2022 Book Report #4 - No Rules Rules (Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer)
4/12 - No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
Netflix and the culture of reinvention
Netflix's company culture is famous for many things, including their culture deck that was published over a decade ago. This book is a deeper dive into those philosophies.
The 10 Dots
A great workplace is stunning colleagues - You need to hire and keep OUTSTANDING employees, leaving no space for avg. Once you have high talent density in the workplace & have eliminated less-than-great performers, you’re ready to introduce culture of candor.
Say what you really think (with positive intent) - Only say something about someone that you’d say to their face. It’s stressful and unpleasant to hear what we are doing poorly, but after the initial stress, that feedback really helps
Remove
Vacation policy - What matters is what you achieve, not how many hours you clock. In the absences of written policy, every manager must spend time speaking to the team about what behaviors fall within the realm of the acceptable and appropriate
Remove travel and expense approvals - Spend company money as it if were your own. Act in Netflix’s best interest. Once you have a workforce made up nearly exclusive of high performers, you can count on people to behave responsibly
Pay top of personal market - In all creative roles, the best is easily 10x better than average. It costs a lot more to lose people and to recruit replacements than to overpay a little in the first place
Open the books - Any locked area is symbolic of hidden things, and signifies we don’t trust one another. It’s up to the leader to live the message of transparency by sharing as much as possible - Transparency has become the biggest symbol of how much we trust theM
No decision-making approvals needed - If you share all the context of your decision, you’ve done the groundwork. You don’t need approval. It’s up to you. You decide - At Netflix, you get chips to place bets (some will win, some will lose)
The Keeper test - With our dispersed decision-making model, if you pick the very best people and they pick the very best people (and so down the line) great things will happen - If a person on your team were to quit tomorrow, would you try to change their mind?
A circle of feedback - Only say something about someone that you’d say to their face
Lead with context, not control - If someone comes with an idea and seek your advice, don’t try to press your thoughts and force them to work under your conditions. Instead, share what you think and let them make the decision. - This gives more freedom to employees
Bring it all to the world! - They’ve learned how to successfully implement a culture of candor throughout the world and in differing cultures
To learn more about Netflix's culture, they have updated a page on their site. Seeking excellence.
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