Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention with Erin Meyer, Chase Jarvis

There's a common misconception that artists have a monopoly on creativity… But the very act of making waves—no matter the career—is a creative one. The Chase Jarvis Live Show is an exploration of creativity, self-discovery, entrepreneurship, hard-earned lessons, and so much more. Chase sits down with the world's top creators, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders and unpacks actionable, valuable insights to help you live your dreams in career, hobby, and life.

About this episode:

Back in 2009, Netflix Talent Officer Patty McCord and CEO Reed Hastings published a presentation called the “Netflix Culture Deck.” This 125 page deck now has over 20 million views and created quite a buzz in the HR and tech world for its radical ideas that countered typical corporate culture such as vacation policy that equated to “take some,” a “do what you think is best for the company” expense policy, and mindset that “adequate performance will get a generous severance.”

And that’s where it started. Erin Meyer, my guest on today’s show, read that deck and found herself startled, confused, and curious. There has never before been a company like Netflix. It has led to nothing short of a revolution in the entertainment industry having to reinvent itself over and over again. How have these counterintuitive and radical management principles made such unprecedented flexibility possible?

Erin is an author and a professor at INSEAD, one of the world’s leading international business schools. I ran into her work several years ago when I read her book, The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business. Her work has appeared in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and Forbes. She’s been noted as one of the 50 most influential business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50.

Today we’re talking about her latest book, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with past and current Netflix employees, among others, our conversation explores high performance teams and how we can apply their culture into our own lives.

Some topics we dig into:

• Hard work is irrelevant. Excellence isn’t just about hard work; if someone is a pain to work with (or be around) it can impact everyone.
• The benefits of candor and a culture of feedback.
• Giving others freedom to make the biggest decisions gives them fuel to succeed.
• And so much more.