No Rules Rules. Sounds like a teenagers dream scenario…

But it’s not. It’s how Netflix built the culture of their organisation, which has helped them gain 209 million global subscribers, and revenues of $25 billion.

‘No Rules Rules’ is written by CEO Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer of INSEAD Business School.

The book contains Netflix’s secret sauce of how they’ve managed to keep red tape and bureaucracy out of their business, to allow them to grow at scale.

They’ve created a world of freedom and responsibility, where they’re team members make their own decisions based on good judgement of what is best for Netflix.

The whole organisation is candid (honest) with the feedback they give each other (delivered in a positive way) with the intention of improving the individual and the business outcome.

This candidness is not just for junior team members, it runs right through the organisation, with Hastings himself being given candid feedback on how to improve on occasions.

They’ve taken other leading edge and brave decisions too. Such as doing away with vacation and expense policies, letting team members decide themselves what’s the right thing to do.

The business is built on attracting and retaining top talent, the type of people who are self-managing and are always striving to achieve greatness. They pay them well, demand innovation over efficiency, provide the rules of the game and set them free to get results.

For such a monster of an organisation, they are very transparent with the numbers, teaching how team members can affect their individual profit and loss centres.

In our office technology business, we’ve done similar things, such as teaching what the numbers mean, freeing the team to make important business decisions, and showing how their activities can affect the profitability of the business, which they also share in.

It’s an interesting and unique way of operating such a large organisation, which allows them to innovate quickly and change direction on a dime. Unlike competitors of this size.

Don’t expect the book to flow well. It’s split between Hastings and Meyers perspectives. Hastings explaining what they did, why and its impact. With Meyer initially trying to find fault in the approach, but in the end applauding what Netflix has achieved.

Worth reading by any business leader who wants to find ways of motivating their teams.

‘No Rules Rules’ gets a thumbs up and 4 stars

Any questions please connect and message me.

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…thank you & see you next week.