Let’s Not Do Normal Anymore with Patty McCord, Former Netflix Chief Talent Officer

For years, Patty McCord had been delivering powerful keynote speeches on ways to reinvigorate workplace norms, each time conversing with business leaders who proclaimed they loved her ideas – but they just wouldn’t work with their traditional office dynamics. Then came March 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and those same leaders were forced to adapt to an ever-changing work landscape overnight.

McCord, who spent 14 years as Netflix’s Chief Talent Officer and is the co-creator of the Netflix Culture Deck – a resource businesses utilize daily – appreciates that in a moment of discomfort, these business leaders explored flexibility. The outcome has been one of greater success and a healthier work/life balance for employees.

On this week’s episode of the Start With a Win podcast, McCord joins RE/MAX Holdings CEO Adam Contos to share how businesses and employees can continue to evolve in a mid- and post-COVID world to increase productivity.

“You know the term, ‘the new normal’? Isn’t that an oxymoron? It’s [either] new or it’s normal, so let’s not do normal anymore,” McCord says.

She believes that the pent-up need for change in the structure of business operations has been a long time coming.

“I know people love flexibility,” she says. “And I think that what the pandemic has given to us is a really clear view into effective flexibility.”

She encourages business leaders to pay more attention to results rather than the process along the way. In nearly two years of work-from-home flexibilities for many, goals have still been met – or exceeded – without a manager peering over employees’ shoulders. McCord says this is an opportunity for increasing companywide trust.

“We’re going to slide back into normalcy if we don’t stop and say, ‘What have we learned here? What is working?’ And we can’t decide it just as management,” she warns, encouraging leaders to strengthen relationships with employees and understand how their individual systems and processes for top performance work best.

Tune in to this week’s podcast episode to hear more insight from McCord, who is an in-demand business consultant, executive coach and best-selling author.

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