What FocusU and Netflix Have In Common - FocusU

What FocusU and Netflix Have In Common

“Powerful” is a book written by Patty McCord, the Chief Talent Officer at Netflix. It talks about the work culture and hiring process followed at a company that today has claimed its name as the most commonly used verb, after  Google. After all, don’t we all just love to Netflix and chill?

While reading this book, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the similarities between the culture followed at this global phenomenon of an organization and our very own FocusU family!

Introduction

Patty in this book has really described the culture of NETFLIX. While going through this book, I felt that at FocusU we follow almost the same culture.

At NETFLIX, managers make sure each team member understands and knows the ultimate goal.  The greatest motivation for most of the people working at NETFLIX is the different challenges along with the different teams to work with.

Once Patty was at Microsoft office for a meeting with the head of HR. When the HR walked by, Patty was talking to someone and she gave her a hug too. The Head of HR asked “ Hey, I understand that you have a practice of proactively letting people go and that you often stay close with them. How do you do that? Tell me about somebody you fired who you’re still on good terms with.” Patty replied “Well, the woman you just saw me with is somebody I had to let go” and I told her.”Yeah, I loved her then and I still do!

It was not easy for NETFLIX for moving from CD business to cloud streaming. Every single day came packed with a new challenge. With only 8-9 months to go for the dramatic change, each and every manager made sure that their team members knew what the deadline was and what their target was. 

The FocusU team also had a very similar experience. The transition of “Focus Adventure” to “FocusU Engage” is the perfect example of how different functions work together to make a difficult process, an easy one.

Each function worked hard during this transition. CATs made sure the clients know us well on their end.

Co-Facilitators efficiently worked on ensuring that the videos got uploaded on the new landing page. Finance made sure all the documentation and GST numbers were redone. Without seamless coordination and dedication of the entire team, this could have proved to be an impossible task.

“You can’t do it all at once: you have to pick where you want to start, prioritizing, just as you do with the rest of the business”  is the one statement that really stands out for me, from this book. 

Drawing Parallels

While reading this book, I was amazed to see the similarities between the culture followed by Netflix and FocusU!

Patty shares that the hiring process at Netflix is really interesting. They just don’t fill the positions as per roles. For example, when they say that they need to double the size of their business, they don’t simply double the number of people. Their HR team, instead, focuses on targeting and then selecting the new team members based on the skillset required to achieve the same.

The talent team is thus responsible to provide them with the most amazing talent and also ensuring that there are always options available in the pipeline, which can be utilized when needed. With the formation of the Facilitator Associate Pool, that’s exactly what we are also trying to achieve.

This book also speaks about a host of other different topics:

  1. How to manage change 
  2. What you need to motivate the people 
  3. How you can make the communication effective 
  4. What makes the best team at work 

Conclusion

This is, without a doubt, an amazing book! It is always a delight to discover that our culture and methods find resonance with some of the best teams out there! I would like to conclude with a few apt lines from the book, itself Keep reminding yourself that people have power. It’s not your job to give it to them. Appreciate their power, unleash it from hidebound policies, approvals, and procedures, and trust me, they will be powerful.

Read Also  5 Personality Traits That Define A Leader’s Presence

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