YouSaid · the spoken record

Patty McCord

lines on the record: 143
first: 2018-01-08
most recent: 2018-01-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I remember an engineer early on when we were 100 people said something like, I don't think management understands that things are really different and they're not like the use. Not”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's not my point. You're crazy. I think, well, a little bit, but not completely. If you start with the business itself, And know that successful businesses evolve. Have”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That you have a lot of people giving each other a pass. You have a lot of no new ideas. And I was talking to someone at Facebook about this and they're like, we've been together 10 years. I forget who it was there. Isn't that great? I'm like, no, that's not great. Maybe it was, but now it's not because they...”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We're here with Patty McCord. She was the former chief talent officer at Netflix. She has a new book called Powerful, which is about building company cultures. Before we get to what this last section, we were talking about what does that. What do you think? Because I do think there are some hardened festals, but not a whole lot, essentially. But one of the things I was thinking about today is cohesion. Of all the companies, I've covered all of them. What they do in, when I think about what they have in common is the cohesion of the staff, even if they don't like each other. Like it doesn't have to be people who like each other. Like Google was a very cohesive, its early stages was a very cohesive group of people. I cannot say they all liked each other. They were rather mean to each other more than most. But it was cohesive as a group of people, which I thought was important. Facebook is absolutely cohesive. And they actually seem to like each other too. It's a real, it's a very cohesive and friendly friend culture. I see a downside to that too, is that when you have a cohesive culture, you have that, oh, we did.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Somebody asked me what time I'd fire you for, and I'm like, oh, good question. They asked me in the interview, and I'm like, Sexual harassment, breaching confidentiality, punching me in the nose. Oh, I know what I'd fire you for. I would fire you if we were in a meeting talking about something that went wrong. And you said, oh, I knew that, but nobody asked me. I'm like, I'd have run you over them. Yeah.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We hear what my mom wants. I think what's interesting about that, some of the other day it's in the journalism, it's like when someone breaks the story, a reporter will always go, oh, I knew that. I'm like a lot of good that does me. What are you telling me you're smart? I think you're an idiot now because you didn't put it on the site. But that's like, it's a very similar thing. I knew that. I was aware of that. Somebody asked.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I just the other day I had a thing like that before because you know it's scale it's a different example especially like Netflix was a great example you know somebody I would sit at tech meetings and they'd be like you know well early adopters I'm like you're all members right”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So many times when we would say, Oh, no, no, we tried that and it didn't work. Somebody new would say, yeah, but it will now. And we realize”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's what it's getting to. And that's a healthy thing, too. To me, that's. But you got to, the other thing that I will say that was fun at Netflix was...”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know what I mean? They like to throw. And it's an early company, you know, it's a very startup phenomenon, you know, startups are all dumb ideas because if they were an obvious idea, somebody else was already doing it. So just by their nature, they're dumb. And how you figure stuff out when you're making stuff up is you just try, you know, your whiteboard's full of like, not that, not that. But if you don't try it, you don't know. Right, that's what I mean.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is that a celebration of mistake? I think what they're trying to communicate is that failure is not, they love that Thomas Edison quote. You know what I mean? They like to throw that back at you. And what's interesting about it is it's like mistakes aren't good. Like they just aren't. But the tolerance of mistakes and then moving from them.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let me just tell you You know, it's just crazy stuff. And so he says, Well, you know, and I'm really good about standing up in the company and telling him when I made a mistake. And I said, okay, that's great. Yeah. But you got to be humble and you have to say, I made a mistake. When I made that decision, here's what I knew. Now that I realized it was a bad decision, here's what I know now that I didn't know then. My mom's friend. I'm Texan. My mama says.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's fucking stupid. That's such a Silicon Valley pit. What? Let me just tell you here, Ricode, we don't like mistakes and people pay the price. They get no hit with a bottle of sticks. You know, it's just crazy stuff. And so he's.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And when you're in management, I consulted to a startup where the CEO said to me, you know, we believe in mistakes like you do. We think mistakes are really important. Every time somebody in my company makes a mistake, I give them a bottle of champagne. Well, that's fucking stupid.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Question one. Question two is way more important. If you're in management, what information would you need to make the right decision about this?”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Problem finders are cheap. You can find one of those every day, and engineers love this. The cynicism of the conspiracy theory management's got their heads up their ass or whatever it is, right? And so you have to teach them how to think about it. Oh, okay. If you're in management, what would you do? Right.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, like if you keep. Know venting to everybody else and not speaking up when a decision is made. Then you're going to have a reputation for somebody who've just complains and has no solution.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, right, 100%. What was interesting, though, is though sometime as a manager, some people, you say it and they still don't listen. Like I had this conversation yesterday about something else and another manager, I was like, well, I don't think you're being clear. I'm like, oh, here, here's the email. It's quite clear. They just don't hear it. You know what I mean? It couldn't be clear. And then they're like, oh, you really did. I'm like, I really did. And it doesn't matter. And then they complain about the thing. It's really fascinating. Well, there's.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Would be in the meeting to say Kara, about your opinion about this that I've been hearing about for six months. You want to tell the rest of the folks what you've been telling me? Yeah.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm like, you don't even open your mouth. And so, guess what? Do not ever tell me you don't get hurt because you don't get hurt if you don't speak”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right, but if I'm talking about This kind of stuff as part of our regular conversation, I can say after the meeting. What the hell went on in there?”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But they don't know how. You know, part of it's all part of a whole system that I'm advocating, right? They don't have that conversation because they don't know how. And the reason they don't know how is that they think that feedback means negative, you know, constructive criticism. And it's hard. And you know why it's hard? Because when you only do it once a year in the annual performance review, What else in your life do you do once a year that you're good at? Nothing”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I wish you didn't have to leave if there's somebody someplace else in the company where your skills are really necessary. But if they're not, then let's figure out a way for you to leverage what you learned here, what you've got here, so you can get a great new job somewhere else, right? And make this contribution at your next level. People never like to have that.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I can come back and say, I've got some news that we need to talk about. I started looking at what we're going to do six months out, and I don't see you in it.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then I go ask, and the person says to me, you know, every six months, you know, she gets her knickers and a wad and she gets yells at me and tells me like I'm not communicating or whatever the hell it is she meets. And she and I cry. And then so she gets all done and then I just go hide. For six months until it happens again. It's been like this for six years.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I would say when you'd come in and say, I've had it with this guy, he's out of here. You know how frustrated I am. I've told him over and over one more time and you're out of here Okay, and I would say great. Why don't you wait here? I'm going to go ask him how he's doing. And you'd be like, well, that one on one was.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so there's a lot of this in my book about how to be respectful and honest and straightforward with people. The two rules I had for termination were you couldn't be surprised and you had to keep your dignity. And so, in the exercise I just gave you”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everything that you've accomplished. Let's figure out how you leverage that, that drive that. For example, early stage startups hire people who don't know much and love building. And some people get addicted to that stuff and do it over and over and over. Right, and I like it. And the issue is that for a lot of products, when you build it.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If you're really successful, some of them might work out, but not everybody. And so that's back to my core of be a great place to be from. Because then I can say Kara, you're amazing. Thank you for.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it's the teams they surround him with themselves with, first of all. I remember Julia Hart like five, six years ago saying to me, are you telling me like what if I put my heart and soul into these people and like seven, eight years later we're successful and they're going to leave me? And I'm like, yeah. You want a whole company full of people who've only ever worked here?”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I can't do this. Like, and he knew it. He was an adult, now unusual. Most of these guys think they can do it and they can't. Like, you don't get a lot of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, really, like that can take it to the next level. They all think they can, even though most of them can't, I would say, or many of them can.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's not the right take. That's often the case I know. I remember thinking of AOL, there were people who survived, there were all these moments of like, it's almost like climbing Everest. The crevass, oh, you're down. You need to be pushed into the crevasse because a lot of the unsuccessful ones is they kept those people and dragged them up the fucking hill. Like I remember thinking this person had the skills to get to here because a lot of it was about owing people and feeling emotionally connected to them and still thanking them still is happening. And some people make it. And it's a really interesting thing, including among CEOs. I remember Piero Midiar when he quit CEOs and he said to me, he's like,”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Who allowed this incompetent behavior? Typically, it's not that somebody suddenly becomes incompetent because you didn't hire them because they were incompetent”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We wouldn't be here today without them. Literally, right? That's why I always tell people when they come into me wanting to say goodbye to somebody and they tell me how much they hate them and how incompetent they are. I'm like, who's the boss”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Now, two things can happen when you look at that. One of them is, well, I already maybe three. I already have somebody who'd be great at this Maybe I don't need to hire somebody new, maybe wow, I don't have anybody on the team that has this experience at all. And not only that, particularly on issues of scale, we've only seen five times this. We need somebody who's seen 500 times. That's a really different person. Or you look at the team and go, oh”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Instead of going those marketing people. What's that behavior, right? What's it look like? And then you drop down and say, okay, in order for that to occur, what would people need to know how to do? I might need to learn. I might need to be able to have an argument and win or an argument and lose, right? I might need to understand cross-functionality better. I might need to be really detail-oriented. How do you find? So then you drop down and say, what kind of skills and experience would it take for somebody to know how to do that in order to accomplish that? And then...”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The task. Not even the task, but more of the What are we trying to solve for? What would be if the world was infinitesimally better in six months? I use a six month time frame because that seems to be reasonable. And the team was just knocking it out of the park and everybody was like standing back like yes. What would that look like And when you start with that and you work your way backwards, I have a very clear methodology six months out. Give me your metrics. Give me all your data. Which you want to get to. You know, what you want to get to, what's going to be different, and then make a movie of it. Are people having knockdown dragout fights and somebody's winning and we're making a decision and we're moving? Or is everybody heads down and working quietly? Or is somebody standing up and going over to marketing going, what the hell?”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And people don't get graded like that. My A player is your D player, right? I mean, you know, I can send you over a qualified software engineer and they're going to do you a damn bit a good, right?”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You put the right people on the right teams that do great stuff that they're really proud of. And because I had recruited, you know, because I had hired so many people, I know that's what makes your career, especially in deck.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What if that was what I wanted to create? I told that to read earlier. I'm like, what if it meant something that you had Netflix on your resume? Like, you know, how you stand back and go, oh, you're at Apple or, oh, you were early Google. Like, what if Netflix was like that? And when I started thinking that could be an operating principle for me. World. So”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that's where happiness. I mean, we can go lots of places with this. I think another thing that changed me profoundly Was when I, partly because of my recruiting background, said, you know what makes, what if we were a great company to be from?”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, you know, you and I've seen this crazy stuff. I'm always like, I wandered around at Bogs when they had liquor in the refrigerator. I'm like, so that's the sexual harassment to come refrigerator.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right when people tell me, how do I have a great culture? And I say, Well, what is it to you? Is it the bartender? Is it the musical instrument corner where everybody jams? I mean, you know, you and I've seen this crazy stuff. You know, they're pouring a mean oaky chardonnay this afternoon. You're going to have to stick around for that. You know, I'm like you. I'm like, it's two o'clock in the afternoon.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When you can be selfless and say, what's going to make me happy? Is that my customer is happy? What's going to make me happy is that my company does well, what's going to make me happy is that I'm proud of the work that I'm doing, then that's a whole different definition of happiness. I'm not saying I haven't had fun at work. I've had plenty of fun at work. I've thrown lots of great parties, usually to celebrate an accomplishment. And so that's where the fun and happy get's like culture.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so that's why the personalities can be different, right? If you think about one of the beautiful things I love about tech and the internet and the world that we're in as opposed to the world I joined, you know, when I was in HR at Sun Microsystem, I had no clue what that stuff was. But internet companies, there's a customer, right? And you're often a customer of your own product. And so that connection between what the work that you do and the people that use the product or service that you provide is very, very close now. And so”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's so many ways to play with this, but I'll If you go to any company and you ask five really successful people in that company about something that they did at work that they're proud of, that was meaningful, that sticks with them, that's going to matter in their career. Always the answer is going to be something hard. Man, we didn't think we could pull that off. And we did. Or like, oh, it was so scary because nobody in the world had ever done that before. And we did. Or we didn't think we had the right person. And the right person showed up with the right. We changed our minds. It's always hard. And I think deeply, I deeply believe this, that what's fun at work is getting great stuff done with a team of people that you respect.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In any case, the slide was what riveted me and the garage door. We started a garage. It was a garage door. I'm like, that's fucking ridiculous. Like, okay, I see you're ridiculous attempted. Being ironic. So we were on the second floor and they said, go down the slide. And I go, no, no, thank you. And they're like, go down the slide. Everybody does. I go, well, I don't. I don't like slides. I never liked them when I was eight. And I'm certainly here at 40. I'm not going to like the slide. I'm not doing your fucking slide. And it became like a thing. Like everyone has fun here. I'm like, I'm not fun. Like, I don't know what to tell you. And it was a really interesting way they were building cultures back then. Like Google had the bouncing balls that you, I'm like, where's a chair? They're like, sit on the ball. And like, I'm not sitting on your exercise ball. Give me a chair. And it was like, it was a constant. It was a really interesting mentality. And parts of me liked that concept of fun. Some of it I liked, some of the freedom I did, but it was almost a lot of it I didn't. A lot of it, I thought, well, this is just ridiculous. This is kind of silly. But what does make a powerful culture? Because everyone, to me, it seems like you should respond to the people you are. So Oracle should be different than...”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, how do you talk about a range of things? So let's talk about what creates a powerful culture and a happy culture, because you obviously want a happy culture. And I agree with you. I think the seven kinds of crappier creates are really indulged teenager, like a toddler almost. Like here, take the sugar, take the sugar, take the sugar. And it also is kind of ridiculous on some level. You know what I mean? I'll never forget going to excite at home. It was exciting at the time, and they had a slide, right? You remember the slides, the whole slide era. I remember.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Right. And the thing about holding people accountable for real world adult behavior is that it's not easy and it's not happy.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You say goodbye. Yeah, right. You said you're leaving for a bartender? Yeah. Okay. So, but to counter the everybody's happy all the time.”
2018-01-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Patty McCord author of "Powerful" · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT