Former Netflix Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord on how to fix your company

Former Netflix Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord on how to fix your companyFormer Netflix Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord on how to fix your companyCorporate America is known for specific kinds of standards, practices, and initiatives,but one person has thrown how organizations commonly operate today under the microscope.Along with CEO Reed Hastings, former Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord helped develop the Netflix Culture Deck - a manifesto which helped define the culture and values of the company - whichmade wavesthrough Silicon Valley.It may well be the most important document ever to come out of the Valley, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg reportedly told GQ in an interview.The original presentation racked up more than 17 million views since it was first published in 2009, and was updated in June 2017.On the heels of the release ofher new book, POWERFULBuilding a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility,McCordspoke withLadders Newsabout what she learned during her 14 years at Netf lix.In the first of two parts, McCord discussescorporations and what they can doto evolve.On typical corporate standards and conventionsIts elend just that we call them standards, we refer to them as best practices in our organizations and what Im challenging is, Really? Says who? Looks a lot like were just copying each other to me.Lets say I want a process that gives people feedback because I think itll make them perform better. So we come up with the annual performance review and thats the best we could do? Really? Its elend so much as I turn things on their head or recommend radically different stuff, mostly just that we just throw it away because it doesnt work anymore.On workplace feedback and annual performance reviews I learned a lot, Ive been taking a lot of cues from professional sports coaches that Ive been speaking with recently and if you talk to them about how they get performance from their teams theres a rhythm of giving feedback that is absolutely geared at optimal performance for every member of the team.So I dont really care what system you use, but I do know that you cant get very good at anything that you only do once a year. Im not wed to any particular rhythm but it needs to be more than once a year. It probably needs to be in the moment.The most effective feedback is positive and in the moment. I mean catching people doing things right, encouraging them when youve asked them to do something hard that theyve actually tried and helped/succeeded at. Its that constant working together to make us a better team.On expectations of employeesIf you expect excellence, you might get it even from mediocre performers. But if you expect mediocrity thats the best youre gonna get.On one hand, were supposed to be the group that makes everybody happy, you know, the happiness polizze we want everyone to be engaged. And engaged, happy employees make better products, or so we say, we dont prove that, but we say that.And on the other hand, weve gotta protec t the company from the evil employees that might sue us - so which one are they? And its not true that companies with lots of perks and happiness dont result in bad behavior, as weve certainly seen lately.On engagement, empowerment and millennialsIve seen plenty of engaged employees at work, but theyre not engaged because theyre rewarded with perks and parties. Theyre engaged because theyre working on stuff thats interesting to them, with other smart people, that makes a difference. Thats what engagement really is.Empowerment is not something you give people, you empower people by giving them a lot of context and holding them responsible for the decisions they make and the impact that they have. That would be way more helpful than any class on empowering people.Ive just never been a fan of putting people in those big buckets, anyway, because theyre too simple. And not broad enough. I mean, the idea that millennials dont want to work hard is ridiculous.On how employees should be tre ated like adults at workOne of the biggest things that slow companies down is people having to ask for permission or get approval to do something when they know its the right thing to do - when theyre making a good judgment call and they understand.When we ask people to ask for permission for things they can logically figure out then we say, We cant trust you. In doing those things, were like, You cant make the best decisions, and thats pretty childish if you think about it. yet, how being an adult is not just about reaching a certain ageIn America you have to be 18 to work. You should be pretty far along on that maturity curve. What I mean by maturity and what I mean by adult is not age. I know really mature 25-year-olds, and I know really immature 45-year-olds. So, by adult, I mean, taking responsibility, following through on your commitments, informing other people - you know, the things that grown-ups do.On how technology keeps changing, just as companies should tooI think i ts important to understand how were different than millenials, you know? We hold in our hands the same computational power as I used to have on my desk. The idea that we call it a phone and we take pictures, send email, do text - basically, its what used to be a laptop computer that I now hold in my hand. It changes the way we all live and work, and I dont think technology tethers us to our jobs, I think it frees us.Thats kind of the point of why I wrote the whole book I thought, You know, really, were all doing things the same way we did in 1980? Every couple of decades, we really should rethink this stuff.On how older companies can begin to peel away at the status quoI think that one of the think one of the things that larger, more established companies, do is a matter of habit. Everything has to be a huge corporate initiative. They strive for consistency in these big rollouts. And I think what they can at least try is Take a little corner of the company, or a particular organiz ation, and strip away some of the stuff from them, and see if it yields better performance. I think weve learned now, that not everything has to be done the same way across the world with 100,000 employees.On the biggest fallacy regarding company managementThe misconception that managers have all the power. That theyre psychic, and theyre gonna make the right decisions for you, and they own your future. They dont. We gotta stop telling ourselves that lie because it hasnt been true for a really long time and its not true now, and its definitely not gonna be true in the future. This is a journey, you gotta embrace it, enjoy it.