Name: Conversations with CHROs: Teulia Hanson of LinkedIn in conversation with Katarina Berg of Spotify
Uploaded: 2025-07-21T18:53:39.000Z
Duration: 15 min 1 s
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Hi, I'm Twila Hanson, Chief People Officer at LinkedIn.

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And today I'm joined by Katerina Berg, CHRO at Spotify, to gain some really valuable insights on how, Katerina, you're thinking about HR during this really important time of change.

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What's something you wish people knew about the CHRO job?

How complex it is and how exciting, challenging and fun it is.

And that for anybody that has kind of a mindset that you want to learn and come to work and learn new things every day, it's, I think, one of the best jobs you could have.

I think people don't know what we do and how much of the 50-50 of actually having business acumen and also HR acumen and how fulfilling that is.

I would love if you could share, like, what do you find fun about the CHRO job?

That I come to work and I plan to do something and it happens to be 100% totally different.

And if you are a controlling person or if you enjoy to follow plans, I think you can get anxiety easier.

But for a person that wants to constantly stay passionate, curious and learn new things about people, the business, where we're going, org design, whatever it is that will actually pivot the company forward is what I love with that work, that you never know, but you could also trust what you do know.

Is there anything specific in regards to the culture of Spotify where you could pinpoint, like, this is what we do, this is why we're able to sort of think about talent, talent movement, our internal marketplaces in a way that feels really modern and edgy when you still hear, you know, several CHROs talk about how managers hoard talent, you know, they sort of discourage people on their teams, especially the good ones, from going and seeking other opportunities.

So is there anything special about your culture that you think like, you know, this is a reason why we're able to do it?

I think collaboration is one of the things that we have cracked in the country of Sweden because otherwise we wouldn't be able to compete.

We need to learn faster than the world is changing, and then trying to bring people on the narrative.

So we usually use Nietzsche a bit internally, where we say, hey, you might not like the change or the decision or the new policy or whatever it could be, but what we promise you, because change is changing or change is the only constant, it is that we will explain to you, you will understand why we're doing it.

So we owe it to you to talk about the narrative.

It's Spotify's talent, and the talent will leave the company to go somewhere else because, you know, the walls and the floor and the ceiling was becoming a bit narrow.

So trying to make sure that that internal mobility, together with something that we said from the get-go, we believe in homegrown, and we're going to recruit from within.

Doesn't mean that we don't need to add a system or bring in a specific kind of knowledge or skill set, but we want to do that.

It keeps, you know, the institutional knowledge going.

It also makes us move much, much, much faster, and slow is as, you know, fast is as slow as we will move.

At LinkedIn, we identified two core skills that we want across the organization, like in order for us to build more acumen, it's really important that we focus on agility, right?

Like everybody just understand that there are going to be those moments where we have to pivot.

The other skill that we want to make sure that, you know, we're all building across the organization, no surprise, is incorporating Gen AI in the flow of work.

So those are the two focus areas, at least from a talent perspective, that we are supporting and providing resources across the organization.

Is there one or two at Spotify that you're really focused on?

I think being such a young company, I think the agility and being digital was kind of from birth.

So I would, you know, plus one on the agility, even if we don't talk about it that way.

But I think we talk more about being able to adopt and stay curious because it's helping you.

I mean, if you're curious, I think you will be more tolerant.

If you're tolerant, again, you're more curious about everything that has to do with new technology, new people, people that are different than you are.

So I think, you know, adaptability and curiosity are two things that are important to us.

You've been with Spotify for 11 years now.

I'm sure a lot about Spotify has changed over the years.

When we talk about change and change management, in addition to everything that's changing, I also think it's really important to talk about what's staying the same.

As a really grounding conversation and for employees to understand, you know, in light of adopting new technology, does that mean we're thinking about our customers in a different way or our culture and values?

What types of conversations I expect from my manager?

So we also like to, you know, make sure that we're bookending, change conversations with what's staying the same.

Would love to hear from you about what's staying the same at Spotify.

We have something that we call our culture manifesto, which is the band manifesto.

We happen to think of ourselves as a band, having that first trial music.

So everything that kind of sums up our culture is put into that band manifesto, who we are, who we want to be, what are the set of rules or whatever you would like to call them.

That is, I think, the constant very much.

But putting that into place is very much about the foundation, which is the values.

And here it's been important to us to give everybody in the company a voice and asking them three very simple and naive questions.

What's important for you to thrive or grow here?

What's important for you to have fun when you come to work?

Because we think you learn more when you have fun and you also become very good at the things that you enjoy to do.

And the third thing, obviously, because it's a business, what's important so you can do a good job?

So that is becoming kind of a contract between all of us.

And the values have now survived so many of those kind of pressure tests.

But the definition as the culture evolves has changed a bit, right?

But it's also important for us to pressure test every time we have intradays.

Because if you only cling on, you say to everybody that is new that our people is not our culture and culture is not our people.

So you want them to also feel that your voice matters and you are important and welcome to whatever this is called Spotify.

But you also want to say to the people that's been there for a long time that we're not going to just throw everything out and whatever you did does not matter for us either.

So it's been very intentional how we build our culture, how we make sure that everybody has a voice and also how we make sure that we evolve but not too fast.

It's the really important tenant in design thinking to first go into a situation and to be just an observer and learn, understand, watch intently before you come up with any new ideas.

So I love that you're applying those core design principles into what it means to join and to stay at Spotify.

So one thing that I know that we share in addition to our job title is that we both share a passion for fostering a culture of belonging.

What does a culture of belonging mean to you and what are some of the things you do at Spotify to really make sure that everyone feels as though they belong?

So I think one of the things that we decided from early, early stage on diversity inclusion belonging or diversity equity inclusion belonging is that obviously what you measure is going to be done.

So diversity matters and it's important to get the numbers right.

So how do we crack the code of becoming an inclusive and a truly inclusive organization?

But another way to describe it to you, we stole with pride Vernet's kind of description of diversity is when you get invited to the party and inclusion is when you are being asked to dance.

Then we added, because we're a music company, belonging is when they play your song.

So the feeling that we all want to like, I'm here, I have arrived.

But I also feel very confident and also it's very, you know, nice to be part of this organization.

So we work very much with inclusion and belonging.

Do I think you have to be very intentional with this work?

Do, is, you know, is patience my Olympic discipline?

And if it wasn't, I think, you know, societies and countries and the world would look different.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Conversations with CHROs: Teulia Hanson of LinkedIn in conversation with Katarina Berg of Spotify

specific

absolutely

constant

adrenaline