Former Chief Talent Officer, Netflix
Patty McCord: Biography at a Glance
- Patty McCord is the former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix
- After spending 14 years at Netflix experimenting with new ways to work, Patty now applies Silicon Valley concepts to rethinking the way we work
- From her many years working with companies that range from global tech companies to innovative start-ups, she now challenges norms and invites us to reconsider the idea of “best practices"
- Patty is frequently in the media with interviews and articles from Harvard Business Review, NPR, Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal
Videos
Biography
From her many years working with companies that range from very large global tech companies to small very small innovative start-ups, Patty saw first-hand how companies can become slow and complacent and employees become cynics and whiners. She spent 14 years at Netflix experimenting with new ways to work. Making the Netflix culture deck become reality for the people who work there. From abolishing performance reviews to challenging the need for policies, Patty believes people come to work as fully formed adults with a desire to make an impact and be proud of what they do and she's on a mission to spread the word that we can do this differently. She is frequently in the media with interviews and articles from Harvard Business Review, NPR, Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal. She speaks at CEO Forums, Business schools and for large groups around the world.
Topics
The Future of Work
As our world becomes increasingly dynamic and connected, the classically standard ways in which we work have simply become irrelevant in today’s workforce. Many companies are struggling not only to understand and accept this certainty, but more importantly to identify the key catalysts behind this transformation. Patty McCord explores how demographics, technology and consumer transparency have already changed the way we work, explains why the idea of a “permanent employee” is no longer a realistic prospect, and encourages audiences to look to the future. In this innovative, informative and forward-thinking presentation, McCord emboldens audiences to embrace change and provides critical insight for companies that want to be ahead of the game as the future of work continues to advance.
Reinventing HR
No one in recent history has disrupted the grounds of human resources quite like Patty McCord. In this presentation, McCord engages audiences by delving into the compelling and innovative ideas that made her Netflix slide deck on company culture go viral. She shares thoughts on how to rethink terms like “fired” and “quit” in order to understand the realities of changing jobs in a way that honors service and teaches people to manage their own careers. Her belief is that by thinking like inventors, saying no to “best practices” and aligning what people do to the business and the customers, companies can take the policing out of policy to make work more productive and meaningful.
Diversity and Equality in the Workplace
As the head of Diversity Programs at Sun Microsystems in the early 90’s, Patty McCord held many talks, programs, initiatives and celebrations to promote equality and diversity. Today, gains towards increased diversity and equality in our society have been startlingly lacking. In this presentation, McCord challenges the audience to change their way of thinking about these issues. Sharing data is a start, but there is hard work ahead to achieve real transformation. First, if equal pay is an issue at your company—fix it. Without a correction to current conditions, we are guaranteed to see the same problems lag forever. McCord acknowledges that the three most female-centric departments in companies are Marketing, Human Resources and Finance. She calls on women in leadership positions to ask—how come we haven’t yet fixed equal pay? We OWN it!
Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility
Patty McCord served as chief talent officer of Netflix for 14 years and helped to create the famous Netflix Culture Deck. Since it was first posted on the web, the Deck has been viewed more than 15 million times, and Sheryl Sandberg has said that it may be the most important document ever to come out of Silicon Valley. A veteran of established enterprises and start-ups alike, McCord has vast experience building winning cultures. McCord will discuss how building a culture of freedom and responsibility strips away the constraints that can thwart high-performers so your teams can be lean, nimble, motivated and happy.
