaches trust their assistant staff with key responsibilities. In business, identify tasks that can be delegated and empower your team to take ownership.

• Use frameworks like Eisenhower’s Matrix to prioritise your team’s workload.

Recovery Days: Sports teams schedule mandatory rest days. Business leaders can adopt “no-meeting days” or encourage employees to take regular time off.

3) Feeling Isolated

In a hybrid world, your people can often feel lonely.

Here are some tactics to prevent this feeling:

The Military Buddy System: In elite military units, each person is paired with a “battle buddy” to ensure constant connection and support. This prevents feelings of isolation during high-pressure situations.

• Pair team members as accountability partners for projects or personal development.

FC Barcelona’s Vision Sessions: At FC Barcelona’s famous academy “La Masia”, players and staff constantly revisit their shared vision and what it means to “play the Barcelona way.”

• Schedule monthly “vision alignment” sessions to discuss team goals and how each member contributes to the bigger picture.

The Olympic Programme “Gratitude Grid”: Athletes are encouraged to share moments they’re grateful for to build emotional resilience and team camaraderie.

• Introduce a “gratitude moment” during weekly team meetings where everyone shares something positive about a colleague or recent experience.

Burnout is real.

By creating an environment of balance within your team, you can ensure they stay energised, motivated, passionate and performing at a high level for years to come.

A POWERFUL QUESTION THAT MAY HELP 💡

I had a look at some of the most common complaints:

• No coffee machine

• Toilet facilities

• Excessive noise

• Outdated tools

• Insufficient training

• Lack of recognition

• Even damp was surprisingly on the list 😂

As a leader, ask this question regularly.

Write down ones within your control to change.

Take one of these problems away from your team every month.

You will be seen as the person that removes stress from their life, helping with any potential feelings of burnout.

And if all else fails, remember the famous quote from Tom Hanks:

“This too shall pass!”

Watch this incredible 60 seconds from two of Hollywoods greats:

Time is your ally.

This a good reminder as we go into a reflective period over the winter holidays.

Setting goals is important but if you haven’t had the year you wanted then just remember…

This too shall pass 🙂 

Hope you enjoyed this week’s tactics. I’ll be back next Sunday with a new lineup 👋 - Alex 

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P.P.S. If you’re ready to take your leadership to the next level and gain personalised guidance tailored to your team’s needs, the Elite Team Leadership Programme is your next step. Join a community of senior leaders and founders, where you’ll receive expert training, actionable support, and the accountability needed to unlock your team’s full potential.