Netflix Leadership Strategy Rethinks Open-Door Policies

Decision-making at Netflix is different.

The company prides itself on how few, not how many, decisions senior leaders make. According to sources, the company works hard to make sure that data and transparency are widespread within the organization. Transparency means sharing information at every level, so that clarity exists for decisions to be made. The process is well-documented in the company’s culture memo, and has been chronicled by former Chief Talent Officer, Patty McCord, in her book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility. Recently, I reached out to Netflix to find out if the concepts and culture still hold up to the ambitions of the past. Here’s what I discovered.

Netflix’s Culture of Context Over Control

In their well-documented Culture Deck and subsequent writings, Netflix leadership emphasizes “context, not control” — empowering teams through clarity and accessibility. Netflix expects leaders to provide the why and let their teams determine the how. The whole idea is built on transparency and trust, allowing teams to operate with a “highly aligned and loosely coupled” approach, according to the Talent Management Institute.

Patty McCord, the company’s former Chief Talent Officer, said that empowering employees was the mission behind the message. In a now-famous 127-slide presentation that outlines the company’s core values, freedom is combined with responsibility – so that employees can turn strategic guidance into real world results.

Lessons from Netflix: What Leaders Need to Know

According to Netflix, they avoid decision-making by committee. For every big decision, the company identifies an “informed captain” who’s ultimately responsible for making a judgement call for moving things forward.

Indeed, many organizations today are moving towards a flatter organizational structure. For example, Bayer eliminated 5,000 management jobs last year and moved into self-directed work teams. In this environment, self-leadership is more important than ever. Decision-making without a manager can be a challenge: who decides on budget allocations, for example?

At Netflix, the company still has traditionally defined teams, with reporting structures inside their cultural context. With Netflix’s concept of an informed captain, the teams are free to move forward on decisions and operate independently. The company culture has influenced decision-making at tech titans like Zappos, Hubspot, Facebook (Meta), Hootsuite and others, according to reports in Fast Company.

Not everyone is going to agree on every decision, of course. Information is disseminated all the way to the coordinator level at Netflix, so that everyone is seeing the same data and has the same inputs for decision-making, or building their arguments, as the case may be.

In contentious decision-making, the informed captain gathers the feedback and then makes the call. According to Netflix, once a decision is made, commitment is expected in order to bring the initiative to fruition.

Extraordinary candor – meaning a level of honesty that can sometimes be uncomfortable – is expected in the company’s feedback and communication. Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix and current Chairman of the Board, has said that the “extraordinary candor” approach came from marriage counseling. A therapist taught Hastings and his wife the importance of honesty, and the principle remains embedded within the company today. As a side note, Hastings and his wife, Patricia Quillin, have been married for 34 years.

The Evolution of Netflix, from a Leadership Standpoint

From selling DVDs by mail to entering the world of streaming content to becoming an international media platform, the evolution of Netflix over the last 25 years has been nothing short of transformational. How has the company’s approach to leadership and decision-making played a role in the company’s growth?

“You might think that this kind of freedom [in decision-making and in our culture] leads to chaos. While we’ve had our fair share of failures — and a few people have taken advantage of our culture — our emphasis on individual autonomy has created a very successful business. This is because in our industry, the biggest threats are a lack of creativity and innovation. And we’ve found that giving people the freedom to use their judgment is the best way to succeed long term,” according to Sergio Ezama, the company’s Chief Talent Officer.

To be sure, the company’s content, subscriber base, production facilities, fees and a myriad of factors contribute to Netflix’s success. But within that ecosphere, “context, not control” has been a key to attracting top talent – and delivering top content. The company’s stock is up almost 30% year to date, with an all-time high reached on May 6, 2025. Process, programs and people: they all exist within a culture of empowered leadership at Netflix, and Wall Street is taking notice.