Freedom and structure
DDN has 11 shows with more than 100 million lifetime streams each, led by The Philip DeFranco Show, which has 1.2 billion views. The company continues to broaden its reach and Decker says that’s a result of a culture that gives people the freedom to be creative without the fear of failure.
“The age of holing up in an office by yourself is gone, especially when it comes to this kind of media,” Decker says. “Everybody wants to be together collaborating, talking and having the ability to quickly pop up, ask a question, collaborate and make a decision on something that goes straight to the assembly line.”
Whether you are in the media business or not, you have to create a culture where people feel like they can speak honestly. At the same time, they need to be confident that those speaking to them are being just as honest.
“You’re intellectually honest about what’s working and what’s not working,” Decker says. “That is critical. Once you have that candor and intellectual honesty, you’ve created cultural and institutional trust. That trust simply means that failure is OK. The only way you’re going to take your business down the path of innovation is to take risks.”
That doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all where anybody can do whatever they want. You still need some sense of structure and strategy and goals to work toward.
“That’s the essence of any kind of leadership,” Decker says. “You have to set a very clear goal, especially with a younger workforce. This is where we’re going, so get your team together and figure out how to do it. And here are some tools to help you do it. That’s when you get your best work because they own it.”
The creative dialogue needs to happen out in the open so that everybody can participate, offer their feedback and use their unique knowledge to help your organization arrive at a finished product that fits what your customer is looking for.
“We have a very big audience development team which is conflated with the idea of marketing,” Decker says. “They work very closely all day talking about what we are going to publish or create and how shareable it will be. Will it resonate with our audience? Does it fit with our brand? It’s a constant process.”
It’s a process that needs to involve everyone, not just the top leadership team.
“I always say on my team that every once in a while, make sure you let them see you sweat,” Decker says. “They need to know that you are as engaged with these difficult problems you’re facing as you are asking them to be. We’re all in this together. There isn’t that separation between executive leadership and the factory floor.”
Having fun
In terms of building a team that can thrive in such an environment, Decker feels fortunate that he has a team at DDN that works well together and allows additional personnel to be brought on at a reasonable pace.
“There is rarely a situation where the staffing need is so urgent that we’ll take the first person that shows up,” Decker says. “If that is the case, you have a big weakness in your business that you need to look at. You need to understand who is going to be a cultural fit and who is going to work well in the context of your culture and your business.”
He also feels strongly that great talent needs to come with team-oriented personality or it could spell disaster for your company.
“Tolerating a brilliant jerk will ultimately kill the business in ways that will take a very long time to see and understand,” Decker says.
The media business seems to be in a state of constant transformation these days, says Decker. But the goal going forward remains the same.
“We’re here to create phenomenal content that is transformative in nature and do it in a way that builds a scalable, sustainable business that can be very profitable,” Decker says. “We just have fun.” ●
How to reach: Discovery Digital Networks, discoverydigitalnetworks.com
