Netflix: A Company at the Pinnacle of Learning

I’ve never seen it before, so I am very thankful to George for making me aware of it.  It is 128 slides, but I would strongly encourage you to take the time to watch it and think about why they operate like this.  They list seven aspects of their culture, and they expand on each of these in the slide show:

• Values are what we value.  Real company values are the behaviors and skills we particularly value in fellow employees: Judgment, Communication, Impact, Curiosity, Innovation, Courage, Passion, Honesty, Selflessness
• High Performance
• Freedom & Responsibility
• Context, not Control
• Highly aligned, Loosely coupled
• Pay Top of Market
• Promotions and Development

Here are some of my favorite points from the slide show:

• YOU question values inconsistent with our values.  ALL of us are responsible for value consistency
• Great workplace is stunning colleagues
• To avoid surprises, YOU should periodically ask you manager “If I told you I was leaving, how hard would you work to change my mind to stay at Netflix?”
• “Brilliant Jerks”. Some companies tolerate them (we don’t).
• Responsible people thrive on freedom, and are worthy of freedom
• Increase talent diversity faster than complexity (this entire section on growth and complexity is BRILLIANT).
• Managers: when one of your talented people does something dumb, don’t blame them. Instead, ask yourself what context you failed to set.
• It is a healthy idea, not a traitorous one, to understand what other firms would pay you by interviewing and talking to peers at other companies. Talk to your manager about what you find.

I think what they are doing is extremely impressive.  What is glaringly obvious to me is they have put a lot of thought into understanding why their employees behave the way they do.  They are practicing the principles I have talked about in my article “The Pinnacle of Learning.”

Please, don’t spend a single second thinking about how you can copy some of what Netflix is doing in your company.  Instead, think hard about why it works and why your company is not similarly impressive.

“How” is the wrong question.