No Rules Rules (Erin Meyer & Reed Hastings)
By: Vishal Ganesan
Tags: Culture, Book Recommendations, Books

No Rules Rules (Erin Meyer & Reed Hastings)

For the longest time, I never really understood the whole conversation around company “culture”. An excellent definition of culture that comes in handy is “culture is just behavior” and “culture should inform how employees should behave” as Tim Brady puts it in this YC lesson. No Rules Rules goes on to explain how company culture can build or break companies.

My top 3 learnings from the book:

Lead with context or lead with control? For scenarios where the objective of a task is error elimination, leading with control is the preferred way. On the other hand, when an organization is striving for creative breakthroughs (in product development, sales or whatever it be), leading with control can become the company’s death warrant — it can cripple ideas. In such circumstances, it is important to not tell your people what to do but to tell them why they are doing instead, giving them the context to dream big and think differently. Every person is responsible for telling what they think to their colleagues especially if that feedback is in the larger interest of the organization. However, at times we hold back for the fear of coming across as “jerks” or we may actually go over board and become “jerks”. There is a careful line that needs to be treaded and that’s where the 4-A Feedback guidelines becomes a cheat sheet for giving and receiving feedback. Every feedback that is given should be given with the “Aim to assist” and be “Actionable”. Every person who receives feedback should be “Appreciative” of receiving the feedback without getting defensive, and realize they it’s entirely up to them to “Accept or discard” the feedback. A bonus fifth “A” is “Adapt” — different cultures treat feedback differently and hence one needs to be cognizant of the background of the individuals at the receiving end of the feedback. After all, the purpose of giving feedback is to not show you can — it has a purpose. Company is a professional sports team — not a family. A company is oftentimes referred to as family — the problem with this mindset is it can lead to “freeloaders”. Thinking of a company as a competitive sports team on the other hand, can push people to perform while reminding them that a few bad outings can result in them being benched. There is an element of pressure that comes with it — but when channeled properly, that pressure translates to performance.

WARNING: We need to realize that just because some of techniques worked at Netflix does not mean it will work at our organizations. I would be careful enough to think through how to contextualize what Reed and Erin share in this book before applying them.

Now, to answer the question on should we install a dozen traffic lights at l’Etoile?

How Parisians successfully maneuver the “l’Etoile” — the massive traffic circle around the L’Arc de Triomphe can be an enigma to the outsiders prompting suggestions like installing a dozen traffic signals. But as Erin points out, such signals will remove flexibility it accords its citizens helping them get from Point A to B in the shortest time in a crowded city like Paris. The city has decided to rule with context and it seems to work!

Read this book if you are looking to learn how a methodically built culture of “Freedom and Responsibility” shaped the success of an organization.