Book Review of No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

Authors: Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer

We have been reading about Reed Hastings recently, former CEO and Founder of Netflix. In some of the recent interviews he’s done, he has been reminding people of one of the ingredients that made Netflix a USD240bn company: “Farming for dissent”.

This is one of the things I encountered and took away after reading a book he co-authored with one of my favourite INSEAD Faculty members, Erin Meyer - No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention.

A recent quote on ‘Farming for dissent’: “If you’re a leader, it’s important to farm for dissent, because it’s not normal to disagree with your boss, right? Normally, we learn deference. Because it’s difficult, emotionally, in most companies to disagree with your manager, we call it farming for dissent. We have managers do things like: ‘What are three things you would do differently if you were in my job?’”. Sounds radical, right?

The book is a story of Netflix, the popular streaming platform that’s become the pace setter for the video streaming industry. If you think about it as a professional athlete, it has the longevity of LeBron James in basketball or Cristiano Ronaldo in football. The reference to professional athletes is also apt as Reed believes a company should treat its employees less like “Family Members”, where we tolerate certain shortcomings, but more like “Professional Athletes” who bring their A-Game every time, and they know if they don’t, someone on the bench is ready to take their starting line-up.

One of the things that I found extraordinary about this book is how open and transparent Reed was about the culture he sought to create at Netflix for it to be a continuous over-achiever. It seems he’s very open to share a ‘winning recipe’ for how to set the right conditions for employee belonging, healthy competition and authenticity, a lot of the topics Brene Brown and Adam Grant touch on in their books & podcasts.

Here are a few topics that stood out for me in this brilliant articulation of what today’s company cultures should be like.

My 3 take-aways and why I enjoyed this book

1.????? Treat me like an adult: Netflix’s culture is all about treating its employees like they can make sound and fair decisions, as demonstrated by their leave policy or budget approval process. It has trust at the centre of it.

2.????? Telling it like it is: If you thought the Vulcans in Star Trek had ‘’absolute candour”, then they’d feel right at home in Netflix. The culture of being straightforward with feedback and ‘calling a spade a spade’ is one of the things I admire. Done respectfully, of course.

3.????? Talent above everything else: My favourite part is how they put people first – and drive talent density. Reed believes you can do more with 10 highly talented, motivated and passionate people than you can with 20 mediocre ones. Their work ethic, creativity and excellence rubs off and amplifies their productivity. And Netflix pays “Top Dollar” to retain them – like how sports teams pay their top professional athletes.

Personally, I don’t think South African companies are ready for such a radical culture change. But it is a book I’d definitely recommend for us to start thinking about ways to disrupt the status quo and bring in cultural elements that we believe will set us up for success. You may find some of these ideas will stick!