Ep 225 - Pat Wadors (CHRO, Intuitive) on amplifying the "golden nuggets" of your culture

Check out this week's episode with Pat Wadors, CHRO at Intuitive.

We talked about how to find and amplify the golden nuggets of your culture, the three layers of a great employee experience, why you need to “touch the elephant”, and what kids’ stories can teach us about leadership.

If you don't have time to check it out, read the highlights below. ⬇️

🏆 How to amplify the golden nuggets of your culture

Pat's take on culture work hit home: “Find the gold nuggets that employees trust and feel every day - then amplify them."

Culture isn’t about forcing new values. It’s about identifying what already works and making it stronger.

The trap? Many orgs try to push values that employees don’t see in their daily work.

Example Pat shared: claiming “quality is #1” while having obvious safety issues. That kills trust fast.

Culture work is simple (but not easy):

• Find what actually resonates w/ employees

• Validate it’s real (not just talk)

• Make it work across regions/cultures

• Embed it in every touchpoint (hiring, onboarding, reviews)

Most importantly: Your culture must show up in how work actually gets done. Not just posters on the wall.

📉 Sponsored: Atlassian's state of teams 2025 report

We’ve talked a lot on this show about the future of work.

And one of the moments that’s always stuck with me was something Darren Murph, the former Head of Remote at GitLab, said:

We’ve decoupled business results from place—but the next big unlock is decoupling business results from time.

He called it “time independence.”

And to get there, teams need to completely rethink how work happens.

That’s exactly what Atlassian’s new report, The State of Teams 2025, is all about.

They surveyed 200 Fortune 1000 execs and 12,000 knowledge workers to understand what the highest-performing teams are doing differently.

Spoiler: it’s not about more meetings, more tools, or forcing everyone into one way of working.

It’s about putting a system in place.

One that helps teams align on goals, plan together, and actually use their collective knowledge—so AI can help, instead of overwhelm.

👉 Go read the full State of Teams 2025 Report

🧩 The 3 layers of a great EX: platform, middleware, & innovation

Stop treating your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) like a one-size-fits-all solution.

Pat shared a brilliant framework:

Think of your EVP like a tech stack:

1. Platform Layer (Global Constants)Core valuesBasic benefitsConduct standardsGlobal systems (HCM, Finance)

2. Middleware Layer (Intentional Variations)Sales comp vs non-commission rolesRegional allowances (India vs France)Local cultural adaptations

3. Innovation Layer (Differentiators)Unique benefitsCultural distinctivesEmployer brand elements

She says it’s not about being equal, it’s about being equitable.

Example: Remote work = flexibility BUT you might miss the office picnic. That’s an intentional trade-off, not an inequality.

Too many companies get caught in the “yes, and” trap, trying to give everyone everything. That’s unsustainable.

Be intentional about your stack. Be clear about your trade-offs.

🐘 You can’t fix culture until you "touch the entire elephant”

Most orgs rely on annual surveys for measuring culture.

Pat's approach? Way more sophisticated:

1. External signalsLinkedIn mentions (common adjectives)Glassdoor reviewsSocial sentiment

2. Internal data pointsEmployee journey touchpointsOnboarding feedbackEngagement surveysFocus groups

But here’s the real gold:

Pat shared how when she was at LinkedIn, they had “open, honest, constructive” as a cultural tenant.

When she dug deeper, she found that while ALL leaders did performance reviews with ratings, only ONE actually shared the ratings with employees.

Her response? She literally crossed out that cultural value in front of the leadership team.

Why? Because if you claim a value but don’t live it, you’re creating cultural debt.

The lesson: Culture isn’t what you say, it’s what you DO.

🧱 Sponsored: The best people leaders don’t follow playbooks. They build their own

The best people leaders don’t follow playbooks.

They build their own.

We’ve had a lot of Chief People Officers on the show. And if there’s one thing they have in common?

They run their org their way.

• Crystal Boysen at Sprout Social simplified performance reviews by replacing long-form questions with three clear ratings—then auto-calculating a final score.

• Carmel Galvin at Klaviyo built a custom quality-of-hire framework tailored to each team.

• Jessica Zwaan tracks LTV to ECAC to evaluate every single manager.

These aren’t one-size-fits-all leaders. They’re system builders. Innovators. Change agents.

And they’re exactly the kind of people who wish they had a tool like ChartHop.

ChartHop is a flexible People Ops Platform and HRIS that brings all your people (and business) data into one place.

Customize key processes—headcount planning, compensation, performance, engagement—your way.

No rigid templates. No forced workflows. Just the tools to build what you believe in.

👉 Start running your org your way with ChartHop.

🌱 Advice for someone starting in HR today

"Ask a million questions."

🤔 One thing they'd steal from another company

“I'd go look at the top teams in sports and steal their team building strat."

P.S. We launched MPL Build (with Jessica Zwaan) last week — DIY resources for running your people team like a product team. Become a subscriber to get access to guides, templates, case studies, and exclusive AMAs.

P.P.S. Want hands-on help bringing product principles to life on your people team? Just reply to this message — let’s talk.