Innovator, culture and leadership consultant, and former Netflix Chief Talent Officer
North America
Patty McCord, former Netflix Chief Talent Officer, coaches and advises companies and entrepreneurs on culture and leadership. The Principal of Patty McCord Consulting has many years of experience working with business leaders and aspiring management, helping them realise and practice leadership. As an innovative businessperson, she pushes the boundaries regarding how we think about the way we work.
Her twelve years at Netflix saw Patty McCord, together with the company’s management team, help create the Netflix Culture Deck. Once posted on the Web, the presentation took on a life of its own. The presentation, to date, has received over 5 million views. Essentially, as someone in charge of operations, it meant she was involved in the creating and eliminating of patterns, systems, and structure so that the end document resulted in certain behaviours and operating modes.
Her time with Netflix, as well that with Pure Atria Software before that, also saw her participate in the Initial Public Offering (IPO). During her career, Patty McCord has gained experience in working with small startups as well as large corporations. Her working background has included such diverse areas as staffing, diversity, communications, and international human resources.
Patty McCord is the author of the bestseller ‘Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility Hardcover’. The Washington Post named the book “one of the 11 Leadership Books to Read in 2018 when it comes to recruiting, motivating, and creating great teams”.
As a keynote speaker, Patty McCord, with her diverse business background, focuses on topics about the future of work, workplace diversity, equality, and human resources. She lives in the USA and presents in English.
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
“Patty McCord’s compelling account of the culture that made Netflix succeed should be required reading for everyone who wants their business to thrive in the 21st century.”
“Patty deserves a lot of credit for shaping the culture of freedom and responsibility at Netflix. She is very perceptive and has an amazing ability to assess people’s motivation and their ability to collaborate with each other, and was critical in hiring, firing and promotion decisions. She is great at looking at an org structure or a complex cross-functional project and quickly detecting and helping resolve inefficiencies, weak points and communication problems. Patty was especially helpful at mentoring engineering managers on how to build effective teams and be decisive in addressing tough problems, whatever they might be. I learned a lot from Patty during the time we worked together, and often think about “what would Patty recommend here?” whenever facing a complex situation.”
“One of the most important ingredients in the success of any company is it's culture - and woe be to they who think a company culture develops of it's own accord. With that in mind, Patty is the most talented architects of company culture I've ever encountered. Her skills run the entire continuum from how to recruit and hire the very best people, how to ensure they fit, how to coach individuals to be better managers, and how to manage the hundreds of small touches that definitively shape what it feels like to work at a company. I would fight like a cornered dog to get Patty involved with any company that I was involved with.”
“Patty is an excellent partner to any organization. She has a gift for spotting talent and she instills the values that define a culture. She can cogently structure any team to ensure it clicks as a whole while also allowing each member to thrive individually. I benefited greatly from her listening skills and her ability to poke & prod to surface underlying issues.”
“Netflix culture is widely recognized as one of the most innovative, productive and successful cultures in Silicon Valley, and Patty is one of the principal architects of that culture. Under Patty's careful guidance, Netflix grew from a few key players to a large, capable organization with a stunning density of talent. Patty was a key player in recruiting talent, evolving stock and compensation packages and, most importantly, creating a fantastic place for amazing people to work. Patty is dynamic, intelligent, perceptive, action-oriented and passionate and would be an invaluable addition to any organization.”
“I've known Patty for over 12 years while she worked as she lead HR for Netflix. I find Patty's insight into HR issues and her acumen for understanding the business to be outstanding. I see her as a thought leader in executive leadership and always think of her as doing leading edge HR work.”
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