Today I’m peeling-back-the-covers and giving you an insider’s look at the inner-workings of one of the hottest, most disruptive companies in the world.
Netflix is the video streaming service, single-handedly responsible for the term “binge watching”, which is rapidly attacking, disrupting and transforming the television industry.
Few people realise that Netflix started out over 15 years ago as a DVD subscription service.
Yet through constant innovation, they now:
These stats, particularly for the television advertising industry, amount to a staggering 160 hours of ads avoided, per user, per year.
So if you’re looking for an example of disruption in action, you can’t go past Netflix.
And at Necker Island I had the privilege of meeting and learning from Netflix’s CEO and co-founder, Marc Randolph.
When Marc began his presentation, titled “Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility”, naturally my ears pricked up and he had my attention 100%!
What fascinated me in learning from Marc, was that Netflix’s innovation is driven largely through their approach to people.
In this article you will learn about 5 key aspects of Netflix’s Culture which assists them in creating their performance culture.
These are powerful examples of new initiatives and ways of thinking that we are seeing leading companies adopt into their workplace.
It’s not new news. However, how many businesses really live their values? I mean, really!
They might be up on a wall or on the website; but are they truly practiced, recognised and rewarded?
Netflix took this further than most organisations and actually used their values to replace the majority of policies and procedures!
* A few around legal requirements such as privacy / collection of personal information, financials, and moral and ethical areas such as dishonesty and harassment were the exceptions
Takeaway: Clearly defined, lived and practiced values can simplify some of the bureaucracy associated with traditional policies. What are your values like? Do your team know what they are?
If you really want a high performing team, every player needs to be a high performer.
Sports teams do this well, where they select the best player for each position. They don’t ‘settle’ for someone who is not pulling their weight, not attending practice or not performing on-field. They operate as a team, not as a family.
* This challenges some of our traditional models of talent management, i.e. the 20/70/10 concept of having 20% performing highly, 70% doing a good job and 10% being actively worked on from a performance perspective
How many high performers do you have in your organisation?
Netflix use a ‘Keeper Test’: which of my staff would I fight hard to keep if they told me they were leaving? While this may seem confronting, if you’re truly looking to build a high performing team, then all of your team need to be stars.
Takeaway: How many of your team are high performing? What would be the difference in your company performance if all your team were operating at that level?
One of the things that Netflix fought hard to protect was maintaining employee freedom as the organisation grew in size (which is the opposite to what normally happens).
Their logic was based around the principal that if you hire high performing individuals; you should get out of their way and let them do their jobs.
Takeaway: What processes do you have in place that stifle creativity and control how thing are done? Where can you cut the red tape?
Enable sound decisions to be made by providing context rather than control.
Strategy, assumptions and objectives will more aptly inform employees’ decision making, rather than top-down decisions or management approval processes.
Takeaway: Review how you provide ‘instructions’ within your organisation. If employees are not delivering what you are looking for, think about what ‘context’ you are providing.
Netflix have 3 conditions for promotion:
In some departments, roles may not have the opportunity to develop further. Netflix don’t believe in creating a role unless it fulfils the above criteria and the candidate is the best person for it (so as not to set them up for failure, as can happen when you promote the best sales person to a management position).
Sometimes you need to celebrate an employee leaving for a bigger job, if that’s what they’re looking for. Don’t create hierarchy and bureaucracy based around an individual.
In relation to professional development, Netflix provide staff with challenging work and opportunities to think differently and creatively.
They also have the very best people around them to learn from.
* When everyone is high performing, imagine what you can learn from the people inside your organisation!
This point is often neglected by companies not leveraging the experience they have. In fact, many employees are often not aware of their fellow team members’ backgrounds and prior experiences.
Takeaway: Believe in self-development. When you have high performers, they will naturally review, observe, learn, sort and read what they need to grow.
If you have questions on this topic or any others, feel free to reach me by email or set up a free one-on-one consultation session, or drop me a comment below.
Thanks for sharing!
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