People & Operations

Why This Module?

“People leave managers, not companies.” - Marcus Buckingham

This module covers the practical side of leading people AND understanding operations:

• What the best managers actually do differently
• How Google and Netflix built their cultures
• What research says about engagement and performance
• How to identify and manage bottlenecks (Theory of Constraints)

Connection from Phase 3A: You have the leadership philosophy. Now get the management skills.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you will:

• Apply strengths-based management
• Understand what actually drives employee engagement
• Design effective performance systems
• Build high-performing team cultures
• Identify bottlenecks in any process (Theory of Constraints)
• Understand operations management fundamentals

Week 1-2: What Great Managers Do

First, Break All the Rules - Buckingham & Coffman

Rating: Essential | Gallup Research (80,000+ interviews) | 1999

The Core Idea:

Based on 80,000+ manager interviews, the best managers break conventional rules. They don’t treat everyone the same - they focus on individual strengths.

The 12 Questions That Measure Engagement:

The 4 Keys of Great Managers:

Talent vs. Skills vs. Knowledge:

• Knowledge: What you know (can be taught)
• Skills: How you do things (can be developed)
• Talent: Recurring patterns of thought/feeling/behavior (cannot be taught)

Don’t Try to Fix Weaknesses:

• Manage around weaknesses
• Partner with others who have complementary talents
• Focus development on strengths

Free Resource: Gallup StrengthsFinder assessment

Nine Lies About Work - Buckingham & Goodall

Rating: Essential | Practical | 2019

The Core Idea:

Most of what we believe about work is wrong. Here are 9 lies and the truths that replace them.

The 9 Lies:

Key Insight: Attention > Feedback

• Annual reviews are useless
• Frequent check-ins work
• Focus on “what’s working” not “what’s broken”

Check-In Questions:

• What are your priorities this week?
• How can I help?
• What did you love about last week?

Week 3: How Google and Netflix Do It

Work Rules! - Laszlo Bock

Rating: Essential | Google’s HR Philosophy | 2015

The Core Idea:

Google’s VP of People Operations shares how they built one of the world’s best workplaces.

Key Principles:

Give Your Work Meaning

• Connect work to mission
• “Organizing the world’s information”
• Purpose attracts talent

Trust Your People

• Default to open (transparency)
• Give employees more freedom than comfortable
• Remove status symbols

Hire Slowly, Hire Well

• Hiring is #1 priority
• Use structured interviews
• Test for learning ability, not just knowledge

Pay Unfairly

• Best performers are 300x more valuable
• Pay accordingly
• Top 5% should be paid much more than 95th percentile

Nudge (Don’t Mandate)

• Small changes in environment = big changes in behavior
• Make good choices easy
• Example: Put healthy food at eye level

Be Transparent

• Default to sharing information
• OKRs visible to everyone
• Trust creates ownership

The 4 Hiring Attributes:

1. General cognitive ability (learning ability)
2. Role-related knowledge
3. Leadership (emergent, not positional)
4. “Googleyness” (culture fit, humility, conscientiousness)

Free Resource: Google re:Work website (rework.withgoogle.com)

Powerful - Patty McCord

Rating: Essential | Practical | Quick read | 2018

Critical Note: Netflix’s culture has been criticized for creating a fear-based environment. The “Keeper Test” (asking if you’d fight to keep someone) can generate chronic anxiety and stress. Ironically, McCord herself was eventually let go using this very test. Research by Bruce Daisley and others suggests this approach may trigger burnout and mental health issues. Use these ideas critically, balancing high performance with psychological safety (Phase 2B).

The Core Idea:

Netflix’s former Chief Talent Officer shares radical ideas about building high-performance cultures.

The Netflix Culture Principles:

1. Treat People Like Adults

• No vacation tracking
• No expense policies (just: “Act in Netflix’s best interest”)
• Trust people to make good decisions

2. Radical Honesty

• Say what you really think
• Give feedback immediately
• No passive-aggressive behavior

3. Only Keep A-Players

• The “Keeper Test”: Would you fight to keep this person?
• Generous severance for good people who don’t fit
• No “brilliant jerks”

4. Every Position is New

• 6 months from now, every job is different
• Constantly re-evaluate if people still fit
• Growing company = growing roles

5. Pay Top of Market

• Pay what it would cost to replace someone
• Salary based on market, not tenure
• Employees should interview to know their value

The Culture Deck: Netflix’s famous culture deck (available at jobs.netflix.com/culture) is required reading.

Balance with Psychological Safety:

• High performance cultures need safety too
• Fear-based motivation is unsustainable
• Consider how Phase 2B concepts integrate here

Week 4: Developing Talent

The Talent Code - Daniel Coyle

Rating: Recommended | Research-based | 2009

The Core Idea:

Talent isn’t born, it’s grown. And there are specific conditions that accelerate its development.

The 3 Elements:

1. Deep Practice

• Struggle in the “sweet spot” (just beyond ability)
• Break skills into chunks
• Repetition with attention

2. Ignition

• The spark of motivation
• Future belonging cues
• “I want to be like that”

3. Master Coaching

• Short, targeted feedback
• Specific, actionable guidance
• More listening than talking

Myelin:

• Skill is built through myelination (insulating neural pathways)
• More practice = more myelin = faster signals = better skill
• This is why deliberate practice works

Week 5-6: Operations Management

The Goal - Eliyahu Goldratt

Rating: Essential | Operations Classic | Novel Format | 1984

Academic Note: TOC has been criticized for:

1. Borrowing from earlier systems dynamics (Forrester, 1950s) without attribution
2. Lack of rigorous academic validation of effectiveness
3. Not adequately addressing employee empowerment
4. Never publishing the Optimum Performance Training algorithm

However, it remains TIME Magazine’s “25 Most Influential Business Books” and is widely applied. Treat it as a practical mental model, not an academically proven theory.

The Core Idea:

Written as a novel, this book teaches the Theory of Constraints - the most important concept in operations management. Every process is limited by its bottleneck.

The Theory of Constraints (TOC):

Key Concepts:

Bottlenecks:

• A bottleneck is any resource whose capacity is less than demand
• “An hour lost at the bottleneck is an hour lost for the entire system”
• “An hour saved at a non-bottleneck is a mirage”

The Three Measurements:

• Throughput: The rate at which the system generates money through sales
• Inventory: All money invested in purchasing things to sell
• Operational Expense: Money spent turning inventory into throughput

Drum-Buffer-Rope:

• Drum: The pace set by the bottleneck
• Buffer: Protection for the bottleneck (time/inventory)
• Rope: Communication that pulls work from upstream

Why This Matters for Managers:

• You manage people, but people work in systems
• Optimizing non-bottlenecks doesn’t help
• Focus improvement efforts on the constraint

Applying to Non-Manufacturing:

• Every process has constraints
• Your calendar: what’s the bottleneck?
• Your team: who/what limits throughput?
• Your projects: what causes delays?

Free Resources

Links:

• https://rework.withgoogle.com/
• https://jobs.netflix.com/culture

TED Talks

Interactive Tools

Strengths & Talent Assessment

Employee Engagement Tools

Operations & Bottleneck Analysis

Documentaries & Video Content

YouTube Deep Dives

Netflix / Streaming

Case Study Videos

Newsletters

Recommended Podcasts

AI Learning Integration

For Buckingham

"I want to identify my top strengths.
Ask me 10 questions about what energizes me, what I'm good at,
and what activities make time fly.
Then suggest my likely top 3 strengths."

For Theory of Constraints

"I'll describe a process I'm involved in (personal or professional).
Help me identify the bottleneck using Goldratt's 5 Focusing Steps.
Ask clarifying questions, then suggest improvements."

For Netflix Culture

"Apply the 'Keeper Test' to my skills as a [role].
Ask me questions about my performance, then give me honest
feedback about where I need to improve to be indispensable."

Phase 3B Checklist

Week 1

• Read “First, Break All the Rules”
• Took StrengthsFinder assessment (optional but recommended)
• Reviewed the 12 Questions
• Identified top 3 team strengths

Week 2

• Read “Nine Lies About Work”
• Designed a weekly check-in structure
• Practiced attention over feedback
• Started “Work Rules!”

Week 3

• Finished “Work Rules!”
• Read “Powerful”
• Read Netflix Culture Deck
• Explored Google re:Work

Week 4

• Read “The Talent Code”
• Designed development approach for one person

Week 5-6

• Read “The Goal”
• Identified bottlenecks in a process you know
• Applied the 5 Focusing Steps to one constraint
• Reviewed all Phase 3B concepts
• Completed reflection questions

Reflection Questions

1. Apply the 12 Questions to your team or a team you know. Which questions would score lowest?

2. What are YOUR top 3 strengths? How can you use them more? (StrengthsFinder or self-assessment)

3. Apply the “Keeper Test” to yourself: Would your current employer fight to keep you? Why or why not?

4. Design your ideal check-in structure. What questions would you ask? How often?

5. Identify a bottleneck in a system you work with (personal or professional). What would happen if you applied the 5 Focusing Steps?

6. Think about your team or project. What’s the constraint that limits throughput? What’s being wasted on non-bottlenecks?

Connection to Phase 3C

Phase 3B taught you how to manage people. Phase 3C teaches you how to communicate with them effectively - the skill leaders use most.

I'm studying People & Operations (Phase 03B of my MBA program).

Act as a Socratic tutor - don't give me direct answers. Instead, ask me questions to help me discover insights about these concepts: Strengths-Based Management, Employee Engagement, Performance Systems, Theory of Constraints, Culture Building.

Start by asking what I already know about one of these topics, then guide me deeper with follow-up questions. Challenge my assumptions when appropriate.

After each of my responses, either:
1. Ask a deeper follow-up question
2. Point out a gap in my reasoning
3. Connect my answer to another concept

Let's begin.

Quiz me on People & Operations. Ask 10 questions covering: Strengths-Based Management, Employee Engagement, Performance Systems, Theory of Constraints, Culture Building.

Rules:
- Mix question types (multiple choice, short answer, scenario-based)
- Start easier, get progressively harder
- After each answer, tell me if I'm right or wrong and explain why
- Keep a running score
- At the end, summarize what I know well vs. need to review

Ask the first question now.

Help me apply Gallup Q12 Employee Engagement, 4 Keys of Great Managers (Buckingham), Theory of Constraints (Goldratt), Netflix Culture Deck Principles, Google's Hiring Attributes to a real situation in my life or work.

First, ask me to describe a recent challenge or decision I faced.

Then guide me through analyzing it using these frameworks:
- Which framework applies best?
- What would each framework reveal about the situation?
- What would I do differently knowing this?

Don't lecture - ask questions that help me discover the insights myself.

I want to practice case analysis for People & Operations.

Give me a short business scenario (2-3 paragraphs) involving Strengths-Based Management, Employee Engagement, Performance Systems, Theory of Constraints, Culture Building.

Then ask me:
1. What's the core problem?
2. Which frameworks from People & Operations apply?
3. What biases might cloud judgment here?
4. What would you recommend?

After each answer, push back on my reasoning before moving to the next question.

I'm studying People & Operations and need to understand these concepts deeply: Strengths-Based Management, Employee Engagement, Performance Systems, Theory of Constraints, Culture Building.

For each concept, ask me to explain it in simple terms (as if to a child).

If my explanation is unclear or wrong, don't correct me directly. Instead:
1. Ask clarifying questions
2. Give me a scenario that tests my understanding
3. Help me refine my explanation

The Feynman technique says if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.