Who hasn’t done this? You’re speaking with someone – perhaps a potential customer at a networking event – and they ask what you do. They are intrigued by your elevator pitch and follow up with, “So exactly how do you do that?”

An EOS client of mine made me aware of this Netflix Culture Power Point deck. It was created by Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, and Patty McCord, Chief Talent Officer at Netflix from 1998 to 2012, and has been viewed more than 5 million times. You can read the Harvard Business Review article (which also contains the PPT deck) authored by Patty McCord here. She summarizes five of the central ideas that she and Hastings were focused on when they and a few other colleagues created the deck. Few could argue with the success of it given the success of Netflix. It is great food for thought for any company. You should read her article as well as page through the deck. See my observations below the slide deck.

In a former life I worked in large organizations where the HR department would conduct “360 Feedback Programs”. If you’re not familiar with this exercise it works like this: subordinates, peers and your boss are asked to fill out a form to provide “confidential” feedback on your behavior and performance. This is then shared with you by someone in HR. You’re expected to take the anonymous feedback as “constructive criticism” and then develop a plan to improve your effectiveness. This well-meaning exercise invariably leaves you dazed and confused and wondering what everyone really meant. See Patrick Lencioni’s book “The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive” for his perspective.

Whether or not you play or follow golf, you may have heard that last weekend Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy won The Open Championship (British Open) and was declared “Champion Golfer of the Year”. At age 25, he is the third youngest to ever win 3 out of 4 of golf’s modern “major” championships. What you may not have heard were the two key words – “process” and “spot” – that he credited for his victory. You may also not imagine how the principles behind these words can apply to your business.

Ancient cultures had traditional dances whose purpose was to affect a positive outcome. There were dances to bring on rain, to make game plentiful or to ensure a bountiful harvest. These traditions became deeply engrained, especially after an occasional rain or bumper crop. Even the most cynical participant was reluctant to challenge tradition. It was probably easier to do the dance and go with the flow than to challenge the connection between the dance and the outcome.