THE GOOGLE FACTOR

By Jorge Manuel Zelaya Fajardo

www.jorgemanuelzelaya.com

July 16th, 2019

                              

It took me 0.57 seconds to get 756,000,000 searches related to the word GOOGLE FACTOR when I searched the internet. Well, to be more precise, it was GOOGLE who did that. For anyone interested in measuring productivity, those results are impressive under any metrics.

Personally, I have formulated a concept called the GOOGLE FACTOR, which in a practical way means obtaining results with very high speed, accuracy and security (in the specific case of the search engine these last two could be discussed). The technological changes of the last decades, particularly related to the Internet, have revealed that speed is an implicit expression of competitiveness, an undeniable attribute of a product and  an unequivocal characteristic of the best service (that's what I teach in my seminars to professionals from different industries.) However, the reason why I write these lines is precisely to establish the point that the GOOGLE FACTOR can not be applied to everything, everywhere and at all times. It lacks the universality of the law of gravity.

In fact, if we spoke in numbers, this writing could be

defined as the .25 GOOGLE FACTOR or a 0.25GF, that is, it would have a %

(in this case 25) of use, less than 100% in certain human activities. I

can and I must have the GOOGLE FACTOR in my search for information on

the web, but I cannot apply it to the development of the habit of resilience in

a human being, the savings for a pension fund and the successful completion of

a 42k  marathon, just to give an example.

My biggest fear is that any human being, particularly the Millennials (born

between the year 1980 and the year 2000) and the Centennials (born after

the year 2000), will think that EVERYTHING can be done in .57 seconds

This topic has made me understand much better the paradox of the excellent leader (promulgated by Jack Welch during his tenure as CEO in General Electric) that establishes that the excellent leader is the one who manages well the short-term financial results as well as the long term strategic results. Although perhaps the best example is the Kaizen paradox or continuous improvement (which generates sustainable incremental changes in the long term) and Reengineering (which generates exponential changes in the short term).

I am very concerned that millennial professionals will surrender to the first obstacle, will want to resign because they were not given the post of CEO after 24 hours of graduating from the master's degree, or that they are discouraged because an endeavor did not succeed  immediately. While  personally, I have always been fascinated by speed and precision, I have come to realize that almost always when dealing with human beings, their desires, aspirations, feelings, frustrations and learning;  speed only helps in the recovery process if we have learned the lesson.

The GOOGLE FACTOR of absolute immediacy and extreme ease will be key to the development of artificial intelligence in the coming years, but it will not have much validity in the development of our emotional intelligence especially when dealing with human beings facing obstacles in everyday life.

 Now, a timely combination of speed and patience are an attractive competitive advantage for any professional today (for the future), at any latitude.