How Google’s Canadian office design encourages collaboration

As managing director of Google Canada, Sam Sebastian presides over an enviable domain: The Internet giant’s Toronto headquarters is pretty much a 10-year-old’s dream, with a hidden room, a mini-putt patio golf course, free snacks and endless video games. But the Ohio native, who took the top job at Google Canada last May after several years overseeing Google’s local and government sales at its Chicago office, brings his own extra method to the company’s madness. He showed us some of the surprisingly low-tech tricks he employs to stay productive in this high-tech playground.

Google discourages its staff from stockpiling too much stuff by limiting storage space to one closet and two sets of drawers for each employee. Googlers do have their own desks (75% of which are on hydraulics and can be made into standing desks), but everyone also has a laptop so it’s easy to be mobile, and the company encourages employees to keep their work in Google’s Cloud to make collaboration easier. The organization is a “choose your own device” workplace, meaning employees can decide whether to use Mac, PC, Android or iPhone products. After all, Google designs software for almost every platform.

MORE: A clean office isn’t necessarily a more innovative one