The culture at NetFlix, explained in this slide deck, is nothing short of inspiring. Its not their values that I admire, but the fact that they also run the company by the same values that they expect their employees to work by. Having shared values is important because it defines what you celebrate, what you get angry about, what you flight for, what you look for when hiring and its what screams out at you when someone has to go.
I really like that a big part of NetFlix’ culture is to preserve the culture. I also like their very frank policies of, “if you wouldn’t fight to keep someone if they resigned, then fire them now” and “if you would offer someone a payrise to keep them if they resigned, then offer them that payrise now”. Culture and values definately come from the top, so the only way to spread these values is to run the company on them too.
A big focus at Netflix is on finding and keeping high performing, motivated people. Naturally, we all wonder if we’d meet their standards and as a person who’s on the learning curve with my sights set on being a high performer – it seems to me that being high performing doesn’t start with a degree, or with the right experience, job or boss – but with the right attitute. An attitude that is determined to learn and push the boundaries.
The lowest form of excellence is having the disclipline to push yourself and learn. Only from this do you start to gather knowledge through experience and upon that knowledge can come a level of proficiency that is necessary to be high performing in some area of expertise. At this point, you deploy yourself into something that you’re passionate about or into an opportunity that comes your way and this is where things come off the rail. Opportunity (no matter how great) without passion will always lead to medioricity. Passion (no matter how great) without opportunity will always lead to fustration (if not for you then for everyone around you). To reach the next level where you start to inspire others into excellence and high performance requires both opportunity and passion.
Like I said, these are the thoughts of someone on the learning curve – not someone who has arrived, so I might change my mind on all this in the future. However – I still think its interesting to look at this simplistic model and ask yourself the question – which box is my career currently in?
Posted by Andrew 
