In my experience at big companies the distractions also involve money and disputes. Many of my distractions are involved with planning and budgeting activities

In my experience at big companies the distractions also involve money and disputes. Many of my distractions are involved with planning and budgeting activities where I continually re-justify the budget for projects I work on. The most common disputes I deal with are territorial. Someone wants to redirect my work or I want to redirect theirs. As far as Google goes, I don't think the hands-off culture can totally eliminate distractions from turf or budget. I have read that there are steps that must be taken to get a project going beyond a certain stage. And the distractions seem to be related to human nature. Perhaps they have streamlined these distractions to the minimum needed. I'd sure like to know how, and I if was king of my company I'd institute them.