No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings

The Reed Hastings Co-Founder of Netflix has shared the work environment of Netflix, how they hire employees, how they pay them, and how the employee doesn’t need to ask for vacation. The No Rules Rules talks about how a friendly work environment can lead to big ideas.

So if you’re a business owner or wanted to start a business then you should read the No Rules Rules, it will teach you how you can build a team, how you can find perfect people for your business, and how you don’t need tons of rules to run a proper business.

Powerful Quotes From No Rules Rules by

“Lead with context, not control,” and coach your employees using such guidelines as, “Don’t seek to please your boss.”

“My goal was to make employees feel like owners and, in turn, to increase the amount of responsibility they took for the company’s success. However, opening company secrets to employees had another outcome: it made our workforce smarter.”

“Above all you have to be humble, you have to be curious, and you have to remember to listen before you speak and to learn before you teach. With this approach, you can’t help but become more effective every day in this ever-fascinating multicultural world.”

No Rules Rules Summary

I have read quite of few books on management whether it’s on time, team, or even workforce but after reading the No Rules Rules, one thing I can say is,

If you don’t want to start a business and work for other companies then treat that business as your business and give your 100%, you will get a payout and you will able to work without any fear along with that you will able to understand the business better.

Talking about my business,

I don’t run a big company but I do run 5 websites and 1 YouTube Channel. While I have two members on my team.

Now, I don’t tell them what to write, how to write, when to write, or how to find the next topics. In short, they have to come up with ideas, of course, if the project is big then they will need my permission.

Here too, they have to decide whether the project is big or not.

I also pay them a good amount of money too, so it’s not like, they work 5 hours a day and I will pay them Rs 20,000 a month.

As of now, it’s working well, I haven’t faced any issues and they haven’t complained about anything.

And yes, I applied this thing from the No Rules Rules, before that, I use to approve whatever they write which was taking longer time but now, everything feels smooth.

The two members are my friend and they’re not college friends, they’re school friends, so I can trust them with everything, it’s a bond that I won’t be able to describe.

So that was it, now let me share with you some of the things from the book.

Free Vacations

When you’re starting a new business, this might be not the best option but still, you can try it out and see how it works out.

Netflix has a rule that employee doesn’t need anyone’s permission to take vacations and whatever they spend during the vacation, it will be paid by Netflix.

Of course, whatever you spend will be seen by your Manager and he will know how much you’re spending, so it’s not like you will spend 10 lakhs a day and you will still be working at Netflix.

As I have said, at Netflix, all the employees are treated as business owners, so they know, how much to spend, and when to take a vacation.

Reed Hastings has mentioned that one Netflix employee in Taiwan claimed more than $100,000 over three years. He did this without his manager catching it. He lost his job after Netflix’s finance department ran an audit of his receipts.

The moral of the story is, no matter how much time you spend hiring the best team, one or two will come out reckless.

Feedback

You know, how employee always gets feedback from the boss or managers but Netflix has a different environment.

Even employees can give feedback to their managers and they will take it and make changes accordingly. The employees also give feedback to other employees in the right way.

The feedback needs to mean something, the employees can’t just say that you’re not looking good, and you don’t have dressing sense.

Netflix also has an online portal where employees can give feedback to employees, managers, and even to the CEO and each piece of feedback needs to mean something, it can’t be random because everything is monitored by managers.

So if you behave badly or use bad words in the online portal then you will get fired too.

Also, as much as employees give feedback, they also need to learn how to take feedback.

The Ideas

If you have worked in any company then you will know that every manager gives tasks to employees and they will have to finish them in a limited time

At Netflix, its upside down,

Every employee needs to come up with ideas and whoever comes up with the idea, will work on the project. If the project is bigger then it will be up to the CEO…

This kind of work environment will give more opportunities and employees will work smart rather than hard.

Now, of course, this kind of work environment won’t suit every business but still, you will have to give freedom to your employees, so they can work more creativity

In short, build a team that works because they love the business, don’t hire employees that work for money.

No Rules Rules Review

Some of the rules mentioned in this book won’t work in every business but they will give you a sense that how you should treat your employees. The book is also written in a good way, so it won’t be hard to read or understand.

So yes, I would highly recommend you to read the No Rules Rules book and I’m sure that it will make a huge impact on your business if you apply the rules in the right way…

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