9 Valuable Netflix experiences that leaders need to know

 

3 Valuable Experiences That Netflix Offers

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Netflix (Why Netflix Empowers Black Creators), a video streaming service, is widely known for the entertaining experience that it offers. It is also very famous for its corporate culture that treats talented people the best and cools them off when things don't go well.

When I look at individual cases, I sometimes think, 'Isn't this too much?' Considering the specificities below, it can be seen that Netflix's unique culture was not built solely by cold corporate logic.

1) It is a highly competitive industry area.
2) In a rapidly growing company, the talent needed is constantly changing
3) If you get into Netflix, you have enough power to save other companies.

9 Advices From Patty McCord's Book

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Recently, a book written by Patty McCord, chief talent officer who created Netflix's unique corporate culture, left the company and was published.

We have compiled nine ‘advices’ because we think that the insights they give to leaders who are working as middle managers or running companies are very deep.

1. Abandon Best Practices

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“Many companies want to create a vibrant culture by enhancing and empowering employee engagement”
“(As a means) link the bonus and annual salary to the year-end high”
“It is common to organize learning programs such as lifelong education or to hold various celebration parties to foster camaraderie.”
“This idea has no bad intentions, but there are too many concerns behind it.”
“They are in a state of stifling because they are afraid that they will do something wrong on the inside when they say that they are given authority.”

“If you're reaching your goals, give them tens of thousands of dollars if everything is working. Please pour the stock.”
“There is no need for a bonus that is linked to the target”

2. A Good Colleague is The Greatest Welfare

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“I am most excited while doing startup consulting, when my investment is dry and working with a company that is facing a very difficult challenge”
“Because overcoming difficulties is what makes a really great team. A good team comes out when things are difficult.”
“In 2001, Netflix faced a situation where it had to let out a third of its workforce”

At that time, Netflix had to work twice as much with 30% of its existing employees.

“After the mass layoffs and many middle managers, I felt that I was able to move much faster as there was no consultation and approval process within the company.”
“Our first realization was that those who remained were the top performers.”
“In other words, I realized that the best support a company can give its employees is to only hire high performers and get them to work together.”
“This is a far better perk than a huge bonus or stock option”
“A highly capable colleague, a clear goal, and a good understanding of the product are the most powerful combination of all three."

3. The Current Team & The Future Team Are Different

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“The biggest mistake a startup founder can make while building a team is to assume that current employees will grow into responsible employees for the future.”
“When consulting startup founders, I had to say, ‘As the company gets bigger, many of our current employees won’t be able to do it’”

“I learned this lesson the hard way. It is a time when we were faced with the challenge of dealing with traffic that is one-third of the U.S. Internet bandwidth a year from in the past.”
“I found out that our IT cloud department had to solve the problem, but it can't be done in nine months”
“Recognizing time constraints is very important for any team”
“We hired people with fantastic experience in cloud operations, and instead of trying to build our own system, we signed a contract with Amazon Web Services.”

4. Information Sharing, As Transparent as Possible

“Trust is based on honest communication. I've seen employees become cynical when they hear only half the truth.”

“Cynicism is cancer. Dissatisfaction spreads, flattery and gossip abound.”
“Of course, some information should be kept secret, but it will convey the seriousness of the competition the company faces and share the company's challenges.”

“If company employees fail to get business information from management, they are more likely to get misinformation from others.”
“How the business goes, what the management strategy is”

“The same thing happens when you don’t properly inform your employees about the challenges they face.”
“You will get futile information from colleagues you don’t know exactly, or from the Internet where there are various rumors and conspiracy theories.”

5. Communication: 'easy' for managers, 'easy' for employees

“Some team leaders say things like ‘I try to explain, but my teammates are so stupid that I don’t listen’”
“Then I said, “Well, maybe it was difficult because I explained it too complicated? points out.”
“After that, I made a rule for Netflix team leaders to ‘explain the matter as you would to your mother’”
“In the past, when I told my mother about the plan I had made, she said, ‘I don’t know what you are going to do’… .”
.
“She is always right. Using complex jargon to explain it doesn’t help at all.”

“On the contrary, grab and ask anyone in your company”
“Are you going to waste a day at a related seminar, or will you ask a senior manager a question or have a serious discussion with the manager about an immediate issue with no penalty?”
“I swear no one will choose the seminar”

6. Make sure you say 'Start, Stop, Continue'

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“A culture of openly sharing criticism is one of the most difficult things for newcomers to adapt.”

“But most quickly acknowledge how important openness is.”

“We created a system where once a year we send feedback to anyone in the company saying ‘start, stop, go on’”

“We called it Annual Feedback Day”

“Of course there is no question that an adaptation process is necessary”

“Eric Coulson didn’t even want to hit the submit button at first because he didn’t like one of the ways product managers work.”

But the next day, everyone who received the feedback came to Eric and said, ‘The feedback was good. It was very helpful!”

It is said that over 90% of Patty McCord's mild cases react this way.

For reference, the Eric Colson mentioned in the book is the person who left for Stitchfix after serving as vice president of data science and engineering at Netflix.

7. Get a Reputation for being Selfless

“If I do not agree with other department heads in all areas and have a fierce battle”

“I would probably think that other department heads are fighting because of pride, department interests, or preconceived notions.

“But if you are fighting for the good of the customer and the company, I will listen more to him.”

“Even on Netflix, sometimes there is a fuss that goes into a claim for the sake of a claim.”

“But every time someone interrupted me and said, ‘So how is this going to help customers?’ it helps keep the argument from escaping.”

8. Break up nicely

“I say that the most beneficial condition for all workers today is ‘flexibility’”
“You have to keep learning new skills, looking out for new opportunities, and taking on new challenges on a regular basis so you can reach your full potential.”
“We encourage everyone at Netflix to take responsibility for their own growth”
“When our employees want an opportunity we couldn't give them, we encouraged them to look elsewhere.”
“On Netflix, it is very common and natural to offer employees to interview elsewhere to find out about market opportunities.”

For reference, the book mentions several examples of Patty McCord recommending talented people to other companies, although not suitable for Netflix.

“This also allowed us to better understand what the market demand for them is and how much we have to pay them.”

9. Netflix Repeated Countless Failures

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“Was Netflix doing this well from the start? As you know, no company can do that. We stumbled several times.”
“There weren’t many moments in which the challenges were dramatically solved.”
“Rather, I gradually adapted and created a new way within it.”

‘Trying new things -> making mistakes -> starting over -> betting good results repeatedly”
“We have taken it one step at a time with constant perseverance”
“We instilled in our employees the core behaviors the company wanted and gave them the freedom to practice those behaviors. In fact, we asked our employees to do that.”

“The result is a team full of energy and they have become the best drivers that made Netflix what it is today.”

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