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= 20% Project = The 20% Project is an initiative where employees are allocated twenty-percent of their paid work time to pursue personal projects. The objective of the program is to inspire innovation in participating employees and ultimately increase company potential. The 20% Project was influenced by a comparable program, launched in 1948, by manufacturing multinational 3M which required employees to dedicate fifteen-percent of their paid hours to a personal interest.

Technology company, Google, is credited for popularising the 20% concept, with many of their current services being products of employee pet projects. Nowadays, school systems enforce the 20% project to foster creativity and boost productivity.

History
As aforementioned, the 20% Project, or otherwise known by terms such as ‘20% Time’, was derived from the 15% project, an initiative established by corporation 3M. At the time of this program’s implementation, The United States’ work force was comprised of highly inflexible employment opportunities in rigid business structures. After WWII ended, 3M developed an ethos: Innovate or die, which provided enterprise for the company and inspired the launch of this program. This original project has widely successful outcomes, resulting in Scientists developing and manufacturing products that remain utilised internationally, even decades later.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Founders of Google have encouraged the 20% system. Compared to its predecessor, a five-percent increase in the time dedicated to projects allows for further positive growth in the company’s levels. Over the last twenty years, this project enabled the creation of key Google services such as Gmail. As recognition of the clear benefits of retaining such a scheme grew, schools have replicated this system for their students in the classroom environment. The production of such creatively stimulated, ungraded work allows for peers to experiment with ideas without fear of assessment and increases their involvement in their general studies. Further, other large corporations are now using this system in their day-top-day functions, including software company Atlassian as a safeguard to counter damp growth rates and a general lack of innovation.

Applications
The 20% project is responsible for the development of many Google services. Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page advised that workers “spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google”. Google’s email service ‘Gmail’ was created by developer, Paul Buchheit. In his project ‘Caribou’, he used his knowledge from creating personal email software as a college student to create the service. The freedom to use his time in such a way allowed him to ultimately develop a fundamental Google service. Buchheit’s colleague, Susan Wojcicki, utilised her time to create their product Adsense. Finally, developer Krishna Bharat created Google news as an individual pursuit and hobby.

Australian enterprise company, Atlassian, has been using the 20% project since 2008. Co-founder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, stated that “innovation slows as the company grows.” And a such the scheme was introduced to re inspire innovation. The induction of the system was a 6-month trial, granting $1 million to engineers and allowing them to work on private projects based on personal interests. Part of this 20% time is their annual ‘Ship It’ day, where employees are challenged with a task to create any product and then ship this item within 24 hours. Workers create products which ranged from refined beer to ‘Jira’ issue software.

Benefits and Detriments
The 20% project is designed to let employees experiment without the pressure of company decline or the threat of unemployment. For companies that thrive from the conception of services and products, innovative and entrepreneurial thought is vital to success.

However, for an operating business, productivity can be negatively affected by the 20% project. The loss of time previously spent on major company-aligned projects can negatively affect a company’s overall performance.

The allocation of this project time is not consistent. Former Google employee and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer once stated “I’ve got to tell you the dirty little secret of Google’s 20% time. It’s really 120% time.” This quote suggests that this dedicated time can become a burden on company output as employees devote more than the required time to their personal initiatives. Furthermore, in competitive businesses such as Google, extra tasks can lead to focal projects lacking detail and falling short of their competitors.

Chris Mims mentioned that the 20% project was “as good as dead”. This is a concern as it suggests that this project is destructive over long-term periods. In Google HR boss Laszlo Bock’s new book, “Work Rules!”, he mentions that the concept has been “waxed and wanted.” He states that workers in fact dedicate 10% of their time on personal projects, increasing focus time after the idea begins to “demonstrate impact.” He mentions that “the idea of 20 per cent time is more important than the reality of it.” This suggests that workers should always be driven towards individual innovation, yet it should operate “somewhat outside the lines of formal management.”

Atlassian Co-Founder Mike Cannon-Brookes implemented the 20% project as a test to see if it produced any notable improvements or detriments to the company’s output. They funded a 6-month trial with one million Australian dollars. During this process, workers tackled inherent structural difficulties within the scheme. An employee mentioned that it was difficult to balance this 20% time “amongst all the pressures to deliver new features and bug fixes.”, suggesting that the program was reduced to merely another source of deadlines and stress for their employees. As a result, the company found that this 20% project in fact became 1.1% of their working time. Another issue faced was the difficulty in the organisation and team-work involved in the projects. As employees would organise groups to create new software, they would struggle to work with employees who had other commitments and alternate time schedules. The company blogs have included fewer references to the 20% project over the last decade, further suggesting that this scheme loses effect in long-term practices. The company’s ‘Ship It’ day still highlights the prosperity of time dedicated to employee-based innovation.