From Reed Hasting’s book “No Rules Rules”
“My head started to spin. I was young and unpolished and after she stopped, I said: “Is that how all HR people speak? I couldn’t understand a word. If we are going to work together you are going to have to stop talking like that.” Patty was insulted, and she told me so straight to my face. When she got home that evening and her husband asked her how the interview had gone, she told him, “Bad. I got in a fight with the CEO.” But I loved the way she told me exactly what she thought of me. So I gave her the job, and since then we have had a frank, long-lasting friendship, which has persisted even after her departure from Netflix. It may be partly because we’re so different: I’m a math wonk and a software engineer, she’s an expert in human behavior and a storyteller. When I look at a team, I see numbers and algorithms that connect the people and discussions. When Patty looks at a team, she sees emotions and subtle interpersonal responses that are invisible to me. Patty worked for me at Pure Software until we sold it in 1997, and she joined us early at Netflix.” (p. 6)
“In hindsight, I understood that a team with one or two merely adequate performers brings down the performance of everyone on the team. If you have a team of five stunning employees and two adequate ones, the adequate ones will sap managers’ energy, so they have less time for the top performers, reduce the quality of group discussions, lowering the team’s overall IQ, force others to develop ways to work around them, reducing efficiency, drive staff who seek excellence to quit, and show the team you accept mediocrity, thus multiplying the problem. For top performers, a great workplace isn’t about a lavish office, a beautiful gym, or a free sushi lunch. It’s about the joy of being surrounded by people who are both talented and collaborative. People who can help you be better. When every member is excellent, performance spirals upward as employees learn from and motivate one another.” (p. 7)
“Afterward, I tried to take this same commitment to being honest back to the office. I began encouraging everyone to say exactly what they really thought, but with positive intent—not to attack or injure anyone, but to get feelings, opinions, and feedback out onto the table, where they could be dealt with.” (p. 14)
“An early example involved our chief financial officer, Barry McCarthy. Barry was the first Netflix CFO, serving from 1999 to 2010. He was a great leader with vision, integrity, and an incredible ability to help everyone deeply understand our finances. But he was also a little moody. When the head of marketing, Leslie Kilgore, mentioned Barry’s moodiness to me, I encouraged her to speak to him herself. “Tell him exactly what you’ve said to me,” I suggested, inspired by my marriage counseling experiences.” (p. 14)
“In most situations, both social and professional, people who consistently say what they really think are quickly isolated, even banished. But at Netflix, we embrace them. We work hard to get people to give each other constructive feedback—up, down, and across the organization—on a continual basis.” (p. 15)
“At Netflix, it is tantamount to being disloyal to the company if you fail to speak up when you disagree with a colleague or have feedback that could be helpful. After all, you could help the business—but you are choosing not to. When I first heard about the candor at Netflix, I was skeptical. Netflix promotes not just candid feedback but also frequent feedback, which, in my experience, just increases the chances that you will hear something hurtful. Most people have trouble un-hearing harsh remarks, which can lead to a negative spiral of thought. The idea of a policy that encourages people to voice their honest feedback frequently sounded not just unpleasant but very risky. But almost as soon as I began to collaborate with Netflix employees, I saw the benefits.” (p. 18)
“For example, when I was interviewing Amsterdam-based Danielle Crook-Davies, she greeted me warmly, told me she loved my book and then before we even had a chance to sit down, said, “Can I offer you some feedback?” She continued to tell me that the reader on the audio version of my book was startlingly poor and was undermining my message with her tone of voice. “I hope you’ll find a way to get it re-recorded. The book has so much great content, but the voice spoils it all.” I was taken aback, but upon reflection, recognized she was right. I made the call that evening to get the book re-recorded.” (p. 19)
“If there is one thing we hate more than receiving criticism one-on-one, it is to receive that negative feedback in front of others. The woman who gave me feedback in the middle of my keynote address (and in front of her colleagues) helped me a lot. She had input that could benefit me and it couldn’t wait. But receiving feedback in front of the group sends off danger alarms in the human brain. The brain is a survival machine, and one of our most successful survival techniques is the desire to find safety in numbers. Our brain is constantly on the watch for signals of group rejection, which back in more primitive times would have led to isolation and potentially death. If someone calls out a mistake you are making in front of your tribe, the amygdala, the most primitive part of the brain, which is on constant watch for danger, sets off a warning: “This group is about to reject you.” Our natural animalistic impulse in the face of this is to flee.” (p. 21)
“Yet encouraging candid feedback in a company is a lot more difficult than putting up traffic signs. To foster an atmosphere of candor requires getting your employees to abandon years of conditioning and firmly held beliefs such as, “Only give feedback when someone asks you for it” and “Praise in public, criticize in private.” (p. 22)
“I recommend instead focusing first on something much more difficult: getting employees to give candid feedback to the boss. This can be accompanied by boss-to-employee feedback. But it’s when employees begin providing truthful feedback to their leaders that the big benefits of candor really take off.” (p. 23)
“The first technique our managers use to get their employees to give them honest feedback is regularly putting feedback on the agenda of their one-on-one meetings with their staff. Don’t just ask for feedback but tell and show your employees it is expected. Put feedback as the first or last item on the agenda so that it’s set apart from your operational discussions. When the moment arrives, solicit and encourage the employee to give feedback to you (the boss) and then—if you like—you can reciprocate by giving feedback to them.” (p. 23)
“The higher you get in an organization, the less feedback you receive, and the more likely you are to “come to work naked” or make another error that’s obvious to everyone but you. This is not just dysfunctional but dangerous. If an office assistant screws up a coffee order and no one tells him, it’s no big deal. If the chief financial officer screws up a financial statement, and no one dares to challenge it, it sends the company into crisis.” (p. 23)
“I could not believe that this low-level guy would confront Ted Sarandos himself in front of a group of people. From my past experience, this was equivalent to committing career suicide. I was literally scandalized. My face was completely flushed. I wanted to hide under my chair. When the meeting ended, Ted got up and put his hand on this guy’s shoulder. “Great meeting. Thanks for your input today,” he said with a smile. I practically had to hold my jaw shut, I was so surprised.” (p. 26)
“Reed is another Netflix leader who frequently displays these two behaviors. And in return he receives more negative feedback than any other leader in the company. The proof is his 360-degree written assessment, which is open for everyone to contribute to, and where he consistently gets more feedback than any other employee does.” (p. 26)
“The only remaining question is when and where to give feedback—and the answer is anywhere and anytime. That might mean giving feedback in private, behind closed doors. Erin got her first Netflix feedback in front of a group of three or four people in the middle of a keynote. That is fine too. It can even be shouted out in front of a group of forty, if that’s where it will help the most.” (p. 32)
“If you are promoting a culture of candor on your team, you have to get rid of the jerks. Many may think, “This guy is so brilliant, we can’t afford to lose him.” But it doesn’t matter how brilliant your jerk is, if you keep him on the team you can’t benefit from candor. The cost of jerkiness to effective teamwork is too high. Jerks are likely to rip your organization apart from the inside. And their favorite way to do that is often by stabbing their colleagues in the front and then offering, “I was just being candid.” (p. 34)