Punk Rock HR 026: HR Can Create a Powerful Culture with Patty McCord
Sometimes we get so bogged down hyper-analyzing the simplest questions, that we miss the obvious answers. “Do you love your job?” Your answer determines whether or not you’ve found the right place to cultivate your ever-evolving career, and it’s time to talk about it. Join our host/resident HR nerd and her guest, the former head of talent at Netflix (back when it was a mail-order DVD company — years before “Netflix and chill”) Patty McCord as they dive deep into understanding the world of work now, its future, and why you have to take charge of your career.
- So, who is Patty McCord and why is she a big deal? For starters, she created the Netflix Culture Deck, which is a PowerPoint deck on culture that went viral years ago and is downright legendary in the business world. She is the HR equivalent of Margaret Mead, with her cultural anthropologist approach to the wonderful (if sometimes nasty) world of work.
- Since leaving to forge her own path in 2012, Patty has been working hard to change the infrastructure of corporate culture at several high-level companies to create the positive change she wanted to see in society.
- Patty is a feminist, thought leader, author, and an advocate of practicing radical honesty to move past the fundamentally broken way we manage people at work. Her book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, which is pretty much the hitchhiker’s guide to understanding Netflix’s work culture has been (as the title suggests) a powerful tool in transforming companies into high performing and high earning organizations.
Laurie and Patty share a conversation full of wisdom bombs — often touching upon the kinds of lessons you probably already know but all too often forget to pay much attention to.
- The way we manage people is an HR nightmare. How are workers even expected to stay and love their jobs when they’re not treated like professionals? Seriously, these folks aren’t children, they deserve a better working environment where they are free to own their career and commit to their work.
- Those times when employees went home saying: “Work was great today!” There is a way to replicate that. It’s called: “Let your professionals do the work they’re GREAT at!” If they’re not doing a great job, then they’re not a good fit, and that’s on you.
- Hiring the right person for the job boils down to finding fully-formed adults. Since the world of work is always changing, you have to get people who are already whole and are ready to evolve with the company.
- What’s the future of work and how does automation fit in all this? Don’t fear the future, don’t fear the unknown. Learn to say, “Things are changing. Is it better? How can we make it better?” There’s always room for improvement and that should be the goal of any scaling company.
The key takeaway from this episode is the more we learn to adapt and grow, the better off we’ll be as employers and employees. There’s really no point in subjecting yourself to the sheer torture of working for an organization that doesn’t treat you right. When you’re not being treated right, then you’re not in the right place. Laurie and Patty are firm believers in owning your career and calling the shots, so get on with it — you’re a professional, own your career.
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Patty McCord
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