Lenny Rachitsky: belief

Transcript context

…This is expectation setting. So one of the things in my new role is that there's some practices that the team has had where they're trying to understand, Are we still going to have those practices? What's going to be the same versus different about those things?" and get an understanding of my expectations. So it's great that people ask that question so that I can be clear about, "Oh wait, if you're on the last 20% of this polishing the dock, I'd rather spend time over here. And here's how I would like the conversation to go so we all get something out of it instead of it feeling like it's just a leadership reviewer on my behalf." So in this specific situation, it was setting expectations ahead of time so that we can set everyone up for success. Awesome. Okay. So we've kind of been talking around this, but this is an important part of the Netflix culture. Just broadly, Netflix has a really special and unique culture. Even though it's been around for I think over 25 years now, it feels like the culture has come up many times. There's that initial culture deck that came out that blew everyone's minds. There's a recent book, No Rules Rules I think it's called. And it feels like Netflix has done a great job at maintaining its culture. It feels to me there's these three important elements, and maybe there's more. One is very high talent density and a focus on high performers. Two is candor and being really direct. And then three is giving people freedom and responsibility and getting rid of useless processes like vacation time and things like that. So maybe just to dive into that first one of high talent density and this focus on high performance. I guess the question there is just like, what does this look like in Netflix? And I imagine part of it is hiring, part of it is performance reviews. And then just why is it so important? Why is this such a focus on Netflix? What happens when you have such a high talent density? It's just so intrinsic to who Netflix is as a company. And in some ways it's very reflective of Reed Hastings as founder of Netflix. So when he founded Netflix and grew the company over time, it was with a belief that there could be a different approach to building a company that would make it a place that people thrived in and loved being and would feel different than other places, both in the quality of that talent density, but even more importantly, the excellence and the outcomes and that that's where people would derive a lot of sense of fulfillment. So it is very deeply seated at Netflix from its original days. A big piece of that talent density is definitely hiring. So who are the people coming in and joining the team? But a lot of it is, we can't really have any of the other aspects of the culture, including candor, learning, seeking excellence and improvement, freedom and responsibility if you don't start with high talent density. And so in some ways it's not the end, it's the means to the end in what Reed and the rest of the leadership team has been trying to build. And so in order to do that, you have to really hold yourself to a lot of stuff that doesn't feel like natural human behavior. What I mean by that is giving the feedback, this gets into the second bucket. So giving feedback, being candid around your expectations when they're not being met, what could be better in helping people improve, and be able to receive that type of feedback yourself in order to keep talent density high? Because no one comes to Netflix as a perfect human being and stays a perfect human being the whole time. We all have ways that we could grow and improve. And so in order to keep that bar high, you have to be willing to have those types of very uncomfortable conversations. It's an uncomfortable amount of candor and feedback in order to keep that bar high. And then the other piece of it is another thing that doesn't come naturally to humans, which is making a call in pretty timely fashion if someone's not able to meet the bar, and to say either, "I don't think the role you're sitting in is the right role, or I don't think that Netflix is the right place for you," and to make that something that is part of best practice to get to a point where you could make that decision. And that's where we refer to the keepers test, which is really just a mental framing to make sure we hold ourselves accountable for this. Where if I'm asking myself the question, "If this person on my team came to me and said, 'I'm leaving today. I have a different opportunity and I would like to take it,' would I do everything I could to keep them at Netflix?" If not, then I should be having that tough conversation about, "Should you really be here? Are you in the right role? ", if I might be a little bit relieved if you said you were leaving. The reason the keeper test and that question is useful is because no one wants to think that way.…

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