Announcing Greenhouse Open 2018 keynote speaker, Patty McCord

4 mins, 5 secs read time

Preparations for OPEN 2018 have been underway for months, and it's exciting to see so many important thinkers and doers in Talent join our speaker line-up.

I'm thrilled to announce that Patty McCord, former Netflix Chief Talent Officer and the author of the new book “Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility” (out today!) will take the stage as a keynote speaker at OPEN 2018.

Patty brings decades of expertise in the recruiting, culture and talent fields, and is recognized globally for her radical candor and the impact she’s had on how companies think about culture. She inspired a workplace movement when she co-authored the famous Netflix Culture Deck with Reed Hastings, which has more than 17 million views on Slideshare and is a continuous source of inspiration to talent professionals around the world.

On April 3, McCord will be taking the OPEN stage to share her brilliance in recruiting and creating great teams, and her energy for helping companies build cultures of high performance and profitability.

We had a chance to sit down with Patty ahead of her book release to hear what she thinks is most important for readers to take away from Powerful. We also got the scoop on what she’s most excited to see at OPEN this spring.

Heads up! The first 500 registered OPEN attendees will receive a free copy of Powerful, and gain exclusive access to backstage book-signing with Patty McCord on April 3 (Hint: there are about 200 books left! Register soon to get your copy.)

Greenhouse: Let's start fun and easy. What was your first job and how did you get it?

Patty McCord: I did filing in a used car lot in the summer. The sales guys wore polyester suits and white shoes and belts. Total sexists. I followed up by working in a lumber mill in Oregon. Proving to myself that I could do a man's job... and realizing I didn't want to.

GH: Your book “Powerful" just came out today. Congrats! What’s the single most important message that you want readers to take away from it?

PM: The way we work, what we call "best practices,” is not conducive with our current reality or the future. We don't need empowerment. We need folks with the power to make things happen. Including their own careers.

GH: You’ve had such an amazing and highly visible career in the talent and culture space. What advice do you have for people who want to follow in your footsteps?

PM: Be part of the business. Understand what your organization is attempting to do and who/what it affects (be it customer, student, non-profit). Realize that building (and dismantling, when necessary), is a really important job.

GH: The future of work preoccupies us all as talent professionals. This year, OPEN is all about imagining a new hiring reality. What does that look like in your mind? How will hiring and company culture progress and turn things upside down in 5 years? In 20 years?

PM: It's all here in my recent interview for the Harvard Business Review IdeaCast podcast.

When asked during her HBR interview about the right way for managers and HR to partner together, Patty responded saying:

“Well, they should be in touch with each other all the time, whether they have an open position or not. And HR’s job is to really understand the teams of people that they’re supporting: what do they do; what they look like; who do they talk to; what do they think about; what are they trying to accomplish; where do they hang out. The HR people should be able to speak the language of the teams that they’re supporting. And so, when they feel like they’re part of the team, then they know what’s coming up in front of them, and they start thinking about, Wow, where are those great people going to be? How am I going to find them? How are we going to put together create a network so that when we really need somebody we already have a pool to pull from—we’re not just starting cold every single hire?”

GH: What are you most excited about for OPEN 2018?

PM: Starting a revolution. Making a difference.

Along with Patty, more than 100 speakers and innovators will be taking the OPEN stage from some of the biggest brands in the world.

You can look forward to hearing from:

• Sjoerd Gehring, global VP of talent acquisition, Johnson & Johnson
• Neil Frye, head of global HR, Dropbox
• Ilona Jurkiewicz, VP Talent,Thomson Reuters
• Derek Baltuskonis, Director of Talent Acquisition, Intuit

You can still score 50% off the regular ticket price of $1,295 by registering before January 31st.

Join Patty and over 1,000 of your fellow talent leaders at OPEN 2018, April 2-4 at Pier 60 in NYC. Head to GreenhouseOPEN.com and reserve your spot today!