Episode 371 — What Every Leader Can Learn From Netflix’s Early Chaos with Patty McCord
What if the best way to build a high-performing team wasn’t through perks or policies, but by telling people the truth?
In this episode of The Game Changing Attorney Podcast, HR consultant, speaker, author, and former Netflix Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord joins Michael Mogill to challenge conventional HR thinking and offer a candid take on what truly drives culture, leadership, and high performance. With decades of experience shaping iconic teams in Silicon Valley, Patty unpacks how honesty, accountability, and experimentation can redefine what it means to build a workplace people are proud to be from, not just at.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Why retention is the wrong metric for building great teams — and what matters instead
- How “telling the truth up front” can eliminate legal issues, improve culture, and drive results
- What it takes to create a company where high performers thrive and mediocrity doesn’t survive
If you’re ready to ditch outdated practices, build a team of adults who own their impact, and lead with context instead of control, this episode is your blueprint.
Listen & Subscribe
Show Notes:
The truth is the best HR strategy. “What I decided to do and what I’ve made my reputation on is telling people the truth when it’s real, and to help them to have great opportunities at great companies and move through their careers.”
Stop measuring what doesn’t matter. “Raise your hand if the most important thing you think about HR metrics is retention. 500 hands went up. I’m like, really? Do you know that’s not true, right? It’s, you know, it’s a lie.”
Culture isn’t created through control. “Every chapter is built on the chapter before… we’re going to have high-performance employees, and then we’re going to have freedom and responsibility, and then we’re going to have, you know, context, not control — all the things build on each other.”
Mediocrity doesn’t scale. “If you have yesterday’s people for tomorrow’s problem, we can always get there. It’s not that they’re bad people, it’s just that they’re the wrong people.”
Connect with Michael
- Text directly at 404-531-7691
