form of payment and, 79–81
rare skill sets and, 85
recruiters and, 93–98
rock-star principle and, 77–79, 81
performance reviews and, 191
and quitting current job, 79–80
raises in, 87–93
recruiters and, 93–98
reviewing, 87–93
Sampaio, Leonardo, 249–50
Samsung, 65–66
Sandberg, Sheryl, xiii, 130
San Jose Mercury News, 52
Sarandos, Ted, 24–26, 43, 94–98, 218, 230
alien movie and, 129
bungee jumping story of, 194–95
on “hierarchy of picking,” 165–66
Icarus and, 208
in leadership tree, 223–27, 230, 231
360s and, 195–98, 201
Saturday Night Live, 141
Sausgruber, Rupert, 59
Schendel, Zach, 147, 148
Schlumberger, 240–41
Scorsese, Martin, xii
secrets, 102–3, 110
at HBO, 114
reasons for keeping, 106
SOS (stuff of secrets) information, 103–5, 157
symbols of, 104–5
trust and, 102–5
see also transparency
Series of Unfortunate Events, A, 145
severance pay:
“adequate performance gets a generous severance,” xv, xxii, 171, 175–76, 242
in Europe, 242
sexual harassment, 270
signing contracts, 149–51
Silicon Valley, 77, 130, 136
Singapore, 243, 246, 248, 251, 257–59, 261, 264
60 Minutes, 232
Sky Italy, 131–32
Slepian, Michael, 102
Smith, Frederick, 138–39
socializing the idea, 140, 144–45, 158, 159
Society for Human Resource Management, 185
software, 77–78, 216
Songkick, 50
spending, see travel and expenses; travel and expense approvals, removing
spin, 118, 120
Spotify, 136
spreadsheet system, 143–44
Stack, Jack, 107–10
stack ranking, 177–78
Stamberg, Susan, 167
Star Is Born, A, 29
status quo, xxiv
stealing, 56
Stranger Things, xvii, xviii, 25, 75, 76, 78–79
streaming, 147, 154
downloading and, 146–48
shift from DVDs to, xii, xvii, 140–41, 236
Stuber, Scott, 165
subtitles, 227
Sundance Film Festival, 207, 233
Sun Microsystems, 6
sunshining, 105
of failures, 153, 155–59
systems, loosely versus tightly coupled, 215–17
T
talent, 7
contagious behavior and, 8–10
and differing performance levels in teams, 7–8
talent density, 7–8
building up and fortifying, xx, xxi, 1, 2–11, 72, 74–99, 164–87
collaboration and, 170, 178
creating a great workplace of stunning colleagues, 3–11
decision-making and, 131
family business metaphor and, 166–68
hierarchy of picking and, 165–66
hiring and, 166
internal competitiveness and, 177–78
Keeper Test and, xiv, 165–87
Keeper Test Prompt and, 180–83
and leading with context versus control, 212, 213
and moving from family to sports team metaphor, 168–70, 173–74
Netflix layoffs and, 4–7, 10, 77, 168
and readiness to release decision-making controls, 133–35
stack ranking (rank-and-yank) and, 177–78
360s and, 200
see also paying top of personal market
talking behind people’s backs, 15, 189–90
Tanz, Larry, 96–97, 195, 201
Target, 213–15
teams:
contagious behavior in, 8–10
differing performance levels in, 7–8
dream, 76
feedback from teammates, 199
lean, 79
tensions in, 199
televisions, 4K ultra high definition, 65–66
Tesla, Inc., xvii
Thinkers50, xxii
13 Reasons Why, 32
360-degree assessments (circle of feedback), 26–27, 189–205
benefits of, 202–3
discussion facilitated by, 194
in Japan, 256
stepping out of line during, 200–201
tips for, 199–200
written, names used in, 191–97
Thunell, Matt, 75–79
tight versus loose coupling, 215–17
transparency (opening the books), 101–27
decision-making and, 131
difficult decisions in, 115–16
empowerment and, 109
and feeling it’s better not to know some things, 115–16
giving low-level employees access to information, 109
and information that would be illegal to leak, 106–11
knowing when to share, 106
about mistakes, 121–25
possible organizational restructuring and, 112–17
post-firing communication and, 117–20
quiz scenarios on, 106–25
privacy and, 120
risks of, 106, 110
sharing financial data, 108–11
sunshining, 105
360-degree assessments and, 194
see also secrets
travel and expenses:
flying business class, 63–64
honesty and, 58–59
rules for, 55–59, 64
spending company money as if it were your own, 57–58
travel and expense approvals, removing, 55–72
cheating and, 62–64
company’s best interest and, 58, 59, 61, 66, 68–69
context and, 59–62
Freedom and Responsibility ethos and, 60–62
frugality and, 64–69
Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, 145
trust, 102–5, 108, 113, 119, 123–25, 157, 170
cultural differences and, 248, 249
see also transparency
truth, 157
spinning, 118, 120
see also candor; transparency
Turkey, 157–59
turnover, 184–85
Twitter, 137
U
Uber, 136
University of Mannheim, 123–24
V
vacation policy, removing, xv, 39–53, 56, 69–70
freedom and responsibility and, 52–53
Hastings’ nightmares about, 40–41, 42, 44
Hastings’ vacations, 44, 45, 47
Japanese workers and, 46–47
leaders’ modeling and, 42–47
loss aversion and, xv–xvi
and setting and reinforcing context to guide employee behavior, 48–49
value added by, 50–52
Vai Anitta, 97
values, xiii
Vanity Fair, 137, 176, 177
VH1, 221
Viacom, xii, 68, 69
Virgin Management, 50
Visualsoft, 50
vitality curve, 177–78
vulnerability, 123–24
W
Wall Street Journal, 66, 178
Walmart, 166
Wang, Andrew, 75, 79
Wang, Karlyne, 257–60
Wang, Spencer, 110–11
WarnerMedia, 82
Washington Post, 65
Watchever, 148
Webcredible, 50
Week, The, 178
Welch, Jack, 177
Wells, David, 57, 59, 64, 196
West, Jerret, 132–33, 135
white-water kayaking, 180
Wickens, Brent, 62–63
Wii, 154
Worst Witch, 227
Wright, Brian, 25, 75, 79
Y
Yacoubian, Aram, 223, 224, 228–31
Yahoo, 151
Yellin, Todd, 147, 148, 154
YouTube, 145–48
Yurechko, Mark, 114
Z
Zenger Folkman, 21
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Reed Hastings is an entrepreneur who has revolutionized entertainment since co-founding Netflix in 1997, serving as its chairman and CEO since 1999. His first company, Pure Software, was launched in 1991 and acquired just before Netflix was launched. Reed served on the California State Board of Education from 2000 to 2004 and is an active educational philanthropist. He has sat on the board of several educational organizations including Dreambox Learning, KIPP and Pahara. He received a BA from Bowdoin College in 1983 and an MSCS in artificial intelligence from Stanford University in 1988. Between Bowdoin and Stanford, Reed served in the Peace Corps as a volunteer teacher in Southern Africa.
Erin Meyer is the author of The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business, and a professor at INSEAD, one of the world’s leading international business schools. Her work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and Forbes.com. In 2019, Erin was selected by the Thinkers50 as one of the fifty most influential business thinkers in the world. She received an MBA from INSEAD in 2004 and she currently lives in Paris, France. In 1994-95 Erin also served in the Peace Corps as a volunteer teacher in Southern Africa. Visit erinmeyer.com for more information.
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