Most companies treat OKRs like a necessary evil. Gerlinde Boback treats them like a stage—where real people, real ingenuity, and real stories move the company forward.

In this episode, she breaks down how to turn “boring processes” into shared narratives that teams actually want to rally around.

From cross-cultural leadership to building “baby values,” navigating layoffs with humanity, and choosing challenge over compensation—this conversation is a reminder that scaling is about people long before it’s about process.

Episode Breakdown

• 00:00 – Why storytelling makes OKRs actually work
• 02:56 – Why spreadsheets aren’t the problem—communication is
• 04:22 – Getting non-storytellers to tell powerful stories
• 05:42 – A clash between engineer + PM that turned into a breakthrough
• 07:47 – The gift of seeing different realities inside one team
• 09:06 – What being a “professional foreigner” teaches leaders
• 11:23 – What great HR leaders understand that others miss
• 13:30 – When founders challenge HR (and why that’s good)
• 16:56 – Coaching founders through their first reduction-in-force
• 19:14 – Worst practices during layoffs
• 20:14 – Building an alumni network after tough moments
• 21:56 – Why people matter differently in scale-ups
• 22:46 – Purpose-driven hires vs. corporate hires
• 24:35 – Burnout, passion, and work-life reality in tech
• 25:56 – How engineers chose “kindness” as a core value
• 28:13 – Building a job-description wizard with AI in 90 minutes
• 32:16 – Volunteering with unhoused jobseekers (and what resilience really looks like)
• 35:22 – Growing up between worlds
• 41:17 – The first person who truly needed her help
• 42:11 – How a boss changed her entire career trajectory
• 43:51 – What her younger self would think of who she became
• 45:21 – Where to find Gerlinde + roles Vyntra is hiring for
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Building culture isn’t about adding more processes—it’s about adding more meaning. If this episode helped you rethink how you lead, communicate, or scale, share it with someone shaping a team of their own.

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