What can sports teams learn from Netflix?
What’s the story?
Streaming giant Netflix recently refreshed its culture code and published a report on the back of 12 months of gathering feedback from its 13,000+ employees. Their focus has always been on developing a culture that acts like a professional sports team, rather than a dysfunctional family.
The report said, “Professional sports teams… focus on performance and picking the right person for every position.” It prioritised qualities like creativity, candour, curiosity and, ultimately, selflessness and a willingness to do what is best for the business. These are all great qualities to aspire to and recruit for. The irony is that Netflix borrowed its philosophy from sport, which in many ways can often be more dysfunctional than family life. Many sports teams pay little attention to culture and it's certainly not documented in the way Netflix has done with its latest memo.
So, while many businesses aspire to a culture like Netflix, there’s much that sports teams can learn from companies with great cultures.
The Team Code Take
Netflix is a shining example of a modern, innovative organisation that continually reinvents itself such that it not only protects its revenue, but also attracts the kind of people required to lift it into billion dollar profitability, and stay there. No one else can have a Netflix culture, it is uniquely theirs, but it is a powerful source of inspiration for aspirational organisations and teams around the world.
Netflix culture principles that sports team could adopt and adapt include:
No tolerance for brilliant jerks - technical ability does not give someone the right to bring down the team or eschew its values
Open communication - Netflix actively seeks feedback and ‘farms for dissent’. The first thing Reed Hstings did at Netflix was to demand feedback on his own performance and to be transparent about the challenges ahead
Every ‘player’ is a captain - a dream team (as Netflix refer to themselves) is one where every employee pushes themselves to be the best possible team mate. This means taking responsibility, making judgement calls and/or being a role model for others to follow
Disagreement, then commitment - it's OK to have an alternate view, but once a direction is picked, you get behind that decision
Constant evolution - Of self, of team and of organisation. Every person recognises the responsibility that they have to ensure that the culture doesn't stagnate, and their role is to find new ways to get better, together
Document the culture - many clubs have a revolving door of staff, publishing its principles and ways of operating will help to create continuity, and build belonging.
Three actions
Don’t try to copy Netflix’s culture - you can’t. Instead be inspired by it and commit to documenting ‘the way you do things around here’.
Focus on feedback - ensuring you have a mechanism to gather feedback for all levels of the organisation, not just those at the top.
Set expectations - a ‘dream team’ is only possible when everyone understands their role and is accountable for the success of the collective.