I recently viewed a brief video on office culture, “How do CEOs create an ideal work culture? ‘You live it’,” featuring Patty McCord, a coach and consultant to CEOs. Patty worked as the Chief Talent Officer at Netflix for many years where she was charged with “reimagining office culture and disrupting best practices.”
Patty is a bold and inventive leader who has little tolerance for many of the tried and true practices of most office cultures. Here are a few:
Annual Performance Appraisals Don’t Work: McCord thinks they are ridiculous because, well, they start with the word “annual.” Why should anyone have to wait, or want to wait, for an overview of a year’s worth of work? In addition, how do you fit every role into the same format and cycle, and why do we use the stilted language as this process demands?
For those of us who strive for a future-focused office culture, it has little value. Who can remember what they did nine months ago (or cares)? This is compounded by the fact that salaries and bonuses are often mixed-in, even though they frequently have little to do with individual performance.
Solution: Weekly one-on-one meetings with each member of the team in which more than the standard “Where are we on the to do list?” is discussed. This is something that seems so basic, I can’t believe I still have to bring it up. However, I assure you, it is not happening in most office cultures. Performance should be an ongoing discussion and ways of improving are worked out between the leader and the employee on a regular basis. It is also the time to praise.
Like Should Never Hire Like: I can plead innocent to this one because I never hired anyone like myself. Primarily because I have enough quirks that there are few people who think like I do (or want to). But, we have all witnessed these hordes of employees with similar backgrounds, educations, approaches, and perspectives creating a banal office culture. Most people feel comfortable with the known ― so they hire them. Next thing you know your strangled with group think. Everything is going great because all agree and get along. This is not a recipe for creativity and it surely doesn’t protect anyone from the risks blind spots threaten.
Solution: Define your ideal employee (not by demographics but diversity of intellect and creativity) and then ask yourself, “Is that me?” If it is, search through more resumes. In fact, go in the opposite direction and see what you find. This is harder than it seems and has greater rewards than you can imagine (if you want to change the office culture).
Leaders Must Live the Office Culture: As in parenting, people learn how to behave by mimicking the behavior of the people in charge. Don’t expect staff to operate in a collaborative manner when in fact your barely speak to your colleagues in other divisions. If you want employees to be honest with you, you first must be honest, transparent, and truthful with them. If you are bold, they will take risks. If you encourage an office culture that moves fast and makes mistakes, people will try things they feared to explore. Leaders need to walk-the-walk and talk-the-talk, and be at the head of the pack, if they want a high performing cohesive team.
Solution: Imagine the office culture you want or borrow it from a group you admire. Operate as if it were true, today. See who embraces it and who rebels. Get bolder. Be visible. Demand it of other leaders. Focus on excellence and creativity rather than nit picking every detail and never being satisfied. Share data so others know what success looks like and celebrate successes, so they know what it feels like.
If you’re not retaining people or attracting the best, missing the creativity required to keep pace and make an impact, weighed down because your always in the weeds or on the third draft of the fourth amendment to a document no one will ever read, now is the time for radical intervention in your office culture. It starts with you the leader.
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