Netflix Culture: how to be creative, powerful, and big

Last Updated on Thursday, 20 May 2010 04:02 Written by Steve Wednesday, 5 August 2009 09:00

I was blown away when I read through this internal slide deck from Netflix. This is the blueprint for a creative culture that values employee effectiveness, freedom, and results. It’s a plan for growth that can avoid the institutionalization and ossification that comes with risk-aversion. As I read this, I realized this is as close a description of the culture in which I want to work as I’ve ever seen. I am exceedingly impressed with Netflix for doing this kind of thinking and staying true to it. Bravo.

5 Comments

1. John R (The Enforcer)   |  Thursday, 06 August 2009 at 7:44 pm

   You really think so?

   I don’t find a 128-slide deck a very good means of conveying culture. They have 9 ‘values’ with 36 sub-points!

   At Atlassian, we have 5 “in your face” core values, and a video to match: http://www.atlassian.com/about

   I think that the medium says a lot about the culture, too.

   
2. Steve   |  Friday, 07 August 2009 at 8:01 am

   Thanks for the link!

   
3. Chris   |  Wednesday, 12 August 2009 at 5:11 pm

   Fascinating, i just sent a link out to a lot of people i know to at least read it. I don’t think I agree with all of it, but really interesting.

   
4. B   |  Friday, 04 September 2009 at 12:09 am

   I found quite a lot in this slide deck that I am drawn to, and it articulates for me many of the reasons for problems where I work. I am inspired and challenged. Thanks for sharing it.

   
5. gokubi.com » Blog Archive » Awesome talk on how wrong we are about motivation   |  Friday, 11 September 2009 at 2:40 pm

   [...] I love this talk about wrong business is, especially in combination with the Netflix presentation. [...]