├── netflix-culture ├── README.md └── index.md ├── stripe-culture ├── README.md └── index.md ├── amazon-leadership-principles ├── README.md └── index.md ├── amazon-2016-letter-to-shareholders ├── README.md └── index.md ├── cold-culture-versus-warm-culture ├── README.md └── index.md ├── great-company-culture-by-dan-rose ├── README.md └── index.md ├── the-leaders-guide-to-corporate-culture ├── README.md └── index.md ├── the-five-cs-of-employee-centric-company-culture ├── README.md └── index.md ├── how-to-make-culture-a-strategic-imperative-cummins-chro-marvin-boakye-by-culturex ├── README.md └── index.md ├── CITATION.cff ├── README.md └── CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md /netflix-culture/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | index.md -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /stripe-culture/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | index.md -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /amazon-leadership-principles/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | index.md -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /amazon-2016-letter-to-shareholders/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | index.md -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /cold-culture-versus-warm-culture/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | index.md -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /great-company-culture-by-dan-rose/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | index.md -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /the-leaders-guide-to-corporate-culture/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | index.md -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /the-five-cs-of-employee-centric-company-culture/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | index.md -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /how-to-make-culture-a-strategic-imperative-cummins-chro-marvin-boakye-by-culturex/README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | index.md -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /CITATION.cff: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | cff-version: 1.2.0 2 | title: Company culture 3 | message: >- 4 | If you use this work and you want to cite it, 5 | then you can use the metadata from this file. 6 | type: software 7 | authors: 8 | - given-names: Joel Parker 9 | family-names: Henderson 10 | email: joel@joelparkerhenderson.com 11 | affiliation: joelparkerhenderson.com 12 | orcid: 'https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4681-282X' 13 | identifiers: 14 | - type: url 15 | value: 'https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/company-culture/' 16 | description: Company culture 17 | repository-code: 'https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/company-culture/' 18 | abstract: >- 19 | Company culture 20 | license: See license file 21 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Company culture 2 | 3 | This is our collection of our favorite descriptions of company culture. These descriptions come from articles, blog posts, and news, by Amazon, Netflix, Harvard, Stripe, etc. 4 | 5 | We welcome more descriptions. To contribute, email us, or create a GitHub issue, or create a pull request. Thank you! 6 | 7 | Contents: 8 | 9 | * [Amazon 2016 Letter to Shareholders by Jeff Bezos](amazon-2016-letter-to-shareholders/) 10 | * [Amazon leadership principles](amazon-leadership-principles/) 11 | * [Building a Winning Team is No Accident](building-a-winning-team/) 12 | * [Great company culture by Dan Rose](great-company-culture-by-dan-rose/) 13 | * [Netflix Culture](netflix-culture/) 14 | * [A quick guide to Stripe’s culture](stripe-culture/) 15 | * [The Five C's Of Employee-Centric Company Cultures](the-five-cs-of-employee-centric-company-culture/) 16 | * [The Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture](the-leaders-guide-to-corporate-culture/) 17 | * [Cold culture versus warm culture](cold-culture-versus-warm-culture/) 18 | * [How to Make Culture a Strategic Imperative: Cummins CHRO Marvin Boakye by CultureX](how-to-make-culture-a-strategic-imperative-cummins-chro-marvin-boakye-by-culturex/) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /cold-culture-versus-warm-culture/index.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Cold culture versus warm culture 2 | 3 | [Source](https://aella.substack.com/p/cold-and-warm-cultures) 4 | 5 | Maybe a term for this dichotamy already exists elsewhere, but I haven’t heard it yet and have found my own term for it super useful, so here we go: 6 | 7 | **Cold Culture examples** 8 | 9 | * Highly efficient in small things 10 | 11 | * Knows how much time is worth, e.g. might consciously spend no more than 1 minute selecting a grocery product with a price difference lower than a dollar 12 | 13 | * Libertarian-esque; pays attention to system efficiency, not what ‘feels good’ 14 | 15 | * Willing to use money to incentivize things in their personal life, e.g. “if you figure out my emotional issue I’ll pay you 1k” or “paying a roommate to do chores for you” 16 | 17 | * More risk-tolerant; likely to view downsides or problems as sometimes being worthwhile tradeoffs 18 | 19 | * More likely to place responsibility inside the self; views others as ultimately not responsible for your well being 20 | 21 | * Less likely to parse things as exploitation or manipulation; views additional choices as non-coercive (e.g., a new employer offering well below minimum wage is not viewed as exploitative) 22 | 23 | * Donates to efficient charities; utilitarian 24 | 25 | * Ask culture: a frame where people should ask directly for what they want with the expectation that the askee will say no if they don’t want to 26 | 27 | * High decoupling 28 | 29 | * Destination over the journey 30 | 31 | **Warm Culture examples** 32 | 33 | * More attention to the subjective, emotive, connective world 34 | 35 | * More disgust sensitive (more likely to resist things that trigger moral disgust, such as homosexuality or sex work. this is highly relative to culture) 36 | 37 | * Persuaded by sense of fairness 38 | 39 | * Distrusts conscious signaling as manipulative; e.g., really hates pickup artistry because it’s making deliberate something that is otherwise organic and intuitive 40 | 41 | * Wary of manipulation in general; more likely to perceive manipulation as genuinely subverting individual agency 42 | 43 | * Perceives responsibility as resting more outside the self or diversified; others can be responsible for your well being 44 | 45 | * Views some voluntary options as coercive or exploitative; e.g. less likely to allow a rich private individual to pay voluntary minority groups to get sterilized 46 | 47 | * Naturalistic and community oriented 48 | 49 | * Dislikes advertising and capitalism 50 | 51 | * Guess culture: a frame where there can be harm in asking for things because of implicit pressure for the askee to agree even if they don’t want to 52 | 53 | * Low decoupling 54 | 55 | * Journey over the destination -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /amazon-leadership-principles/index.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Amazon leadership principles 2 | 3 | https://www.amazon.jobs/principles 4 | 5 | We use our Leadership Principles every day, whether we're discussing ideas for new projects or deciding on the best approach to solving a problem. It is just one of the things that makes Amazon peculiar. 6 | 7 | Contents: 8 | 9 | * [Customer Obsession](#customer-obsession) 10 | * [Ownership](#ownership) 11 | * [Invent and Simplify](#invent-and-simplify) 12 | * [Are Right, A Lot](#are-right-a-lot) 13 | * [Learn and Be Curious](#learn-and-be-curious) 14 | * [Hire and Develop the Best](#hire-and-develop-the-best) 15 | * [Insist on the Highest Standards](#insist-on-the-highest-standards) 16 | * [Think Big](#think-big) 17 | * [Bias for Action](#bias-for-action) 18 | * [Frugality](#frugality) 19 | * [Earn Trust](#earn-trust) 20 | * [Dive Deep](#dive-deep) 21 | * [Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit](#have-backbone-disagree-and-commit) 22 | * [Deliver Results](#deliver-results) 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | ## Customer Obsession 27 | 28 | Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers. 29 | 30 | 31 | ## Ownership 32 | 33 | Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job". 34 | 35 | 36 | ## Invent and Simplify 37 | 38 | Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here". As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time. 39 | 40 | 41 | ## Are Right, A Lot 42 | 43 | Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs. 44 | 45 | 46 | ## Learn and Be Curious 47 | 48 | Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them. 49 | 50 | 51 | ## Hire and Develop the Best 52 | 53 | Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice. 54 | 55 | 56 | ## Insist on the Highest Standards 57 | 58 | Leaders have relentlessly high standards - many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed. 59 | 60 | 61 | ## Think Big 62 | 63 | Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers. 64 | 65 | 66 | ## Bias for Action 67 | 68 | Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking. 69 | 70 | 71 | ## Frugality 72 | 73 | Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size or fixed expense. 74 | 75 | 76 | ## Earn Trust 77 | 78 | Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best. 79 | 80 | 81 | ## Dive Deep 82 | 83 | Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them. 84 | 85 | 86 | ## Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit 87 | 88 | Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly. 89 | 90 | 91 | ## Deliver Results 92 | 93 | Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle. 94 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /great-company-culture-by-dan-rose/index.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Great company culture by Dan Rose 2 | 3 | https://twitter.com/danrose999/status/1378393523213373440 4 | 5 | What defines a great company culture? I worked for two iconic companies and founders with nearly polar opposite cultures. Amazon was heads-down, secretive, forthright. Facebook was open, transparent, collaborative. Here's what I learned about culture working for Bezos and Zuck. 6 | 7 | Culture implicitly sets expectations for behavior. Strong cultures are well-defined with sharp edges, and well-understood by everyone in the organization top to bottom. Strong founders with unapologetic personalities set the culture early and maintain it as the company scales. 8 | 9 | When I joined Amzn in 1999, we had top-secret teams working on new products like Auctions, Toys and Electronics. Before a product launched, the only people in the know were those who needed to know. Everyone else was told to keep their heads down and focus on their own work. 10 | 11 | When I joined the secret team working on Kindle, my job was to convince publishers to create digital books. They couldn't understand why we suddenly cared about ebooks when nobody at the time was reading them. I begged Jeff to let me share our plans for Kindle but he refused. 12 | 13 | Jeff was taking a cue from Apple. Tim Cook once shared with me that Apple put a precise dollar value on the free press they received from big product announcements, which was undermined by leaks. Secretive cultures try to avoid leaks by locking down information. 14 | 15 | There's nothing wrong with a heads-down culture where employees are told to focus on their own work. It provides guardrails, avoids distractions, sets a serious tone. And yet, there is a certain distrust in telling employees to mind their own business. The knife cuts both ways. 16 | 17 | When I joined FB in 2006, I was shocked at how much Zuck shared with the company. I advised him to share less to avoid leaks. His response: "I'm building a company that I would want to work for if I hadn't started FB. And I would want to work at a place that shares openly." 18 | 19 | FB's open culture mapped to Mark's personality and a generational shift in employee expectations. It also mapped to Facebook's products which were built on sharing. Open cultures assume employees are less likely to leak if they are trusted and empowered with confidential info. 20 | 21 | Transparency allows for ideas to come from anywhere in the organization. Teams at FB prolifically collaborate, share feedback, communicate. But at its worst, this type of culture can devolve into entitlement, insubordination, ceaseless complaining. The knife cuts both ways. 22 | 23 | Open vs closed is one dimension of a company culture. FB was also more egalitarian, Amzn more hierarchical. Both companies had a high tolerance for failure (compared to Apple for example). The important thing about culture is clarity & consistency, especially as a company scales. 24 | 25 | When we developed company values in the early days at FB, Zuck didn't want a bunch of corporate dribble postered on the wall. I argued against "Move Fast and Break Things" but Mark chose it precisely because it was controversial, clearly signaled culture of velocity & iteration. 26 | 27 | Amazon's most memorable value was "ruthlessly escalate." This removed any question about how decisions would be made. It encouraged a culture where people would debate strongly held ideas, knowing the solution to disagreements was to bump it up to the next level of management. 28 | 29 | Culture is maintained through rituals. I once showed up for Zuck's Friday Q&A with only 3 other employees, and Mark proceeded to answer our questions for an hour. 15 years later he still religiously hosts Q&As with all topics on the table. This is FB's ritual of transparency. 30 | 31 | Walmart's culture was defined by Sam Walton's relentless work ethic and frugality. He held his management meetings on Saturday and charged employees 5 cents for cream in their coffee. Walton died in 1992 but the company still holds Saturday meetings and charges extra for creamer. 32 | 33 | They key to a strong culture is consistency from the top. The CEO's job is to make sure everyone on the management team is on the same page. If a senior leader wants to create their own unique culture for their part of the org, they can't be allowed to stay. 34 | 35 | The partnership between Mark and Sheryl was forged by their mutual commitment to a unified culture across the company. There can be small differences based on the work to be done, but core values must be shared across product and business teams. There can only be one CEO. 36 | 37 | There are many benefits to a strong culture: it makes interviewing easier, gives employees a sense of belonging, helps avoid politics, provides energy and zeal, cuts through a lot of BS. No culture is perfect, but great companies and founders are highly intentional about culture. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /the-five-cs-of-employee-centric-company-culture/index.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # The Five C's Of Employee-Centric Company Cultures 2 | 3 | By Vivian Maza. Vivian is Ultimate Software's chief people officer, where she is a key driver of Ultimate's unique and highly recognized company culture. 4 | 5 | A strong company culture impacts everything from employee productivity and happiness to customer retention and market growth. Moreover, Deloitte recently found that 94% of executives and 88% of employees consider a distinct workplace culture important to organizational success. 6 | 7 | Building and protecting a positive culture can feel daunting to HR leaders, especially as a company grows by hundreds, or even thousands, of employees. But, there are several straightforward steps you can take to start transforming your workplace. In our 25-plus years fostering an employee-centric culture at Ultimate Software — growing from four people to the more than 4,000 we have today — we’ve focused on five key pillars. 8 | 9 | 10 | ## 1. Commitment 11 | 12 | I list commitment first because you can’t form a productive culture without first fully committing to doing so. This is your foundation. It takes true commitment from everyone within an organization, from the C-suite to the interns, and especially from HR, to create an environment where a strong, healthy and connected culture can flourish. Commitment is also critical because great culture doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s something you have to continually work on and evolve over time. 13 | 14 | How do you earn the commitment you need to succeed? Make sure everyone in your organization understands your company’s mission, and, most importantly, believes in it. You need complete buy-in from your leading executives, who instill a companywide tone, and every individual (including virtual employees) in the organization should feel connected to the same central mission. 15 | 16 | 17 | ## 2. Care 18 | 19 | Remember, it’s called “human” resources for a reason. All great cultures require a baseline of empathy and human understanding to truly thrive. A healthy culture is one where people care about everyone, every day. 20 | 21 | Just like having underlying commitment, establishing this mindset starts with your company leaders and your HR department. Are you leading by example and setting policies that encourage respect for all individuals? We all learned the “Golden Rule” in kindergarten: Treat others as you want to be treated. This idea remains a crucial lesson today and is worth keeping with us as we navigate our professional lives. 22 | 23 | In my organization, our core value is rooted in this guiding principle. Our North Star is “People First.” We believe that when you truly care for your people, they reflect that care back toward you. By extension, they focus on always doing the right thing and caring for colleagues, customers and the community. 24 | 25 | 26 | ## 3. Communication 27 | 28 | Communication is the cornerstone of any successful relationship, whether between friends, a manager and her direct report or a company’s CEO and her employees. Clear and consistent communication strengthens trust, a vital element for employee happiness. Our recent study found that 93% of employees say trust in their direct manager is essential to their overall happiness at work. 29 | 30 | That trust grows when you’re communicating clearly and often with employees about the company’s short- and long-term goals. Ensure that your people understand the road map that will help achieve those goals, and how their individual roles will contribute to the bigger picture of their company’s success. 31 | 32 | Also be sure to share company news, good or bad, quickly and honestly. Don’t let your people learn about major company developments from Twitter before they hear it from you. Communicate with employees at all levels, across a variety of channels, so that everyone remains on the same page and well-informed. 33 | 34 | 35 | ### 4. Celebration 36 | 37 | The company that celebrates together stays together. Be proud of your people’s achievements, and take the time to recognize them. Celebrate product, service and financial successes, but also personal milestones — completing a marathon, getting engaged or having a baby. 38 | 39 | People like to get together and bask in happy news; it feels good, and it brings positive vibes into the office. Perhaps most importantly, creating a culture of celebration makes your people feel appreciated, which has a major impact on employee satisfaction. In fact, one study found that 79% of employees who quit their jobs said “lack of appreciation” was why they left. 40 | 41 | 42 | ### 5. Community 43 | 44 | A truly positive corporate culture extends beyond the workplace. Make volunteering in the community and charitable giving core to your company values. Ask employees what they’re passionate about, and find ways to contribute to those causes, and to support organizations that align with your corporate values. Understanding what your organization can do within your community can make life just a little bit better for everyone around you, while helping employees feel a sense of community inside and outside the walls of your business. 45 | 46 | Set aside service days for companywide volunteering, or offer paid volunteer time as a benefit, so your employees can take time on their own to support nonprofits close to their hearts. You can also give through charitable donations, set up fundraisers to energize employees around specific causes, match employees’ donations and contribute a portion of your annual revenue to charity. 47 | 48 | These initiatives won’t just benefit important causes — they’ll also benefit your company morale and culture, building camaraderie among your teams. 49 | 50 | While championing something like “Five C's” of an employee-centric culture may sound a little cheesy, we’ve found that having identifiable pillars helps keep us focused and accountable. Together, we can build and protect a positive, productive workplace where people are happy and engaged. What are your culture pillars? 51 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 2 | # Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct 3 | 4 | ## Our Pledge 5 | 6 | We as members, contributors, and leaders pledge to make participation in our 7 | community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body 8 | size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender 9 | identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, 10 | nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual 11 | identity and orientation. 12 | 13 | We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, 14 | diverse, inclusive, and healthy community. 15 | 16 | ## Our Standards 17 | 18 | Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our 19 | community include: 20 | 21 | * Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other people 22 | * Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences 23 | * Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback 24 | * Accepting responsibility and apologizing to those affected by our mistakes, 25 | and learning from the experience 26 | * Focusing on what is best not just for us as individuals, but for the overall 27 | community 28 | 29 | Examples of unacceptable behavior include: 30 | 31 | * The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of 32 | any kind 33 | * Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks 34 | * Public or private harassment 35 | * Publishing others' private information, such as a physical or email address, 36 | without their explicit permission 37 | * Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a 38 | professional setting 39 | 40 | ## Enforcement Responsibilities 41 | 42 | Community leaders are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of 43 | acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in 44 | response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, 45 | or harmful. 46 | 47 | Community leaders have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject 48 | comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are 49 | not aligned to this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation 50 | decisions when appropriate. 51 | 52 | ## Scope 53 | 54 | This Code of Conduct applies within all community spaces, and also applies when 55 | an individual is officially representing the community in public spaces. 56 | Examples of representing our community include using an official e-mail address, 57 | posting via an official social media account, or acting as an appointed 58 | representative at an online or offline event. 59 | 60 | ## Enforcement 61 | 62 | Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be 63 | reported to the community leaders responsible for enforcement at 64 | [INSERT CONTACT METHOD]. 65 | All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly. 66 | 67 | All community leaders are obligated to respect the privacy and security of the 68 | reporter of any incident. 69 | 70 | ## Enforcement Guidelines 71 | 72 | Community leaders will follow these Community Impact Guidelines in determining 73 | the consequences for any action they deem in violation of this Code of Conduct: 74 | 75 | ### 1. Correction 76 | 77 | **Community Impact**: Use of inappropriate language or other behavior deemed 78 | unprofessional or unwelcome in the community. 79 | 80 | **Consequence**: A private, written warning from community leaders, providing 81 | clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the 82 | behavior was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested. 83 | 84 | ### 2. Warning 85 | 86 | **Community Impact**: A violation through a single incident or series of 87 | actions. 88 | 89 | **Consequence**: A warning with consequences for continued behavior. No 90 | interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with 91 | those enforcing the Code of Conduct, for a specified period of time. This 92 | includes avoiding interactions in community spaces as well as external channels 93 | like social media. Violating these terms may lead to a temporary or permanent 94 | ban. 95 | 96 | ### 3. Temporary Ban 97 | 98 | **Community Impact**: A serious violation of community standards, including 99 | sustained inappropriate behavior. 100 | 101 | **Consequence**: A temporary ban from any sort of interaction or public 102 | communication with the community for a specified period of time. No public or 103 | private interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction 104 | with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, is allowed during this period. 105 | Violating these terms may lead to a permanent ban. 106 | 107 | ### 4. Permanent Ban 108 | 109 | **Community Impact**: Demonstrating a pattern of violation of community 110 | standards, including sustained inappropriate behavior, harassment of an 111 | individual, or aggression toward or disparagement of classes of individuals. 112 | 113 | **Consequence**: A permanent ban from any sort of public interaction within the 114 | community. 115 | 116 | ## Attribution 117 | 118 | This Code of Conduct is adapted from the [Contributor Covenant][homepage], 119 | version 2.1, available at 120 | [https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct.html][v2.1]. 121 | 122 | Community Impact Guidelines were inspired by 123 | [Mozilla's code of conduct enforcement ladder][Mozilla CoC]. 124 | 125 | For answers to common questions about this code of conduct, see the FAQ at 126 | [https://www.contributor-covenant.org/faq][FAQ]. Translations are available at 127 | [https://www.contributor-covenant.org/translations][translations]. 128 | 129 | [homepage]: https://www.contributor-covenant.org 130 | [v2.1]: https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/1/code_of_conduct.html 131 | [Mozilla CoC]: https://github.com/mozilla/diversity 132 | [FAQ]: https://www.contributor-covenant.org/faq 133 | [translations]: https://www.contributor-covenant.org/translations 134 | 135 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /how-to-make-culture-a-strategic-imperative-cummins-chro-marvin-boakye-by-culturex/index.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # How to Make Culture a Strategic Imperative: Cummins CHRO Marvin Boakye by CultureX 2 | 3 | https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-to-make-culture-a-strategic-imperative-cummins-chro-marvin-boakye/ 4 | 5 | At industrial giant Cummins, leaders see company culture as a strategic differentiator. The company’s HR chief shares how distinctive leadership behaviors contribute. 6 | 7 | “We have a very long-tenured board member who said to me, ‘Every company has a culture, whether they know it or not. Very, very few companies have an intentional culture,’” says Marvin Boakye, the chief human resources officer at Cummins. 8 | 9 | Few companies are more intentional than Cummins about building and maintaining the corporate culture. The multinational has been producing diesel engines and integrated power systems for over a century, ranks in the top 150 of the Fortune 500, and has generated significantly higher returns on invested capital than its industry peers for the past five years. In our research, Cummins ranked first among 39 large industrial companies in terms of how employees rated its culture and values on Glassdoor. 10 | 11 | Companies with an intentional culture excel at integrating the specific core values leadership emphasizes — in Cummins’s case, integrity, diversity and inclusion, caring for employees, excellence, and teamwork. When we analyzed how employees at large companies described their culture in Glassdoor reviews, Cummins employees talked about diversity and inclusion much more positively (four standard deviations above the average) compared with employees in other industrial companies. Cummins employees also spoke more highly of all of the company’s other core values (one to two standard deviations above the average among industrials). 12 | 13 | An effective culture, Boakye believes, is not only one that is intentionally created but also one whose leaders “believe that it has to be a strategic differentiator to how you operate your business.” Here, Boakye shares insights about how Cummins created and maintains a culture that translates the company’s core values into actions on a day-to-day basis throughout a global organization with nearly 75,000 employees. 14 | 15 | ## 1. Treat culture as a strategic imperative. 16 | 17 | At Cummins, strategy and culture are two sides of the same coin. “We have a strong belief that our culture is a strategic differentiator to our business strategy,” Boakye said. 18 | 19 | “I believe about 43% of our senior leadership team are women,” Boakye continued. “About 30% of our U.S. leadership team are Black or Latino. … The reason why we made that happen is because we believe that there is a strategic, competitive differentiator for us in this space. And not only do we believe it, but our customers know that as well. …We’ve brought more views, we’ve brought more innovation, [and] we’ve brought alternatives that people haven’t thought about that have changed our business.” 20 | 21 | Corporate culture also helps Cummins attract diverse talent when many engineering-intensive companies are struggling to do so. “We are a very strong attractor of great talent and diverse talent,” Boakye said. “We hear candidates tell us, ‘I read your report, and that’s why I decided to come talk to you.’ … That’s really significant, that people are making those decisions.” 22 | 23 | ## 2. Top leaders commit to shaping the culture. 24 | 25 | The commitment to a healthy culture spans generations at Cummins. “It goes back quite a ways,” Boakye said. “You have to take yourself back into the ’60s.” At that time, J. Irwin Miller served as chairman of Cummins while also leading the National Council of Churches and working with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to organize the March on Washington and, later, lobby for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 26 | 27 | Miller did “a tremendous amount of the work in setting a culture, setting a tone, setting deliberateness, setting a very clear perspective around how to address inequity, both within the company and around the United States and around the world. And that really shaped the company,” Boakye said. But it didn’t end with Miller. “As successive leaders have come in, they’ve all had different approaches to how they think about this work, of making it deliberate,” he noted. 28 | 29 | ## 3. When someone is a poor cultural fit, recognize it and address it. 30 | 31 | “When you have a culture like this,” Boakye said, “you want to give people the ability to self-select out. This kind of culture is not for everyone. … So if someone is in one of our development sessions and says, ‘You know what? This has really been helpful; I’ve realized I don’t know if this is for me,’ that is also a success for us. 32 | 33 | “We have had people self-select out, and we’ve also selected people out when their behaviors … have not matched with what we believe is important,” he explained. “You know, when we’ve had situations where we had to say, ‘This is not working,’ most of the time, it’s not been based on their ability to achieve results. It’s been based on how they go about doing it within the organization. And we make that very clear.” 34 | 35 | ## 4. Translate core values into leadership behaviors. 36 | 37 | Cummins’s top leadership team is intentional about translating the company’s cultural values into clear expectations about managers’ leadership behavior. As Boakye explained, “When I talk about how we take care of our employees, it’s not just something we put on paper, but we actually demonstrate it through actions … and there’s a significant amount of time and input that is put into making that happen. … We have a high expectation that when you are a leader, a significant amount of your time is spent on the development of your teams, whether that is setting clear targets [and] clear performance expectations, to what you do to create an environment that enables people to be successful.” 38 | 39 | At Cummins, accountability for consistently demonstrating leadership behaviors starts at the top. “Our current CEO, Jennifer Rumsey, has said, ‘This is the work, team. Let’s make that very clear. And so if you don’t have time to do this, then you’re not doing the work that is important to being a successful and differentiated company.’” 40 | 41 | There are three keys to translating values into action, Boakye said: “First, it’s a clear philosophy. Second, it’s a clear expectation that leaders spend time working on this. Third, it is not an add-on — it is the work.” 42 | 43 | ## 5. Maintain your core values, but evolve leadership behaviors. 44 | 45 | “I’m very big on understanding what differentiates us,” Boakye said, but leaders should also recognize that there are core beliefs that people share. “The concept of integrity tends to stand no matter where we are, from a culture perspective. And the concept of caring for yourself and for those around you, no matter what culture we have, tends to be consistent.” 46 | 47 | However, as Cummins has begun to move toward its ambitious goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, it has had to evolve how the core value of teamwork shapes decision-making. “How we make decisions is a critical part of our culture,” Boakye observed. “We are a very collaborative culture. A lot of people get involved with decisions. … One of the downsides is, everyone believes they have the ability to say no, and, as a result, it stops the work. And what this has led to is a really major challenge in speed to make decisions. … That’s not something you can afford with the pace of change that we need to drive.” 48 | 49 | Cummins’s top leadership team has tested and refined a new approach to making faster decisions while preserving the company’s strong sense of teamwork. “We’ve been working,” Boakye said, “reworking to make that the behavior before we then take it to the rest of the organization.” 50 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /stripe-culture/index.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # A quick guide to Stripe’s culture 2 | 3 | https://stripe.com/jobs/culture 4 | 5 | A great deal of your fulfillment at any company is determined by the extent to which the values of the people and the organization align with your own. 6 | 7 | It’s hard to assess culture from the outside and most companies are not good at describing their own nature. (How do fish describe water?) They also have incentives to say things that sound attractive rather than things that are true. 8 | 9 | We’ve tried to assemble this guide to Stripe with both challenges in mind. This is our best attempt to share an honest description of our culture today. We hope you find it useful in deciding whether Stripe is the kind of place in which you’d like to spend your time. 10 | 11 | 12 | ## We haven't won yet 13 | 14 | People often worry that they’re joining Stripe, or any nascently successful startup, too late. Have all the large problems been solved? Are there still important decisions left to be made and things to be built? 15 | 16 | The good news: it’s not too late. Many of the most important problems that Stripe will ever solve are yet to be solved. You will, within weeks of joining Stripe, work on problems that no one here has solved before. (And you’ll occasionally end up working on problems that no one anywhere has solved before.) There are a lot of avenues that lead to trajectory-altering impact. 17 | 18 | The bad news: our success is far from being assured. Most companies that have ever gotten to Stripe’s stage have plateaued — or worse. We consider lots of things to be “broken” today — and the more successful we are, the faster things will come to break in the future. (If you’ve ever played a tower defense game… scaling a fast-growing startup feels a lot like that.) 19 | 20 | 21 | ## Move with urgency and focus 22 | 23 | Our users entrust us with their money, their businesses, and their livelihoods. Millions of businesses around the world (individuals, startups, and large enterprises) are open for business only if we are. When we mess up, miss a deadline, or slow down, it matters. We take that responsibility seriously. 24 | 25 | Great Stripes bring intensity and discipline to their work. We don’t care about unnecessary face time and Stripes have a great deal of flexibility around when and where they work because they know best what is needed to get their jobs done. Many Stripes prosper here while ensuring that they have dinner with their families or friends almost every evening. 26 | 27 | But working here will mean some late nights, some weekends, and (especially if you end up in a position of significant responsibility) paying attention to email even during off-hours. Depending on your role, you may end up in meetings with colleagues dialing in from San Francisco, Tokyo, and Paris. There is no way to schedule that meeting such that everyone attends it during traditional work hours. Our business is intertwined with the global economy, so while Stripes take holidays, Stripe does not. 28 | 29 | You will also be surrounded by exceptionally motivated, driven people. They span a diverse range of life circumstances, values, and working styles. This has the advantage of ensuring that you’ll almost never be annoyed about that slacker in the next cubicle (and not just because we don’t have cubicles). But it can also be stressful: if you compare yourself to others, you will almost always see someone working harder, staying longer, or being more successful. 30 | 31 | We’re not a very competitive culture in the sense that someone else does not need to lose for you to win. Your colleagues won’t work to undermine you as they might in a winner-takes-all environment. However, we are a very competitive culture in the sense that, if you set a high bar, you’ll probably inspire someone working with you to try to push it higher. Success at Stripe means seeking out the ski slopes that are just a bit too steep. 32 | 33 | We’re moving quickly, changing regularly, and aren’t very prescriptive in most things. We expect a lot of autonomy from Stripes both in the work they do and in their own development. We believe in performance management and feedback, but we’re not rigid in terms of a career paths and box checking. That said, don’t confuse lack of top down direction with lack of interest from the top: high performers are recognized, enabled, and rewarded. There are “conventional” forms of recognition at Stripe, like equity refreshes and bonuses. However, we get most excited about giving high performing Stripes the room to work on the most interesting and high-impact problems. 34 | 35 | 36 | ## Think rigorously 37 | 38 | We care about being right and it often takes reasoning from first principles to get there. 39 | 40 | Many behaviors are blindly copied and repeated far beyond their useful lives. We make a habit of trying to tease out the best version of an opposing argument. When criticized, we try to seek the truth in the accusation rather than activating our defensive shields. We invite people who many of us disagree with to come speak at Stripe and we welcome views that don’t obviously mesh with our own. 41 | 42 | Rigor doesn’t mean not-invented-here syndrome. We’re interested in the world around us and think that other companies, industries, and academic fields have much to teach us. We actively hunt in other fields for inspiration and ideas that challenge our assumptions and that we could learn from. 43 | 44 | Thinking rigorously has many natural applications to our daily work. For example, we think the traditional way that candidates are interviewed in the technology industry is suboptimal. We’ve invested significant effort in fixing it, by introducing work-sample tests, dispensing with whiteboard programming, de-emphasizing credentials, and actively working to combat unconscious bias, among other changes. But that doesn’t mean we’re satisfied with our current process either. We suspect that there are a lot of significant improvements still to be made. 45 | 46 | Part of being rigorous is being judicious. Stripes have measured reactions to things. We engage in testing and strenuous discussions with colleagues — but we don’t yell. 47 | 48 | 49 | ## Trust and amplify 50 | 51 | By the standards of the rest of the world, we overtrust. We’re okay with that. 52 | 53 | We treat each other with the same humility that we bring to our business. Many companies have a “no asshole” rule. We think that bar is far too low. We want to work in a company of deeply good people who treat their colleagues exceptionally well. No matter how talented, we won’t hire jerks. 54 | 55 | There’s a delicate balance between rigor and trust. The most successful Stripes push the collective quality of thought and work to new limits. However, no matter how strong the disagreement, we believe firmly in the importance of trusting each other’s intentions. 56 | 57 | 58 | ## Global optimization 59 | 60 | Stripes do what’s best for the organization overall. 61 | 62 | Because Stripe is highly interdependent, really good Stripes have a strong sense of overall ownership of the whole company but are non-territorial regarding their nominal domains. There are no bonus points for building large teams. 63 | 64 | Not-my-job attitudes grate at Stripe: we admire, recognize, and reward people who do the opposite. Expect to routinely contribute to projects across the company. Expect to receive feedback from engaged coworkers who have less state about your projects than you do. You won’t always agree with feedback you get, but you should consider it seriously and with humility: it comes from a smart colleague who, like you, sincerely wants your project to succeed. 65 | 66 | In the same way that we look for the best versions of ideas from other fields outside of Stripe, valuable contributions internally transcend team borders. A Stripe in Legal or User Ops can chime in on Product or Partnerships discussions, and an engineer may offer an opinion on a sales deal: we care about the quality of thought, not where it came from. 67 | 68 | 69 | ## The Stripe service 70 | 71 | Through the tools that we build, we want to push the world to create better products and services. 72 | 73 | We try to take a broad view of what our work adds up to and believe in taking seriously the full long-term consequences of what we create. We won’t just climb the profit gradient. 74 | 75 | While we’re opinionated in determining what to build, we strive for neutrality in deciding who gets access to the results. That means you will not agree with the values or goals of every Stripe customer. If you voted in the last U.S. presidential election, we processed almost all donations for the other candidate: every major campaign in 2016 ran on Stripe. We think that it is a positive good to increase access to financial infrastructure, irrespective of the customer, so long as the business is operating within the laws of their jurisdiction. We have a variegated team and our values as a company are not simply the union of our values as individuals. Within our core principles, individuals with many different sets of values are welcomed. 76 | 77 | 78 | ## Optimism 79 | 80 | We are micro pessimists but macro optimists. 81 | 82 | Internally, we’re always thinking about what’s broken, which problems could lie around the corner, and where the unaddressed risks lie. But an important aspect of Stripe culture is macro optimism. We believe that Stripe will be far better in the future than it is today. When considering ideas, we think “how might it work?” is more interesting than “why will it fail?” 83 | 84 | We believe we’re yet to see most of the impact of the internet. And we think that ambitious, energetic, and deliberate efforts directed towards progress are surprisingly effective in improving the state of the world around us. 85 | 86 | ## Wrap-up 87 | 88 | Stripe processes billions of dollars a year for millions of businesses around the world. Half of Americans purchased something from a Stripe merchant in 2016. We handle more than 100 million API requests per day. 89 | 90 | But we’ve set our sights higher: only a small fraction of the world’s commerce is mediated through the internet today. We seek not only to increase global participation in the online economy but also to rethink how that economy works. We need more Stripes to help us get there. We hope you’ll be one of them. 91 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /amazon-2016-letter-to-shareholders/index.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 9 | 10 | # Amazon 2016 Letter to Shareholders by Jeff Bezos 11 | 12 | Contents: 13 | 14 | * [Introduction](#introduction) 15 | * [True Customer Obsession](#true-customer-obsession) 16 | * [Resist Proxies](#resist-proxies) 17 | * [Embrace External Trends](#embrace-external-trends) 18 | * [High-Velocity Decision Making](#high-velocity-decision-making) 19 | 20 | 21 | ## Introduction 22 | 23 | “Jeff, what does Day 2 look like?” 24 | 25 | That’s a question I just got at our most recent all-hands meeting. I’ve been reminding people that it’s Day 1 for a couple of decades. I work in an Amazon building named Day 1, and when I moved buildings, I took the name with me. I spend time thinking about this topic. 26 | 27 | “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.” 28 | 29 | To be sure, this kind of decline would happen in extreme slow motion. An established company might harvest Day 2 for decades, but the final result would still come. 30 | 31 | I’m interested in the question, how do you fend off Day 2? What are the techniques and tactics? How do you keep the vitality of Day 1, even inside a large organization? 32 | 33 | Such a question can’t have a simple answer. There will be many elements, multiple paths, and many traps. I don’t know the whole answer, but I may know bits of it. Here’s a starter pack of essentials for Day 1 defense: customer obsession, a skeptical view of proxies, the eager adoption of external trends, and high-velocity decision making. 34 | 35 | ## True Customer Obsession 36 | 37 | There are many ways to center a business. You can be competitor focused, you can be product focused, you can be technology focused, you can be business model focused, and there are more. But in my view, obsessive customer focus is by far the most protective of Day 1 vitality. 38 | 39 | Why? There are many advantages to a customer-centric approach, but here’s the big one: customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great. Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf. No customer ever asked Amazon to create the Prime membership program, but it sure turns out they wanted it, and I could give you many such examples. 40 | 41 | Staying in Day 1 requires you to experiment patiently, accept failures, plant seeds, protect saplings, and double down when you see customer delight. A customer-obsessed culture best creates the conditions where all of that can happen. 42 | 43 | ## Resist Proxies 44 | 45 | As companies get larger and more complex, there’s a tendency to manage to proxies. This comes in many shapes and sizes, and it’s dangerous, subtle, and very Day 2. 46 | 47 | A common example is process as proxy. Good process serves you so you can serve customers. But if you’re not watchful, the process can become the thing. This can happen very easily in large organizations. The process becomes the proxy for the result you want. You stop looking at outcomes and just make sure you’re doing the process right. Gulp. It’s not that rare to hear a junior leader defend a bad outcome with something like, “Well, we followed the process.” A more experienced leader will use it as an opportunity to investigate and improve the process. The process is not the thing. It’s always worth asking, do we own the process or does the process own us? In a Day 2 company, you might find it’s the second. 48 | 49 | Another example: market research and customer surveys can become proxies for customers – something that’s especially dangerous when you’re inventing and designing products. “Fifty-five percent of beta testers report being satisfied with this feature. That is up from 47% in the first survey.” That’s hard to interpret and could unintentionally mislead. 50 | 51 | Good inventors and designers deeply understand their customer. They spend tremendous energy developing that intuition. They study and understand many anecdotes rather than only the averages you’ll find on surveys. They live with the design. 52 | 53 | I’m not against beta testing or surveys. But you, the product or service owner, must understand the customer, have a vision, and love the offering. Then, beta testing and research can help you find your blind spots. A remarkable customer experience starts with heart, intuition, curiosity, play, guts, taste. You won’t find any of it in a survey. 54 | 55 | ## Embrace External Trends 56 | 57 | The outside world can push you into Day 2 if you won’t or can’t embrace powerful trends quickly. If you fight them, you’re probably fighting the future. Embrace them and you have a tailwind. 58 | 59 | These big trends are not that hard to spot (they get talked and written about a lot), but they can be strangely hard for large organizations to embrace. We’re in the middle of an obvious one right now: machine learning and artificial intelligence. 60 | 61 | Over the past decades computers have broadly automated tasks that programmers could describe with clear rules and algorithms. Modern machine learning techniques now allow us to do the same for tasks where describing the precise rules is much harder. 62 | 63 | At Amazon, we’ve been engaged in the practical application of machine learning for many years now. Some of this work is highly visible: our autonomous Prime Air delivery drones; the Amazon Go convenience store that uses machine vision to eliminate checkout lines; and Alexa, our cloud-based AI assistant. (We still struggle to keep Echo in stock, despite our best efforts. A high-quality problem, but a problem. We’re working on it.) 64 | 65 | But much of what we do with machine learning happens beneath the surface. Machine learning drives our algorithms for demand forecasting, product search ranking, product and deals recommendations, merchandising placements, fraud detection, translations, and much more. Though less visible, much of the impact of machine learning will be of this type – quietly but meaningfully improving core operations. 66 | 67 | Inside AWS, we’re excited to lower the costs and barriers to machine learning and AI so organizations of all sizes can take advantage of these advanced techniques. 68 | 69 | Using our pre-packaged versions of popular deep learning frameworks running on P2 compute instances (optimized for this workload), customers are already developing powerful systems ranging everywhere from early disease detection to increasing crop yields. And we’ve also made Amazon’s higher level services available in a convenient form. Amazon Lex (what’s inside Alexa), Amazon Polly, and Amazon Rekognition remove the heavy lifting from natural language understanding, speech generation, and image analysis. They can be accessed with simple API calls – no machine learning expertise required. Watch this space. Much more to come. 70 | 71 | ## High-Velocity Decision Making 72 | 73 | Day 2 companies make high-quality decisions, but they make high-quality decisions slowly. To keep the energy and dynamism of Day 1, you have to somehow make high-quality, high-velocity decisions. Easy for start-ups and very challenging for large organizations. The senior team at Amazon is determined to keep our decision-making velocity high. Speed matters in business – plus a high-velocity decision making environment is more fun too. We don’t know all the answers, but here are some thoughts. 74 | 75 | First, never use a one-size-fits-all decision-making process. Many decisions are reversible, two-way doors. Those decisions can use a light-weight process. For those, so what if you’re wrong? I wrote about this in more detail in last year’s letter. 76 | 77 | Second, most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow. Plus, either way, you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correcting bad decisions. If you’re good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be expensive for sure. 78 | 79 | Third, use the phrase “disagree and commit.” This phrase will save a lot of time. If you have conviction on a particular direction even though there’s no consensus, it’s helpful to say, “Look, I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?” By the time you’re at this point, no one can know the answer for sure, and you’ll probably get a quick yes. 80 | 81 | This isn’t one way. If you’re the boss, you should do this too. I disagree and commit all the time. We recently greenlit a particular Amazon Studios original. I told the team my view: debatable whether it would be interesting enough, complicated to produce, the business terms aren’t that good, and we have lots of other opportunities. They had a completely different opinion and wanted to go ahead. I wrote back right away with “I disagree and commit and hope it becomes the most watched thing we’ve ever made.” Consider how much slower this decision cycle would have been if the team had actually had to convince me rather than simply get my commitment. 82 | 83 | Note what this example is not: it’s not me thinking to myself “well, these guys are wrong and missing the point, but this isn’t worth me chasing.” It’s a genuine disagreement of opinion, a candid expression of my view, a chance for the team to weigh my view, and a quick, sincere commitment to go their way. And given that this team has already brought home 11 Emmys, 6 Golden Globes, and 3 Oscars, I’m just glad they let me in the room at all! 84 | 85 | Fourth, recognize true misalignment issues early and escalate them immediately. Sometimes teams have different objectives and fundamentally different views. They are not aligned. No amount of discussion, no number of meetings will resolve that deep misalignment. Without escalation, the default dispute resolution mechanism for this scenario is exhaustion. Whoever has more stamina carries the decision. 86 | 87 | I’ve seen many examples of sincere misalignment at Amazon over the years. When we decided to invite third party sellers to compete directly against us on our own product detail pages – that was a big one. Many smart, well-intentioned Amazonians were simply not at all aligned with the direction. The big decision set up hundreds of smaller decisions, many of which needed to be escalated to the senior team. 88 | 89 | “You’ve worn me down” is an awful decision-making process. It’s slow and de-energizing. Go for quick escalation instead – it’s better. 90 | 91 | So, have you settled only for decision quality, or are you mindful of decision velocity too? Are the world’s trends tailwinds for you? Are you falling prey to proxies, or do they serve you? And most important of all, are you delighting customers? We can have the scope and capabilities of a large company and the spirit and heart of a small one. But we have to choose it. 92 | 93 | A huge thank you to each and every customer for allowing us to serve you, to our shareowners for your support, and to Amazonians everywhere for your hard work, your ingenuity, and your passion. 94 | 95 | As always, I attach a copy of our original 1997 letter. It remains Day 1. 96 | 97 | Sincerely, 98 | 99 | Jeff 100 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /the-leaders-guide-to-corporate-culture/index.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # The Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture 2 | 3 | Contents: 4 | 5 | * [](*) 6 | 7 | 8 | ## Introduction 9 | 10 | Source: https://hbr.org/2018/01/the-culture-factor 11 | 12 | Strategy and culture are among the primary levers at top leaders’ disposal in their never-ending quest to maintain organizational viability and effectiveness. Strategy offers a formal logic for the company’s goals and orients people around them. Culture expresses goals through values and beliefs and guides activity through shared assumptions and group norms. 13 | 14 | Leading with culture may be among the few sources of sustainable competitive advantage left to companies today. Successful leaders will stop regarding culture with frustration and instead use it as a fundamental management tool. 15 | 16 | It is possible-- in fact, vital-- to improve organizational performance through culture change, using the simple but powerful models and methods in this article. 17 | 18 | By integrating findings from more than 100 of the most commonly used social and behavioral models, we have identified eight styles that distinguish a culture and can be measured. 19 | 20 | 21 | ## Key actions 22 | 23 | Key actions: 24 | 25 | * Leaders must become aware of the culture that operates in their organization. 26 | 27 | * Then they can define an aspirational target culture. 28 | 29 | * Finally they can master the core change practices of articulation of the aspiration, leadership alignment, organizational conversation, and organizational design. 30 | 31 | 32 | ## Key points 33 | 34 | Key points: 35 | 36 | * When aligned with strategy and leadership, a strong culture drives positive organizational outcomes. 37 | 38 | * Selecting or developing leaders for the future requires a forward-looking strategy and culture. 39 | 40 | * In a dynamic, uncertain environment, in which organizations must be more agile, learning gains importance. 41 | 42 | * In a merger, designing a new culture on the basis of complementary strengths can speed up integration and create more value over time. 43 | 44 | * A strong culture can be a significant liability when it is misaligned with strategy. 45 | 46 | 47 | ## The two dimensions: people and change 48 | 49 | Understanding a company’s culture requires determining where it falls along these two dimensions. 50 | 51 | 52 | ### People interactions 53 | 54 | An organization’s orientation toward people interactions and coordination will fall on a spectrum from highly independent to highly interdependent. 55 | 56 | Cultures that lean toward the former place greater value on autonomy, individual action, and competition. Those that lean toward the latter emphasize integration, managing relationships, and coordinating group effort. People in such cultures tend to collaborate and to see success through the lens of the group. 57 | 58 | 59 | ### Response to change 60 | 61 | Whereas some cultures emphasize stability—prioritizing consistency, predictability, and maintenance of the status quo—others emphasize flexibility, adaptability, and receptiveness to change. 62 | 63 | Those that favor stability tend to follow rules, use control structures such as seniority-based staffing, reinforce hierarchy, and strive for efficiency. Those that favor flexibility tend to prioritize innovation, openness, diversity, and a longer-term orientation. 64 | 65 | 66 | ## The Eight Types of Company Culture 67 | 68 | 69 | ### Caring 70 | 71 | Caring focuses on relationships and mutual trust. Work environments are warm, collaborative, and welcoming places where people help and support one another. Employees are united by loyalty; leaders emphasize sincerity, teamwork, and positive relationships. 72 | 73 | 74 | ### Purpose 75 | 76 | Purpose is exemplified by idealism and altruism. Work environments are tolerant, compassionate places where people try to do good for the long-term future of the world. Employees are united by a focus on sustainability and global communities; leaders emphasize shared ideals and contributing to a greater cause. 77 | 78 | 79 | ### Learning 80 | 81 | Learning is characterized by exploration, expansiveness, and creativity. Work environments are inventive and open-minded places where people spark new ideas and explore alternatives. Employees are united by curiosity; leaders emphasize innovation, knowledge, and adventure. 82 | 83 | 84 | ### Enjoyment 85 | 86 | Enjoyment is expressed through fun and excitement. Work environments are lighthearted places where people tend to do what makes them happy. Employees are united by playfulness and stimulation; leaders emphasize spontaneity and a sense of humor. 87 | 88 | 89 | ### Results 90 | 91 | Results is characterized by achievement and winning. Work environments are outcome-oriented and merit-based places where people aspire to achieve top performance. Employees are united by a drive for capability and success; leaders emphasize goal accomplishment. 92 | 93 | 94 | ### Authority 95 | 96 | Authority is defined by strength, decisiveness, and boldness. Work environments are competitive places where people strive to gain personal advantage. Employees are united by strong control; leaders emphasize confidence and dominance. 97 | 98 | 99 | ### Safety 100 | 101 | Safety is defined by planning, caution, and preparedness. Work environments are predictable places where people are risk-conscious and think things through carefully. Employees are united by a desire to feel protected and anticipate change; leaders emphasize being realistic and planning ahead. 102 | 103 | 104 | ### Order 105 | Order is focused on respect, structure, and shared norms. Work environments are methodical places where people tend to play by the rules and want to fit in. Employees are united by cooperation; leaders emphasize shared procedures and time-honored customs. 106 | 107 | 108 | ## Integrated culture 109 | 110 | An organizational culture can be defined by the absolute and relative strengths of each of the eight and by the degree of employee agreement about which styles characterize the organization. A powerful feature of this framework, which differentiates it from other models, is that it can also be used to define individuals’ styles and the values of leaders and employees. 111 | 112 | 113 | ### Learning: Tesla 114 | 115 | “I’m interested in things that change the world or that affect the future and wondrous new technology where you see it and you’re like ‘Wow, how did that even happen?’” 116 | 117 | —Elon Musk, cofounder and CEO 118 | 119 | 120 | ### Purpose: Whole Foods 121 | 122 | “Most of the greatest companies in the world also have great purposes….Having a deeper, more transcendent purpose is highly energizing for all of the various interdependent stakeholders.” 123 | 124 | —John Mackey, founder and CEO 125 | 126 | 127 | ### Caring: Disney 128 | 129 | “It is incredibly important to be open and accessible and treat people fairly and look them in the eye and tell them what is on your mind.” 130 | 131 | —Bob Iger, CEO 132 | 133 | 134 | ### Order: SEC 135 | 136 | “Rule making is a key function of the commission. And when we are setting the rules for the securities markets, there are many rules we, the SEC, must follow.” 137 | 138 | —Jay Clayton, chairman 139 | 140 | 141 | ### Safety: Lloyd’s of London 142 | 143 | “To protect themselves, businesses should spend time understanding what specific threats they may be exposed to and speak to experts who can help.” 144 | 145 | —Inga Beale, CEO 146 | 147 | 148 | ### Authority: Huawei 149 | 150 | “We have a ‘wolf’ spirit in our company. In the battle with lions, wolves have terrifying abilities. With a strong desire to win and no fear of losing, they stick to the goal firmly, making the lions exhausted in every possible way.” 151 | 152 | —Ren Zhengfei, CEO 153 | 154 | 155 | ### Results: GSK 156 | 157 | “I’ve tried to keep us focused on a very clear strategy of modernizing ourselves.” 158 | 159 | —Sir Andrew Witty, former CEO 160 | 161 | 162 | ### Enjoyment: Zappos 163 | 164 | “Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than make money.” 165 | 166 | —Tony Hsieh, CEO 167 | 168 | 169 | ## Four Levers for Evolving a Culture 170 | 171 | Unlike developing and executing a business plan, changing a company’s culture is inextricable from the emotional and social dynamics of people in the organization. We have found that four practices in particular lead to successful culture change: 172 | 173 | 174 | ### Articulate the aspiration 175 | 176 | Much like defining a new strategy, creating a new culture should begin with an analysis of the current one, using a framework that can be openly discussed throughout the organization. Leaders must understand what outcomes the culture produces and how it does or doesn’t align with current and anticipated market and business conditions. For example, if the company’s primary culture styles are results and authority but it exists in a rapidly changing industry, shifting toward learning or enjoyment (while maintaining a focus on results) may be appropriate. 177 | 178 | An aspirational culture suggests the high-level principles that guide organizational initiatives, as at the technology company that sought to boost agility and flexibility amid increasing competition. Change might be framed in terms of real and present business challenges and opportunities as well as aspirations and trends. Because of culture’s somewhat ambiguous and hidden nature, referring to tangible problems, such as market pressures or the challenges of growth, helps people better understand and connect to the need for change. 179 | 180 | 181 | ### Select and develop leaders who align with the target culture 182 | 183 | Leaders serve as important catalysts for change by encouraging it at all levels and creating a safe climate and what Edgar Schein calls “practice fields.” Candidates for recruitment should be evaluated on their alignment with the target. A single model that can assess both organizational culture and individual leadership styles is critical for this activity. 184 | 185 | Incumbent leaders who are unsupportive of desired change can be engaged and re-energized through training and education about the important relationship between culture and strategic direction. Often they will support the change after they understand its relevance, its anticipated benefits, and the impact that they personally can have on moving the organization toward the aspiration. However, culture change can and does lead to turnover: Some people move on because they feel they are no longer a good fit for the organization, and others are asked to leave if they jeopardize needed evolution. 186 | 187 | 188 | ### Use organizational conversations about culture to underscore the importance of change 189 | 190 | To shift the shared norms, beliefs, and implicit understandings within an organization, colleagues can talk one another through the change. Our integrated culture framework can be used to discuss current and desired culture styles and also differences in how senior leaders operate. As employees start to recognize that their leaders are talking about new business outcomes—innovation instead of quarterly earnings, for example—they will begin to behave differently themselves, creating a positive feedback loop. 191 | 192 | Various kinds of organizational conversations, such as road shows, listening tours, and structured group discussion, can support change. Social media platforms encourage conversations between senior managers and frontline employees. Influential change champions can advocate for a culture shift through their language and actions. The technology company made a meaningful change in its culture and employee engagement by creating a structured framework for dialogue and cultivating widespread discussion. 193 | 194 | 195 | ### Reinforce the desired change through organizational design 196 | 197 | When a company’s structures, systems, and processes are aligned and support the aspirational culture and strategy, instigating new culture styles and behaviors will become far easier. For example, performance management can be used to encourage employees to embody aspirational cultural attributes. Training practices can reinforce the target culture as the organization grows and adds new people. 198 | 199 | The degree of centralization and the number of hierarchical levels in the organizational structure can be adjusted to reinforce behaviors inherent to the aspirational culture. Leading scholars such as Henry Mintzberg have shown how organizational structure and other design features can have a profound impact over time on how people think and behave within an organization. 200 | 201 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /netflix-culture/index.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Netflix Culture 2 | 3 | Source: https://jobs.netflix.com/culture 4 | 5 | Entertainment, like friendship, is a fundamental human need; it changes how we feel and gives us common ground. Netflix is better entertainment at lower cost and greater scale than the world has ever seen. We want to entertain everyone, and make the world smile. 6 | 7 | This document is about our unusual employee culture, which is helping us entertain everyone. 8 | 9 | Contents: 10 | 11 | * [Introduction](#introduction) 12 | * [Real Values](#real-values) 13 | * [Judgment](#judgment) 14 | * [Communication](#communication) 15 | * [Curiosity](#curiosity) 16 | * [Courage](#courage) 17 | * [Passion](#passion) 18 | * [Selflessness](#selflessness) 19 | * [Innovation](#innovation) 20 | * [Inclusion](#inclusion) 21 | * [Integrity](#integrity) 22 | * [Impact](#impact) 23 | * [Dream Team](#dream-team) 24 | * [Freedom & Responsibility](#freedom-responsibility) 25 | * [Informed Captains](#informed-captains) 26 | * [Context Not Control](#context-not-control) 27 | * [Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled](#highly-aligned-loosely-coupled) 28 | * [Seeking Excellence](#seeking-excellence) 29 | * [Summary](#summary) 30 | * [Finally](#finally) 31 | 32 | 33 | ## Introduction 34 | 35 | Like all great companies, we strive to hire the best and we value integrity, excellence, respect, and collaboration. What is special about Netflix, though, is how much we: 36 | 37 | * Encourage independent decision-making by employees 38 | * Share information openly, broadly and deliberately 39 | * Are extraordinarily candid with each other 40 | * Keep only our highly effective people 41 | * Avoid rules 42 | 43 | Our core philosophy is people over process. More specifically, we have great people working together as a dream team. With this approach, we are a more flexible, fun, stimulating, creative, and successful organization. 44 | 45 | 46 | ## Real Values 47 | 48 | Many companies have value statements, but often these written values are vague and ignored. The real values of a firm are shown by who gets rewarded or let go. Below are our real values, the specific behaviors and skills we care about most. The more these sound like you, and describe people you want to work with, the more likely you will thrive at Netflix. 49 | 50 | 51 | ### Judgment 52 | 53 | * You make wise decisions despite ambiguity 54 | * You identify root causes, and get beyond treating symptoms 55 | * You think strategically, and can articulate what you are, and are not, trying to do 56 | * You are good at using data to inform your intuition 57 | * You make decisions based on the long term, not near term 58 | 59 | 60 | ### Communication 61 | 62 | * You are concise and articulate in speech and writing 63 | * You listen well and seek to understand before reacting 64 | * You maintain calm poise in stressful situations to draw out the clearest thinking 65 | * You adapt your communication style to work well with people from around the world who may not share your native language 66 | * You provide candid, timely feedback to colleagues 67 | 68 | 69 | ### Curiosity 70 | 71 | * You learn rapidly and eagerly 72 | * You contribute effectively outside of your specialty 73 | * You make connections that others miss 74 | * You seek to understand our members around the world, and how we entertain them 75 | * You seek alternate perspectives 76 | 77 | 78 | ### Courage 79 | 80 | * You say what you think, when it’s in the best interest of Netflix, even if it is uncomfortable 81 | * You are willing to be critical of the status quo 82 | * * You make tough decisions without agonizing 83 | * You take smart risks and are open to possible failure 84 | * You question actions inconsistent with our values 85 | * You are able to be vulnerable, in search of truth 86 | 87 | ### Passion 88 | 89 | * You inspire others with your thirst for excellence 90 | * You care intensely about our members and Netflix‘s success 91 | * You are tenacious and optimistic 92 | * You are quietly confident and openly humble 93 | 94 | 95 | ### Selflessness 96 | 97 | * You seek what is best for Netflix, rather than what is best for yourself or your group 98 | * You are open-minded in search of the best ideas 99 | * You make time to help colleagues 100 | * You share information openly and proactively 101 | 102 | 103 | ### Innovation 104 | 105 | * You create new ideas that prove useful 106 | * You re-conceptualize issues to discover solutions to hard problems 107 | * You challenge prevailing assumptions, and suggest better approaches 108 | * You keep us nimble by minimizing complexity and finding time to simplify 109 | * You thrive on change 110 | 111 | 112 | ### Inclusion 113 | 114 | * You collaborate effectively with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures 115 | * You nurture and embrace differing perspectives to make better decisions 116 | * You focus on talent and our values, rather than a person’s similarity to yourself 117 | * You are curious about how our different backgrounds affect us at work, rather than pretending they don’t affect us 118 | * You recognize we all have biases, and work to grow past them 119 | * You intervene if someone else is being marginalized 120 | 121 | 122 | ### Integrity 123 | 124 | * You are known for candor, authenticity, transparency, and being non-political 125 | * You only say things about fellow employees that you say to their face 126 | * You admit mistakes freely and openly 127 | * You treat people with respect independent of their status or disagreement with you 128 | 129 | 130 | ### Impact 131 | 132 | * You accomplish amazing amounts of important work 133 | * You demonstrate consistently strong performance so colleagues can rely upon you 134 | * You make your colleagues better 135 | * You focus on results over process 136 | 137 | It’s easy to write admirable values; it’s harder to live them. In describing courage we say, “You question actions inconsistent with our values.” We want everyone to help each other live the values and hold each other responsible for being role models. It is a continuous aspirational process. 138 | 139 | In describing integrity we say, “You only say things about fellow employees you say to their face.” This attribute is one of the hardest for new people to believe — and to learn to practice. In most situations, both social and work, those who consistently say what they really think about people are quickly isolated and banished. We work hard to get people to give each other professional, constructive feedback - up, down and across the organization - on a continual basis. People frequently ask others, “What could I be doing better?” and themselves, “What feedback have I not yet shared?” 140 | 141 | We believe we will learn faster and be better if we can make giving and receiving feedback less stressful and a more normal part of work life. Feedback is a continuous part of how we communicate and work with one another versus an occasional formal exercise. We build trust by being selfless in giving feedback to our colleagues even if it is uncomfortable to do so. Feedback helps us to avoid sustained misunderstandings and the need for rules. Feedback is more easily exchanged if there is a strong underlying relationship and trust between people, which is part of why we invest time in developing those professional relationships. We celebrate the people who are very candid, especially to those in more powerful positions. We know this level of candor and feedback can be difficult for new hires and people in different parts of the world where direct feedback is uncommon. We actively help people learn how to do this at Netflix through coaching and modeling the behaviors we want to see in every employee. 142 | 143 | 144 | ## Dream Team 145 | 146 | A dream team is one in which all of your colleagues are extraordinary at what they do and are highly effective collaborators. The value and satisfaction of being on a dream team is tremendous. Our version of the great workplace is not comprised of sushi lunches, great gyms, fancy offices, or frequent parties. Our version of the great workplace is a dream team in pursuit of ambitious common goals, for which we spend heavily. It is on such a team that you learn the most, perform your best work, improve the fastest, and have the most fun. 147 | 148 | To have an entire company comprise the dream team (rather than just a few small groups) is challenging. Unquestionably, we have to hire well. We also have to foster collaboration, support information sharing, and discourage politics. The unusual part is that we give adequate performers a generous severance package, so that we can find a star for that position. If you think of a professional football team, it is up to the coach to ensure that every player on the field is amazing at their position, and plays very effectively with the others. We model ourselves on being a team, not a family. A family is about unconditional love, despite your siblings’ unusual behavior. A dream team is about pushing yourself to be the best teammate you can be, caring intensely about your teammates, and knowing that you may not be on the team forever. 149 | 150 | We have no bell curves or rankings or quotas such as “cut the bottom 10% every year.” That would be detrimental to fostering collaboration, and is a simplistic, rules-based approach we would never support. We focus on managers’ judgment through the “keeper test” for each of their people: if one of the members of the team was thinking of leaving for another firm, would the manager try hard to keep them from leaving? Those that do not pass the keeper test (i.e. their manager would not fight to keep them) are promptly and respectfully given a generous severance package so we can find someone for that position that makes us an even better dream team. Getting cut from our team is very disappointing, but there is no shame. Being on a dream team can be the thrill of a professional lifetime. 151 | 152 | Given our dream team orientation, it is very important that managers communicate frequently with each of their team members about where they stand so surprises are rare. Also, it is safe for any employee at any time to check in with their manager by asking, “How hard would you work to change my mind if I were thinking of leaving?” In the tension between honesty and kindness, we lean into honesty. No matter how honest, though, we treat people with respect. 153 | 154 | One might assume that with dream team focus, people are afraid of making mistakes. In fact, it’s the opposite. We try all kinds of things and make plenty of mistakes as we search for improvement. The keeper test is applied as a judgment of someone’s overall expected contribution. 155 | 156 | Within a dream team, collaboration and trust work well because your colleagues are both exceptionally skilled at what they do, and at working well with others. In describing selflessness we say “You make time to help colleagues. You share information openly and proactively.” We want new colleagues to feel very welcome and get all the support they need to be effective. 157 | 158 | People like loyalty, and it is great as a stabilizer. Employees with a strong track record at Netflix get leeway if their performance takes a temporary dip. Similarly, we ask employees to stick with Netflix through any short term dips. But unconditional allegiance to a stagnant firm, or to a merely-adequately-performing employee, is not what we are about. 159 | 160 | On a dream team, there are no “brilliant jerks.” The cost to teamwork is just too high. Our view is that brilliant people are also capable of decent human interactions, and we insist upon that. When highly capable people work together in a collaborative context, they inspire each other to be more creative, more productive and ultimately more successful as a team than they could be as a collection of individuals. 161 | 162 | Succeeding on a dream team is about being effective, not about working hard. Sustained “B” performance, despite an “A” for effort, gets a respectful severance package. Sustained “A” performance, even with modest level of effort, gets rewarded. Of course, to be great, most of us have to put in considerable effort, but hard work is not how we measure contribution. 163 | 164 | Being on a dream team is not right for everyone, and that is OK. Many people value job security very highly, and would prefer to work at companies whose orientation is more about stability, seniority, and working around inconsistent employee effectiveness. Our model works best for people who highly value consistent excellence in their colleagues. 165 | 166 | To help us attract and retain stunning colleagues, we pay employees at the top of their personal market. We make a good-faith estimate of the highest compensation each employee could make at peer firms, and pay them that max. Typically, we calibrate to market once a year. We do not think of these as “raises” and there is no raise pool to divide up. The market for talent is what it is. We avoid the model of “2% raise for adequate, 4% raise for great”. Some employees’ market value will rapidly rise (due both to their performance and to a shortage of talent in their areas) while other employees may be flat year-to-year, despite doing great work. At all times, we aim to pay all of our people at the top of their personal market. 167 | 168 | Note that if our company experienced financial difficulty, we wouldn’t ask our employees to accept less pay. A sports team with a losing record still pays top of personal market for the players they hope will get them back into a winning position. On the other hand, if the company does well, our broadly distributed stock options become quite valuable. 169 | 170 | The dream team model reinforces the idea that your economic security is based on your skills and reputation, not on your seniority at one company. At Netflix, you learn a lot working on hard problems with amazing colleagues and what you learn increases your market value. Knowing that other companies would quickly hire you if you left Netflix is comforting. We see occasional outside interviewing as healthy, and encourage employees to talk with their managers about what they learn in the process. 171 | 172 | While our teammates are fantastic, and we work together very well, we know we can always do better. We strive to have calm confidence, and yet yearn to improve. We suck compared to how great we want to become. 173 | 174 | 175 | ## Freedom & Responsibility 176 | 177 | There are companies where people walk by trash on the floor in the office, leaving it for someone else to pick it up, and there are companies where people lean down to pick up the trash they see, as they would at home. We try hard to be the latter, a company where everyone feels a sense of responsibility to do the right thing to help the company at every juncture. Picking up the trash is the metaphor for taking care of problems, small and large, as you see them, and never thinking “that’s not my job.” We don’t have rules about picking up the real or metaphoric trash. We try to create the sense of ownership, responsibility and initiative so that this behavior comes naturally. 178 | 179 | Our goal is to inspire people more than manage them. We trust our teams to do what they think is best for Netflix — giving them lots of freedom, power, and information in support of their decisions. In turn, this generates a sense of responsibility and self-discipline that drives us to do great work that benefits the company. 180 | 181 | We believe that people thrive on being trusted, on freedom, and on being able to make a difference. So we foster freedom and empowerment wherever we can. 182 | 183 | In many organizations, there is an unhealthy emphasis on process and not much freedom. These organizations didn’t start that way, but the python of process squeezed harder every time something went wrong. Specifically, many organizations have freedom and responsibility when they are small. Everyone knows each other, and everyone picks up the trash. As they grow, however, the business gets more complex, and sometimes the average talent and passion level goes down. As the informal, smooth-running organization starts to break down, pockets of chaos emerge, and the general outcry is to “grow up” and add traditional management and process to reduce the chaos. As rules and procedures proliferate, the value system evolves into rule following (i.e. that is how you get rewarded). If this standard management approach is done well, then the company becomes very efficient at its business model — the system is dummy-proofed, and creative thinkers are told to stop questioning the status quo. This kind of organization is very specialized and well adapted to its business model. Eventually, however, over 10 to 100 years, the business model inevitably has to change, and most of these companies are unable to adapt. 184 | 185 | To avoid the rigidity of over-specialization, and avoid the chaos of growth, while retaining freedom, we work to have as simple a business as we can given our growth ambitions, and to keep employee excellence rising. We work to have a company of self-disciplined people who discover and fix issues without being told to do so. 186 | 187 | We are dedicated to constantly increasing employee freedom to fight the python of process. Some examples of how we operate with unusual amounts of freedom are: 188 | 189 | * We share documents internally broadly and systematically. Nearly every document is fully open for anyone to read and comment on, and everything is cross-linked. Memos on each title’s performance, on every strategy decision, on every competitor, and on every product feature test are open for all employees to read. Despite this huge access, we’ve had very few leaks, due to our ethos of self-discipline and responsibility. 190 | 191 | * There are virtually no spending controls or contract signing controls. Each employee is expected to seek advice and perspective as appropriate. “Use good judgment” is our core precept. 192 | 193 | * Our policy for travel, entertainment, gifts, and other expenses is 5 words long: “act in Netflix’s best interest.” We also avoid the compliance departments that most companies have to enforce their policies. 194 | 195 | * Our vacation policy is “take vacation.” We don’t have any rules or forms around how many weeks per year. Frankly, we intermix work and personal time quite a bit, doing email at odd hours, taking off weekday afternoons for kids’ games, etc. Our leaders make sure they set good examples by taking vacations, often coming back with fresh ideas, and encourage the rest of the team to do the same. 196 | 197 | * Our parental leave policy is: “take care of your baby and yourself.” New parents generally take 4-8 months. 198 | 199 | * Each employee chooses each year how much of their compensation they want in salary versus stock options. You can choose all cash, all options, or whatever combination suits you. You choose how much risk and upside you want. These 10-year stock options are fully-vested and you keep them even if you leave Netflix. 200 | 201 | * There are no compensation handcuffs (vesting) requiring you to stay in order to get your money. People are free to leave at any time, without loss of money, and yet they overwhelmingly choose to stay. We want managers to create conditions where people love being here, for the great work and great pay. 202 | 203 | You might think that such freedom would lead to chaos. But we also don’t have a clothing policy, yet no one has come to work naked. The lesson is you don’t need policies for everything. Most people understand the benefit of wearing clothes at work. 204 | 205 | There are a few important exceptions to our anti-rules pro-freedom philosophy. We are strict about ethical issues and safety issues. Harassment of employees or trading on insider information are zero tolerance issues, for example. Some information security issues, such as keeping our members’ payment information safe, have strict controls around access. Transferring large amounts of cash from our company bank accounts has strict controls. But these are edge cases. 206 | 207 | In general, freedom and rapid recovery is better than trying to prevent error. We are in a creative business, not a safety-critical business. Our big threat over time is lack of innovation, so we should be relatively error tolerant. Rapid recovery is possible if people have great judgment. The seduction is that error prevention just sounds so good, even if it is often ineffective. We are always on guard if too much error prevention hinders inventive, creative work. 208 | 209 | On rare occasion, freedom is abused. We had one senior employee who organized kickbacks on contracts for several years before being caught. But those are the exceptions, and we avoid over-correcting. Just because a few people abuse freedom doesn’t mean that our employees are not worthy of great trust. 210 | 211 | Some processes are about increased productivity, rather than error avoidance, and we like process that helps us get more done. One such process we do well at is effective scheduled meetings. We have a regular cadence of many types of meetings; we start and end on time, and have well-prepared agendas. We use these meetings to learn from each other and get more done, rather than to prevent errors or approve decisions. 212 | 213 | 214 | ## Informed Captains 215 | 216 | For every significant decision there is a responsible captain of the ship who makes a judgment call after digesting others’ views. We avoid committees making decisions because that would slow us down, and diffuse responsibility and accountability. We “farm for dissent.” Dissent is not natural or easy, so we make a concerted effort to stimulate it. Many times, groups will meet about topics and debate them, but then afterwards someone needs to make a decision and become that “captain.” Small decisions may be shared just by email, larger ones will merit a memo with discussion of the various positions, and why the captain made such a decision. The bigger a decision, the more extensive the dissent/assent gathering should be, usually in an open shared document. We are clear, however, that decisions are not made by a majority or committee vote. We don’t wait for consensus, nor do we drive to rapid, uninformed decision making. When the captain of any particular decision is reasonably confident of the right bet for us to take, they decide and we take that bet. 217 | 218 | 219 | ## Context Not Control 220 | 221 | We want employees to be great independent decision makers, and to only consult their manager when they are unsure of the right decision. The leader’s job at every level is to set clear context so that others have the right information to make generally great decisions. 222 | 223 | We don’t buy into the lore of CEOs, or other senior leaders, who are so involved in the details that their product or service becomes amazing. The legend of Steve Jobs was that his micromanagement made the iPhone a great product. Others take it to new extremes, proudly calling themselves nano-managers. The heads of major networks and studios sometimes make many decisions in the creative process of their content. We do not emulate these top-down models because we believe we are most effective and innovative when employees throughout the company make and own decisions. 224 | 225 | We strive to develop good decision-making muscle everywhere in our company. We pride ourselves on how few, not how many, decisions senior management makes. We don’t want hands-off management, though. Each leader’s role is to teach, to set context, and to be highly informed of what is happening. The only way to figure out how the context setting needs to improve is to explore a sample of all the details. But unlike the micro-manager, the goal of knowing those details is not to change certain small decisions, but to learn how to adjust context so more decisions are made well. 226 | 227 | There are some minor exceptions to “context not control,” such as an urgent situation in which there is no time to think about proper context and principles, when a new team member hasn’t yet absorbed enough context to be confident, or when it’s recognized that the wrong person is in a decision-making role (temporarily, no doubt). 228 | 229 | We tell people not to seek to please their boss. Instead, seek to serve the business. It’s OK to disagree with your manager. It’s never OK to hide anything. It’s OK to say to your manager, “I know you disagree, but I’m going to do X because I think it is a better solution. Let me know if you want to specifically override my decision.” What we don’t want is people guessing what their manager would do or want, and then executing on that guess. 230 | 231 | 232 | ## Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled 233 | 234 | As companies grow, they often become highly centralized and inflexible. Symptoms include: 235 | 236 | * Senior management is involved in many small decisions 237 | * There are numerous cross-departmental buy-in meetings to socialize tactics 238 | * Pleasing other internal groups takes precedence over pleasing customers 239 | * The organization is highly coordinated and less prone to error, but slow and frustrating 240 | 241 | We avoid this by being highly aligned and loosely coupled. We spend lots of time debating strategy together, and then trust each other to execute on tactics without prior approvals. Often, two groups working on the same goals won’t know of, or have approval over, their peer activities. If, later, the activities don’t seem right, we have a candid discussion. We may find that the strategy was too vague or the tactics were not aligned with the agreed strategy. And we discuss generally how we can do better in the future. 242 | 243 | The success of a “Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled” work environment is dependent upon the collaborative efforts of high performance individuals and effective context. Ultimately, the end goal is to grow the business for bigger impact while increasing flexibility and agility. We seek to be big, fast and nimble. 244 | 245 | 246 | ### Seeking Excellence 247 | 248 | New employees often comment in the first few months that they are surprised how accurate this culture description is to the actual culture they experience. Around the world, we live and create our culture together. In fact, hundreds of our global employees contributed to this document. 249 | 250 | We do not seek to preserve our culture — we seek to improve it. Every person who joins us helps to shape and evolve the culture further. We find new ways to accomplish more together. Every few years we can feel a real difference in how much more effectively we are operating than in the past. We are learning faster than ever because we have more dedicated people with diverse perspectives trying to find better ways for our talented team to work together more cohesively, nimbly and effectively. 251 | 252 | 253 | ### Summary 254 | 255 | As we wrote in the beginning, what is special about Netflix is how much we: 256 | 257 | * encourage independent decision-making by employees 258 | * share information openly, broadly, and deliberately 259 | * are extraordinarily candid with each other 260 | * keep only our highly effective people 261 | * avoid rules 262 | 263 | 264 | ## Finally 265 | 266 | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, shows us the way: 267 | 268 |
269 | If you want to build a ship, 270 |
don’t drum up the people 271 |
to gather wood, divide the 272 |
work, and give orders. 273 |
Instead, teach them to yearn 274 |
for the vast and endless sea. 275 |
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