Powerful

Turns an abstract subject like culture building into concrete steps. Culture is how strategy gets executed. Strongly recommend that you read it

I really liked this book - a lot! Most of the 'building teams' books are about communication, empathy, culture and so on. While Patty does cover all of these - she is also brutally honest about the realities of running a business. For instance, she says that 'We don't consider our employees as family but more like a sports team'. A sports team is always bringing in new talent and culling team mates who can't keep up! It's so rare to read a sentence like this in a book about building a culture. I also really liked her take on cultural artifacts (you know - the kegs, massages, etc.) and how they don't make employees work harder or be more committed to the organization. The only reason I didn't give a 5 star is that most of the book is about Netflix - granted a great organization but right way to build a team is so contextual that lessons from Netflix or other start ups (which are inherently disruptive - and so have a compelling vision) may not be applicable to other industries or companies. But a great read nevertheless.

Good read for organisations that need some direction to set their culture and values

Good book to read and understand the mind of radical transformation leader in a company like netflix.

Refreshing view on how to build team, culture and the business. Lot of things will be different and difficult to follow as they question the traditional way

A Good book with lots of things to learn in phases

Great read on Netflix culture

Wonderful book with lots of pictures and questions

Na minha de Organização Exponencial e Reinventando as Organizações, esse é um livro indispensável para o gestor do século XXI, independente se trabalha em uma startup ou não. O modelo Netflix de gestão de pessoas é validado e pode ser adaptado em várias esferas.

La cultura corporativa de Neflix es de las más importantes de Silicon Valley y posiblemente del mundo, su "culture deck" tiene miles de descargas, con una premisa en realidad muy simple: la empresa como equipo de élite. En el Culture Deck y en diferentes artículos de google se profundiza en esto, pero aquí McCord, la autora intelectual del tema (junto a Reed Hastings) profundiza un poco más en sus métodos y visiones. Es tan simple de entender que asusta, el caso es saber llevarlo a cabo

The foundation of a great business book is a great story and boy does Patty McCord have a great story. She joined Netflix right at the start, carpooled into work with the CEO each day and spent 14 years pioneering a radically performance focused HR approach. What makes her journey especially exciting and valuable is that her experience at Netflix isn’t just a reaction to the unique circumstances Netflix was in - pioneering a new market and a new technology- its the fact that McCord and CEO Reed Hastings set out from the start to build a company based on a different approach to people. So this isn’t the Netflix story told from a people and HR perspective, the Netflix story was always going to be told from a people and HR perspective, that’s what makes what happened at Netflix so valuable as a case study for everyone else. McCord and Hastings had worked together before and had noticed that as companies grow and startups become scale ups, something bad happens. The talent density tends to drop. The ratio of super top high performers becomes less. It’s something I’ve personally seen and heard of a hundred times. It’s what is behind the constant warnings to entrepreneurs “Watch your culture as you grow”. These warnings are made with good intention, but they are ultimately useless as they come with no guidance as to what to do, how to “watch your culture” and what practically to do to keep that fast growing, autonomous startup mindset as you grow to hundreds or thousands of employees. Powerful is that guidance, it’s the manual. With several decades of work in the Valley, Patty has developed a love for working with software engineers and that influence means she applies a product manager’s approach to HR. She has a goal of operating with minimal process and constantly tests eliminating procedures. But she does this in an agile way, like a good product manager would. She sets a low bar for people process innovation - “Is it safe to test?”, rather than “will this work”. If it is safe let’s change the process (commonly “lets remove the process) and see. If it turns out he policy was needed just re-instate it. There are some things in the book that can only work in the Valley, in that unique place where VC cash at times is plentiful and the oversupply of jobs to talent distorts things like no where else on Earth. It’s easy to focus on these things, like “constantly ask your staff to interview elsewhere and see what they are worth” and dismiss the book as not practical to your situation or industry. But that would be a tragedy because the vast majority of the learnings and advice in this book are applicable to so many businesses and organisations. The new employee college, teaching every single person how to read the P&L, tacking everyone how the company makes money, teaching everyone the key projects and key performance indicators for each department, communicating to everyone constantly what the 5 big challenges are the company is faced with, encouraging a practice of constant, respectful, radical honesty and feedback, understanding that great jobs are challenging jobs where great things get done, accepting that perks and food are at best peripheral decoration and the core thing you need at work is amazing people to work with and a great challenge to overcome - these are the central tenants of Powerful and they are applicable to any business, anywhere. Powerful is beautifully written and Patty has an engaging, irreverent style. I flipped between the Kindle version and the audio book and can heartedly recommend both, sometimes its great to hear Patty’s voice and emphasis in the material. Powerful is a fantastic read for managers, leaders, CEO’s, HR people - anyone at any level who cares about business and people and wants to help the people they work with do their best work.

Excellent read for people looking for new ways to work with people. Loved how stories from the author are weaves into the book.

Good book esp for a new HR perspective.