Nordic Business Forum 2026 Speaker
Patty McCord
Patty McCord is the author of the book Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, published in 2018 and translated into 12 languages.
She served as Chief Talent Officer of Netflix for fourteen years and helped create the Netflix Culture Deck. Since it was first posted on the web, the Culture Deck has been viewed more than 15 million times, and Sheryl Sandberg has said that it “may be the most important document ever to come out of Silicon Valley.”
Currently, Patty coaches and advises a small group of companies and entrepreneurs on culture and leadership. She also speaks to groups around the world and co-hosts a podcast, TruthWorks.
3 Reasons to Learn from Patty
Rethink Company Culture
As the former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix, Patty co-created its famous Culture Deck, which reshaped how companies think about hiring, performance, and workplace freedom.
Embrace Honesty and Accountability
Patty champions a no-nonsense approach to leadership, where transparency, responsibility, and trust create high-performing teams. Leaders looking to build strong, autonomous cultures will benefit from her insights.
Say Goodbye to Outdated HR Practices
From eliminating traditional performance reviews to rethinking employee perks, Patty challenges conventional wisdom and offers a fresh perspective on building workplaces that attract and retain top talent.
Patty at Nordic Business Forum 2026
A Team, Not a Family
Patty’s session offers a bold rethinking of what it takes to build true collaboration. Drawing from her experience shaping Netflix’s iconic culture, she makes the case for radical honesty, accountability, and trust as everyday behaviors—not buzzwords. Patty challenges traditional HR practices and champions a culture of freedom and responsibility, where high performance is expected and rewarded. She will teach us how to create a team of A-players, where clarity, candor, and mutual respect unlock the collaboration needed to do exceptional work.
Learning points:
- How to implement ‘radical honesty’ as the foundation for a high-performance culture where trust isn’t just a poster on the wall, but a daily practice.
- How to dismantle the traditional HR systems that kill motivation and replace them with a culture of freedom and responsibility that attracts and retains true A-players.
- How to build a ‘team, not a family,’ where every member is a high-performer, enabling the level of trust and collaboration required to achieve extraordinary results.
More from Patty McCord
Read
When it comes to recruiting, motivating, and creating great teams, Patty McCord says most companies have it all wrong. McCord helped create the unique and high-performing culture at Netflix, where she was chief talent officer. In her new book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, she shares what she learned there and elsewhere in Silicon Valley.
Watch
In her own irreverent voice, McCord promotes radical honesty at the workplace, saying good bye if they don’t fit the emerging needs of a company, and motivating employees with challenging work, not promises, crazy perks and, bonus plans. McCord argues that the old standbys of corporate HR departments — annual performance reviews, retention plans, employee empowerment and engagement programs – often end up being a colossal waste of time and resources.
Listen
In this episode, Patty McCord, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix and author of ‘Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility,’ shares her wisdom on fostering a high-performance culture.
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16-17 September 2026 | Messukeskus, Helsinki
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