Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Building Culture in the Age of AI with Meghan Focht
8 Plays17 days ago
In this episode of Behind the Build, Curtis Forbes sits down with Meghan Focht, Human Capital Director at Concurrency, to explore the intersection of people, culture, and technology. With over 15 years of HR leadership across industries, Meghan shares candid insights on guiding organizations through digital transformation, from embracing AI tools to managing cultural resistance and fostering psychological safety. She unpacks how leaders can empower employees, build trust, and drive adoption while keeping human connection at the center of work. If you’re curious about the future of HR, organizational change, and the skills tomorrow’s leaders need most, this conversation is packed with perspective and practical takeaways.
About Meghan:
Meghan Focht is the Human Capital Director at Concurrency and has over 15 years of HR experience. With experience in Education, manufacturing, hospitality, and IT, Meghan has experience in various areas of HR and across multiple industries. Meghan is married to her husband Brian. She has 3 kids: John, Kate, and Jane, and a 12-year-old chocolate lab, Clarence.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build
00:00:06
Speaker
This is Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build, where we speak with the people building, backing, and running better workplaces. I'm your host, Curtis Forbes, and welcome to today's
Meet Megan Foch: HR Expertise and Personal Background
00:00:17
Speaker
Fireside Chat. My guest today is Megan Foch.
00:00:21
Speaker
Megan Foch is Human Capital Director at Concurrency and has over 15 years of HR experience. With experience in education, manufacturing, hospitality, and IT, Megan has experience in various areas of HR and across multiple industries.
00:00:40
Speaker
ah Megan is married to her husband, Brian. She has three kids, John, Kate, and Jane, and a 12-year-old chocolate lab, Clarence. Wow, 12. welcome to Behind the Build.
00:00:54
Speaker
Happy to have you here, Megan. Yeah, thank you. I'm excited to be here. So um splitting time between concurrency and a lot of family time and dog time. Hopefully I'm a dog person.
00:01:06
Speaker
Yes.
Concurrency's Unique Position in Tech and Culture
00:01:08
Speaker
but But I'm excited for this conversation ah because your role at concurrency has you pretty uniquely positioned at this intersection intersection of tech and people.
00:01:21
Speaker
Mm-hmm. You get insights into what builds culture and drives engagement and impacts interpersonal relationships um from what you see in so many organizations. So to set the stage for the rest of our conversation, what does Concurrency do?
00:01:40
Speaker
Yeah. So Concurrency is an IT t consulting company. We partner with Microsoft and ServiceNow products mostly. um And our main objective is to help our clients do business better, you know reinvent how work gets done with technology.
00:01:58
Speaker
um So we're really trying to create long term partnerships with our clients to say, OK, where are your biggest pain points? How can technology help you solve that? So in some cases, it's creating savings by just having more efficient processes.
00:02:14
Speaker
Sometimes it's creating whole new revenue streams for them. um using technology. So yeah, it's it's pretty exciting because we sometimes what we're doing for our clients hasn't been done before.
00:02:26
Speaker
um and a lot of times we go in there and they're asking for one thing, um but just through understanding you know what they're looking for, we can help them realize something that's possible that they may have never even known. So yeah, so yes so we're we're, like you said, really greatly positioned to understand like the tech and the people side um And we're recognized as a partner, ah you know, have partner awards through Microsoft Ed ServiceNow, which is really a great place to be.
00:02:57
Speaker
I love that. Do you feel that there's like an area of specialty when it comes to this kind of consulting?
AI, IoT, and M&A Specializations at Concurrency
00:03:04
Speaker
um you know Is it with a specific kind of you know of tech, vertical SaaS, any kind of specific area of the consulting where your customers tend to need you most or that you have people on your team that have specific experience in certain areas?
00:03:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we've been doing AI since it's been more extremely popular in the last few years, um you know, creating IoT solutions and apps and and that sort of thing, working with data models.
00:03:36
Speaker
um We also have a really strong team helping with M&As. um And so we found a lot of success there as well. um But really taking your your Microsoft tools and ServiceNow tools and making sure you're optimizing them in in the best way possible. So we we do have teams in multiple different areas, but those have been some areas where we've seen a lot of success.
00:04:01
Speaker
So, you know, when it comes to, i guess, some of these different technological areas, like AI, like apps, right, that you you talked about, um does concurrency actually also build them or just provide the the consult and direction for the organization to then go get it built?
00:04:23
Speaker
Yeah, so we can build them. We have had moments where um we help train the team, um but we probably work best when we can create the solution for you. So we're a great supplement when You want to take on these big projects that aren't going to be long term. And so you don't want to build your internal team for it.
00:04:45
Speaker
um And we can go and get it done with our expertise. And then we try to also always make sure that our clients can maintain the solutions that we bring to them.
00:04:56
Speaker
um But we've, you know, we're pretty flexible too with our clients when it makes sense. Um, that's really interesting. So tell me a little bit about concurrency's clients, like who are they? We don't have to use, a you know, specific names, but tell me a little bit about who they are.
00:05:13
Speaker
What are the challenges that they face when they actually come to you? Yeah.
Success with SMBs: Strategic Integration
00:05:18
Speaker
So I think we have probably the biggest success in small, medium businesses. Um, we have some clients that are a lot larger as well.
00:05:27
Speaker
um But we have helped manufacturing, FinServe, retail. um And then our best clients are the ones that are bringing us into the strategy.
00:05:38
Speaker
piece of it. So we don't just want to be the one and done. We want to really understand your tech strategy or business strategy um and then find the solution. So, for instance, we had one client who had a pain, just a lot of invoices coming in for AR and or AP rather, and they needed to make sure, OK, do we have them all?
00:06:01
Speaker
Are they matching properly? We were able to funnel them all into one system where instead of that person having to go through each invoice and like making sure we have everything that we need, they now will have a system that does most of that. And then they only have to touch the ones that are showing errors.
00:06:18
Speaker
um So that's an example. We have another client that we're starting to work with that um has, you know, trucks that come in and, they have to be filled. But sometimes if there's one thing that's wrong with the truck, they're not able to do that. So now we're using a visual model to create sort of an alert so that that that doesn't happen anymore.
00:06:39
Speaker
um And they won't fill the trucks unless um they're kind of given the green light. So a lot of different solutions. And then obviously the M&A is pretty straightforward and in what that is.
00:06:50
Speaker
um But yes, it's fun to hear those stories and um and have our technical leaders kind of go in there and be like, hey, we can solve for that, you know. And there's a lot of times we go in there and the pain that they're sharing.
00:07:03
Speaker
um isn't really going to be worth their money. And we really pride ourselves too on being able to say that um and just be really truthful and transparent through that process as well.
Transition from HR to Client-Facing Roles
00:07:17
Speaker
That's such a wide scope. I mean, for everything from building an application and helping an organization build a new revenue stream to M&A. I mean, you're like not the same thing.
00:07:32
Speaker
And yet, you know, having sort of that, the ability on your team to stretch, you know, so far is um is pretty remarkable. So tell me about your role there.
00:07:43
Speaker
Do you get hands on with the clients? um I'm starting to a little bit more. um But for the last six years, I have been more in the behind the scenes.
00:07:54
Speaker
We're a company that grew really fast and then um had some harder times and had to kind of reorganize. So from and HR, human capital perspective, we had a lot of work to do internally to get ourselves um prepared for our next growth spurt.
00:08:09
Speaker
But now what we're finding is that a lot of our clients, when we go in there to do these technology projects, they have a lot of misalignment within their company. So while one department head or stakeholder saying this is what we need,
00:08:24
Speaker
um The people who we're working with to make it happen sometimes aren't always understanding it or are resistant, especially in the case of M&A. um But now as technology ah advances, there's no department that can really escape it, right? So there's there's not really going to be that accounting or HR people with their stacks of paperwork um anymore. It just doesn't make sense. So we're finding that our clients need a lot more help, right?
00:08:51
Speaker
driving that org change management, protecting that culture through the process, or they may have to change their culture. You know, they may have had a culture that was really, um hey, this is how we do it. And we've done it this way for a really long time.
00:09:05
Speaker
And now we're kind of pushing on them to change a little faster. um And it's causing challenge. So we're finding, okay, you're paying us to do this, but We want you to see the value. Some of these other things are going to have to come along with it, as well as just offering some staff og to our to our more see like dedicated clients to say, hey, we're here for you as partners.
00:09:30
Speaker
If you just need a bridge right now with a person to get you through that, let's do that, too. So so that's where I've been coming in a little bit more to help our clients and and talk through that.
00:09:42
Speaker
Very cool. Um, can really understand how, you know, there might be a lot of misalignment when really big projects like that seem to not, I think not carry everyone along with, um, you know, the, the wave, so to speak. So what kind of people problems, um,
00:10:04
Speaker
would some of these clients typically have or maybe just businesses in
Empowering Employees with AI Tools
00:10:08
Speaker
general? oh but kind of see the conversation going in a little bit in that direction, especially when you talk about change management and where y'all have a role in, you know, effectively influencing this culture organization-wide. who Yeah, I think right now, um A lot of things. like We have now all these tools that everyone has access to, right? like i I could just go on to chat GPT, whether or not my company says it's okay or not.
00:10:36
Speaker
And I'm now asking that questions, whether it's to say, okay, I got to build this training, give me an outline I can i can work with. Or you know if you haven't integrated within your company's tools, it's a lot at a lot of people's fingertips that aren't usually used to using technology in that way. So there is this um need now to make sure, hey does everyone know how to use this? Are we getting the most value out of it?
00:11:05
Speaker
um Is there training that has to happen? Are there tasks now that don't need to be done or can be automated? Right. And so there is this it's touching just more people. So where you might have an IT department that goes, oh, this is really cool.
00:11:21
Speaker
I can program this for myself to do this. Now you have a whole company of people who are like, i don't really know what to do with this. So we're finding that um a big moment of opportunity to empower people.
00:11:34
Speaker
um Our owner, Jim Savage, just sent me an article um I think either today or yesterday, but it was about um how like 63% of the workforce or or something like that feel like they're not utilized to their best ability. And so I think that's a great example too of, okay, I'm moving these processes, I'm doing this routine work, um but I have ideas and I have creativity and I wanna make decisions, but I don't know if I can. And so I also think there's that that exists.
00:12:07
Speaker
um with just an opportunity to help people really make a difference and feel like, OK, I can do everything that I can do. I think the other thing that exists makes that more of a stressor is that people can freelance now more than ever. Right. I could go off on my own and say, hey, I'm going to go consult or I'm going to do these little projects on my own. And so if I'm not being utilized in a big company, what's keeping me there?
00:12:34
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. like Do you feel like, you know, when you introduce this, we'll call it enablement because I think you use that word and I think that's a really good one.
00:12:47
Speaker
When you introduce this into an an organization, ah do you find that it's, do you find any pushback by leadership who haven't traditionally had that be part of their culture or is it adopted pretty, you know, readily?
00:13:04
Speaker
Well, humans. stu that I imagined I might get that. Right. I can think back even, you know technology aside. My first job out of college was to ah manage a front desk at a rec center at a university.
00:13:24
Speaker
And when I got there, i i had come from University of Minnesota where I was a student and I was helping run hiring and training and doing kind of all these things, um thanks to my leader who empowered us to do that.
00:13:38
Speaker
And so I came over, freshly graduated, and realized that the supervisors at that place were not allowed to do any of that. Right. And so I was like, well, we got to change that. And I got sort of the pushback like, oh, no, you can't trust them to do that. And i'm like, well, I am them a couple months ago.
00:13:58
Speaker
Yes, you can. um I also recognize that between the different departments, there was a lot of um pushback and just the relationships weren't really good and they didn't quite understand each other. So me as a newly graduated person who is a total nerd for this was like, oh, this is like a culture change experiment, if you will.
00:14:21
Speaker
um And so even at that time, you could see the resistance and sort of the mistrust that might exist. And um I think in any of those situations, it's just about helping people understand, you know, it's like, okay, now I'm going to take my front desk supervisor and have them also supervise in the fitness department. And then we're going to run these trainings and we're going to start to do this, right? And understand that change takes time.
00:14:45
Speaker
And we did it here at Concurrency too, and and still kind of working through that. So it's, you know, you've really got to make sure those communication paths are clear, that there's a great way to get information up to the top and that um the leaders are really receiving it and and trying to understand it.
00:15:03
Speaker
At concurrency, we've used just a lot of phrases like, you know, assume positive intent. You know, what what would that feel like if if we assume positive intent, right? When we're resistant and kind of going, oh, okay, maybe I wouldn't, you know, think that they're trying to break me down, right? Maybe I would think, oh, they really want this place to be better and now I'll receive what their feedback is.
00:15:25
Speaker
And then the classic, I think it's Brene Brown, Clever, Clear is kind and feedback is a gift, um which is all sort of cliche, but they're really great ah phrases to use to just ground people um when defensiveness starts to come up. um but Yeah, so that's sort of some examples that I've seen. It's it's definitely challenging, but um it takes time, but it's possible.
00:15:54
Speaker
You know, I think that in a, in a hierarchical setting, um you know, people don't want to feel, they, they, they want to feel um and like like you said, utilized. They want to feel comfortable. They want to feel useful in their, their space, you know, within whatever, you know, domain authority that they have there and not feel undermined.
00:16:18
Speaker
And, you know, Feedback is a gift, right? um but But sometimes if things are unclear where it's coming from, why it's coming from, how it's coming from, all those kinds of things, you know, like, I mean, like you started off, we're human beings, right? So sometimes as much as we want to always assume positive intent, you know, depending on what the culture of the organization or what those relationships are like between the people, maybe it's not it's not always safe to do that, right? That's the other thing is
00:16:50
Speaker
is sort of the buzzword of psychological safety, which um is actually really hard to create in reality, right? Like you you really have to have a humble leader who's willing to say, you know, we're not leaving this room till someone tells me what I need to be better at, right? like I've hired you for this.
00:17:12
Speaker
Like we're not, we're not leaving until everyone has an opinion or, um, let me get curious about the feedback that I'm getting. and And it can take a lot of time too, for people to believe that, um, we've come a long way. Like I said, I think everything that I'm talking about, we've lived through as a company too, which, you know, I think helps our clients when we can tell them that as well.
00:17:35
Speaker
Um, But it does take a long time. and And people come into the organization with their own sort of workplace trauma of being like, yeah, that's what the last place said. And then I shared my opinion and i got in trouble. right So it's interesting to see people come in and us just saying, hey, we have an executive team.
00:17:55
Speaker
ah We're not better or higher than you. We just have a different role in this organization. We're not smarter than you. like We need your feedback to help guide this company because we're all in this together.
00:18:07
Speaker
um If you think that we're doing a horrible job, like we need to hear it. um And it takes people a minute before they're like, I don't want to step on people's toes and We're like, please step on the toes.
00:18:19
Speaker
Step on the toes. We'll tell you if it go if it went too far. But they don't believe you. yeah it's it's one of the it's It's one of the really challenging ah things when it comes to even building really effective pulse surveys. Because you know while they're useful and they have a place,
00:18:43
Speaker
um You know, typically in a lot of organizations, you know, folks want to fill these out so that they are seen in the best light of the people who will be reviewing them.
00:18:55
Speaker
And even if they're supposedly anonymous, you know, or. Or they they are so busy and don't want to be spending time with it, they just click through it as fast as they can to get to the end, right? So how authentic are a lot of these out answers?
00:19:10
Speaker
um But I want to ask you about AI. um Very much a hot topic right now. How do you see the companies beginning to adapt AI when it
AI in HR: Benefits and Concerns
00:19:20
Speaker
comes to their people? You mentioned it was something that you're getting asked about a lot.
00:19:23
Speaker
You're having to address it a lot. You have a team that has a lot of experience around that. Are they doing it right? what What is right? yeah Yeah, that's a great question. I don't think i I have the answer to that, but we're seeing sort of the first early adoption is really let's get that handbook and the benefit information into loaded into our chatbot and sort of create this first place for our employees to go to get quick answers where they don't have to feel like they're bothering anybody, because even though i don't feel like they're bothering me, everyone always says that, right? Like, oh i don't want bother you for this silly question.
00:19:58
Speaker
um So that's sort of the first adoption that we're seeing um that feels like the safest move, I think, probably for companies. um But in a bigger scale, really looking at the workflow, you know, there's another company that we're talking to and just like,
00:20:16
Speaker
you know, how ah how to use AI like we're still we still have a lot of emails being sent and status updates and even which team works best together. Right. Like how do we just we have information out there and how do we compile it in a way that we can understand it better?
00:20:34
Speaker
um And so just trying to help people through that those solutions. Sometimes right now an agent, like just helping them create agents um to go through the data using CoPilot Studio is sort of the first step to be like, okay, let's take all the data sources that you have.
00:20:52
Speaker
Let's tie it into CoPilot. um Let's figure out the questions you want answered. um And then, you know, that also feeds into like our data team to say, also, does your data need cleanup? Right? Like, do you need a really good baseline um before we even go in there? Or another client who has a lot of systems doing many different things, um do we need to streamline those first?
00:21:17
Speaker
Do you really need that many? um Are they all talking to each other? um So I think just looking at that, that's going to change people's jobs. It's hopefully... What I think it's going to do is take probably the most frustrating part of people's jobs and put it in a nice, clean, organized bow. A little bit easier, right? Because then I'm not sitting there doing a repetitive task. I'm not searching for data. I'm not...
00:21:42
Speaker
banging my head against the wall because this is taking longer than it needs to or I don't have the information that I need. Now I've got it at my fingertips and now all those cool creative ideas I have now i actually feel possible because I've just freed up a bunch of time and a bunch of like just emotional energy.
00:22:01
Speaker
You know, that's a whole other conversation on burnout that some of this stuff can drive that we can solve for now with AI. I can ah can definitely see that scenario where businesses will come to you and say, you know, I want to start using AI. I know it saves time.
00:22:20
Speaker
I know it will, you know, i can 10X my output. I know it can do x Y, and c but also not know what exactly they want to use it for to solve, right? And so that would then...
00:22:35
Speaker
require right a lot of you know pretty deep evaluation into processes and systems where you find the where those bottlenecks exist to be able to then, like you said, find ways to or create agents right to help solve those problems in ways that they really didn't know um how exactly they wanted to to fit it other than they just wanted to it exists. So let's use it. that's right You feel like you're missing it.
00:23:03
Speaker
Do you think the workforce is embracing AI overall? Do you think that today's workers, not just the organizations, but do you feel like the workers really feel like it's benefiting them on the job? Gosh, you know, I don't have any stats on this, but I i have to say it's both. Like you see those employees that are so eager, right, that are putting stuff on their own. um But we still run into people who are like, you know, don't trust AI, AI is a fad or, you know, all these things, which I think their concerns are really valid, right? Like the things we have to solve for, the conversation about
00:23:36
Speaker
um security and kind of protecting your data. And, you know, is your employee, if you don't have co-pilot in your environment, is your employee going and using the public co-pilot and loading a bunch of documents in there? Right. So I think the people who are resistant against it probably have some really good points. And and in some cases we need to explore it and have answers for it.
00:24:01
Speaker
Right. um But it's such a new thing. So a new thing. So Yeah. it As leaders implement AI, you know, or I guess to some degree also just, you know new tech solutions.
00:24:16
Speaker
I'm curious, you know, and obviously more anecdotally, there might not be statistics on this, but like, how does this impact the people in their organizations as a whole? Because I'm guessing that like these big changes, right? They impact the culture.
00:24:29
Speaker
they caught They can cause some major friction. There might be a lot of people feel feeling like as we introduce AI, My job might be on the chopping block. right So how do you guide them through that?
00:24:42
Speaker
You're working with the people, right? You're now consulting with them and happy helping ah you know develop that culture or be that change agent. How do you guide the workers through all of this and ensure them that you know everything's going to be okay? Or is it sometimes not?
00:25:01
Speaker
Well, I think there's always those moments where it it won't be right. And I think that's also super individual because it depends on what you want to do and what your perspective is. So like there's always that possibility that the the outcome is not going to be what you want.
00:25:17
Speaker
um But I think the key is for the leaders to get really clear on where do you want to go and why are you doing this? So we have another client who's saying, hey, we have an opportunity to grow.
00:25:30
Speaker
um exponentially in the next couple of years. We just don't want to add people as fast as we probably would have had to in the past. We want to keep everyone that we have. We love them.
00:25:43
Speaker
We have such a strong culture and great tenure, but we just want to make your job better and then also be able to add and grow without that. So um Being clear about that, I think, is the most important thing. And sometimes it can be overwhelming for leaders to be like, well, I kind of feel like we have to do it or we're going to be left behind. And I don't know yet what it means for my workers. Right. So how do you lead to that ambiguity?
00:26:09
Speaker
um And so it's it's balancing that transparency without people feeling like, you know, they don't know what's happening, um which isn't an easy answer. I think it's very unique per company, but I think getting answers to those questions like, you know, why why do you feel like you need this?
00:26:27
Speaker
What do you think it's going to solve for the organization? What's your culture today? do you think it's still going to be that in the future? or Do we need to add a new value? Do we need to think about how we train towards that?
00:26:39
Speaker
um That's going to help all of it. And then just really, even with our technologists, when we hear um employees that are clients struggling with something, you know, how do we connect those dots for them? So it truly is a team effort across the board.
00:26:55
Speaker
um And it's interesting, too, because I think there was a point in technology consulting where, hey, I've done we've done this 100 times and now we're doing it for you. But technology is advanced so fast that sometimes we're doing stuff for the first time or we're doing something uniquely different for this client than we've done in the past, too.
00:27:15
Speaker
um which is a challenge as well, because we really have to navigate that with the client. There's a lot more conversating that we have to do with our client throughout the process. It's not just here's the agreement, sign it, let's go. um We're finding we have to do a lot more sort of baselining, like, is this still what you need or hit the features we were going to build out are now baked into the tool in this like next update, right?
00:27:40
Speaker
Which has happened like now, what do we do with it? um So yeah, I don't know if that totally answers your question, but I think it's it's a couple different things you have to consider navigating.
00:27:52
Speaker
Yeah. so So, well, you did bring up a lot. Yes, in answer to the question. You brought up a lot of more stuff, though, that I really want to touch on. And I'm kind of curious.
00:28:03
Speaker
How you see, you know, one of your examples about maybe bringing people on more slowly about retaining those that we have, right? About utilizing AI in a way that can make everybody here more productive without needing to scale our headcount so quickly.
00:28:17
Speaker
How do you see it changing the role of HR, right? As technology evolves, do you see the perception of HR changing in organizations?
00:28:30
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I always think of the perception of HR. I'm like, still feel like I'm battling the Toby from the office effect. like that That is the visual I had in my head. Like, come on, I'm cooler than you think.
00:28:42
Speaker
um But I think especially through COVID and now through this time, HR is needing to understand the business. Like if you're truly going to be a successful HR leader,
00:28:53
Speaker
it isn't just going through checklists and and compliance and all those different things. um It is thinking more broader about organizational adoption and what's the company doing and how do we make sure that at the speed that change is happening, our employees feel on the journey and can operate um at their best. So I definitely see that changing. I also think um a lot of times as HR professionals, it's like,
00:29:21
Speaker
There's not enough time in the day and there's not enough of us for the company to accomplish everything that we want to um Being able to have these tools like Copilot, being able to go and say, OK, I want to create a manager training. Can you give me an outline? OK, can you add a couple of bullets there?
00:29:37
Speaker
um Can you help me? Like, here are some articles I want to include for it. OK, can you build me a PowerPoint? Like, holy cow, now I can actually accomplish things at the level that I wanted to that I couldn't before.
00:29:49
Speaker
The other thing I'm seeing with my team too, with CoPilot, is their ability to um ask leadership questions. you know I'm going into a difficult conversation.
00:30:01
Speaker
I can't be there for them all the time for every employee conversation. um So knowing that they're going in there and saying, hey, I'm going to have this tough conversation.
00:30:12
Speaker
Here's what it is. Here's what I'm worried about. These are the challenges. um help me create a framework of how to approach this. Now they have that coach right at their fingertips. And I would say most of the time they're going to get really valuable feedback for them to just get in the right state of mind.
00:30:29
Speaker
We're also seeing our managers use CoPilot um for performance reviews or for performance conversations. Hey, can you go and look back at my chats, my notes on this employee, our email interactions, and create for me a list of areas that this employee needs to work on and what they're really great at. And it will go through and say, well, you complimented them for this or here's some of the things that you've done. So if you do those really great email follow ups from conversations, um you're going to get a really good base to work off of for that conversation and um and not just that recency bias. So I do think it's going to enhance our ability to make a difference at the org um a lot faster than it did before.
00:31:14
Speaker
what What kinds of tech, and maybe Copilot is one of them, i mean but i'm I'm curious what kinds of tech you're seeing is most valuable within this changing world of work. Are there things that the clients are looking for or that you wish that they were looking for? Gosh, good yeah, right now I feel like Copilot for me has been such a cool eye-opening tool.
00:31:37
Speaker
Yeah, because it just bridges so much together. And I think that it has um been the base of a lot of great output and and really helping us use data um that it has been that has existed that we haven't really been able to bring together as easily. That's cool. So, yeah, I mean, I think there's enough to explore in that alone.
00:32:03
Speaker
so So I think. You know, one thing i'll I'll ask, I know that, you know, monitoring, um measuring, you know, super important in all areas of business. We're all about data here at Mustard Hub.
00:32:15
Speaker
um It's easier than ever with all of this new, you know, technology with Copilot. um What are some of the kinds of people signals that you feel business leaders should be monitoring?
Virtual Engagement and Leadership Advice
00:32:29
Speaker
mean, when it comes to the data around people, team engagement, workplace, happiness, culture, do you think that organizations you know are more or less monitoring the right things? What are they? Gosh, it's a good question. I don't think they're probably monitoring all the right things. um And i think we are seeing a shift even just culturally from employees you know, not just feeling dedicated to, a company and maybe feeling a little bit more like, Hey company, you're lucky to have me. What are you doing to keep me?
00:33:02
Speaker
um which is a big shift, right? Because now I have so many more things I could do either um my own or more flexible or, or just companies that are out there, even when the market is a little bit more employee, uh, employer friendly.
00:33:18
Speaker
um But I think for me, you know, that engagement survey is always going to be really important to any kind of pulse surveys. I also think, especially in the hybrid remote world, um really getting with our managers and tracking, like, how are you creating some of these in-person moments virtually? You know, it takes a lot more work.
00:33:40
Speaker
yeah How are you figuring out that water cooler moment? Right. Like, how is the person from this department running into this person from this department and talking about their projects and being like, oh my gosh, you're doing that? Did you know this? Right.
00:33:56
Speaker
And creating those relationships. So, you know, maybe monitoring some of those activities that um break down silos, you know, would be one. um And I guess, too, you could probably track just how much people are using these tools.
00:34:14
Speaker
um And that's been a conversation even with us is like, okay, how is everyone everyone using AI? um And even in our last all company meeting, you know people throwing in the chat, hey, I'm doing this, I'm i'm using this tool, I'm using Scribe to get my SOPs done, um which is a big project for us right now is refreshing all of those.
00:34:34
Speaker
um So yeah, maybe it's also just about adoption of those and and collaboration. But I do think we we need to have a moment of, How are we coming back together? You know, COVID put everyone remote for the most part.
00:34:49
Speaker
Um, people got really comfortable there, but I think people don't always realize how much we need other people and how much we need even those casual interactions, even the stranger at the grocery store, even the acquaintance or the coworker, it just shakes us out of whatever is in our head.
00:35:06
Speaker
um and helps us see just some of the nice moments too. You know, obviously there's frustrating ones, but, but I do think we need a moment to like come back and, and bump into each other a little bit more and and find an inspiration where we wouldn't have normally found it.
00:35:22
Speaker
So I think we've effectively identified, right, some of the things that leaders need to be need to be doing, need to be monitoring. I 100% agree with you. And as things shift towards this hyper-technological state, I think the idea of in-person sort of this relational activity is going to be more important than it ever has been.
00:35:44
Speaker
um You know, simply because i think it's just going to... just further this insular feeling that we can when we're working remotely, you know, by ourselves on our own projects, because all of a sudden now we can produce 10 to 20 times what we normally would have. And there's no need for teams, right. to Stay engaged within the organization, you know, this, this need for, you know, either in-person activities or creating those water cooler moments virtually is going to be more important than ever.
00:36:20
Speaker
So we've identified now together what we need to be monitoring or thinking about. The question would be, how do they get better with Are there best practices that should be employed? Any technologies you can recommend?
00:36:34
Speaker
Any recommendations here for what the leaders can think about on how they actually go about making these changes? that's pressure. um yeah I do. I think... um You know, for me, how do we approach it?
00:36:46
Speaker
I try to look at, okay, um what first of all, what is our culture? What do we want it to be? and And for us, you know, we're probably never going to have like a you need to be in the office this many days.
00:36:57
Speaker
um We are a lot more inclined to say, you know, be be an adult, like do what's going to be the best for you. um but can we have clients in the office more often? Can we you know do an employee lunch? like Can we have reasons that people come in and and feel value there?
00:37:14
Speaker
um So then when we look at that, okay, what's our culture? What are the things we need them to do? um Then you I think you always have to have a structure and a process that supports that, right? You can't um just throw the posters on the wall or send it in an email and think it's going to happen. So um for us, it's There's check-ins that we do quarterly. And so there's a personal engagement form that asks you to rank um what's most what aspect of your job is most important to you, work-life balance, rewards, company policy, people, the work you do, opportunities, and then rate it.
00:37:50
Speaker
How satisfied are you with that? That's a great tool that helps the conversation um from the employee to the manager and helps the employee understand You know, if I'm in a funk, why am I in a funk?
00:38:01
Speaker
Or if I really like it here, why do I like it here? Now I have some of the words to share with my manager. um And then also trying to understand those um connection spots. Like we realized that um we had our technical skill sets really siloed.
00:38:19
Speaker
They weren't working together. They were kind of in their own little bubble. um So now we have a meeting that is all of our architects from all different tech areas.
00:38:29
Speaker
coming together, talking through, okay, is there a process that needs to change? How are we approaching projects? How can we learn from each other? um We had even just our stories, like our success stories. We got really far away from anyone knowing what they were. Okay, so now we're going to put them in the all-company meeting. And then do we need sort of a a separate showcase?
00:38:51
Speaker
um Even our journey of all-company meeting, we used to kind of put all the pressure on that meeting to give everyone the information that they needed. And obviously that's not going to work.
00:39:03
Speaker
People need to like hear things at least seven times and probably multiple different ways before it's ever going to register. um Myself included, even though I always wish to be better than that, I'm not.
00:39:15
Speaker
um And so then we had to really strategically say, okay, now managers, even though we presented this information, you need to bring it back up in your next team meeting because they're digesting it. They are going to have questions they don't want to ask in a big forum.
00:39:29
Speaker
And then, hey, executive member that's tied to that team, you're going to show up to that meeting too, and you're going to give them as much transparent insight. um And then how is you the HR team, the human capital team coming in and checking in with these people, kind of giving them another place? So You really have to break it down and say, cool that this is your value.
00:39:49
Speaker
But what are you actually doing to support that, recognize it, um help people understand it? um You know, you said something early on here this at this, you know, when you were just talking um here about.
00:40:04
Speaker
um You know, really about about focusing on outcomes, right? I forget your your words exactly, but, you know, we have teams that are remote, right? We don't need to be telling everybody, you have to be in the the office this amount of time, right? But if we can to make an effort to do some of these things, you know, that would be great to create more of these interpersonal um moments. but But ultimately, right, decisions get based on a lot of outcomes. At the same time, we coach the process.
00:40:34
Speaker
um It's something I think a lot about you know when I think about leading teams in that you know when it when when we think about teams, right? When we think about teams from from sports to work, right?
00:40:46
Speaker
um We like to think about you know day by day, you know focusing on the process, you know winning the moment, you know winning the the the play or the day or the project or whatever that thing happens to be at that moment, right?
00:41:01
Speaker
um because the process is ultimately right what's going to lead to victory at the end of the day. ah But it is that outcome at the end of the day that will ultimately then influence the decisions that we make.
00:41:13
Speaker
um So we coach the process. and decisions are influenced by outcomes, um which is a lot of what I i kind of hear and why 100%, you know, can can totally get behind that. So while we look towards the future, what, I mean, do you see people-related insight, people-centric skill, a competency that maybe tomorrow's leaders will have to develop in order to thrive, you know, possibly even more than one?
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a great question. um I do think that empathy and sort of emotional intelligence will be probably even more important.
00:41:55
Speaker
um And I think that because ai and technology, I don't think they're, good it's not going to be able to solve for that. And humans are so complex. And I i am not a neuroscience scientist, obviously.
00:42:10
Speaker
But I have enough experience with myself and now raising children and helping professionals that our brain has such a tendency to create stories that often aren't true.
00:42:21
Speaker
um And I feel like the further you are from human interaction, the more the brain really takes sort of a creative license. Yeah, get disconnected from reality. Yeah, and that could be, oh, I'm the best ever, right? And I haven't had a chance to be humbled.
00:42:37
Speaker
um Or it could be everyone hates me, no one thinks I'm smart, sort of that imposter syndrome. They're going to figure it out. And so I do think leaders more than ever are going to have to spend more time helping people sort of out of that reality and and make those connections and maybe have um more intentionality towards relationship creation.
00:42:59
Speaker
um I think too about the interns these days, right? Like you could learn so much by bringing coffee into the conference room and kind of hearing what's happening and sort of being in that office space and just happening upon a conversation between employees.
00:43:15
Speaker
um And even some of the tasks you do, they'd they'd be really um rudimentary and data focused. But while you did those tasks, you were learning so much.
00:43:26
Speaker
um So I also think just the way that we learn and and how fast we learn, we're going to need to continue to look at that and figure that out. And it's not just going to be, Hey, use co-pilot as your mentor and use that LMS for all your training. um But we will have to think more thoughtfully about that. So I think that self-awareness and that emotional intelligence and really helping people guide through that is going to be a skillset that's still going to be needed.
00:43:54
Speaker
so to entrepreneur comes to you, asks you for your single most important piece of advice about what they can do better as a leader, you know, when it comes to the people they work with, right?
00:44:09
Speaker
You're, you're, you're on the elevator. You're almost at the top floor. You just got a minute before they, they hike on out of there. What is it that you're going to tell them? Hire people smarter than you and ask for feedback constantly. Right.
00:44:23
Speaker
I would be hitting my emoji right now with thumbs up if I could do that. Yeah, just don't get too into yourself. Because I think the reality too is um no one knows what they're doing.
00:44:37
Speaker
Nobody knows. Even the most successful people and probably the most successful people don't know what they're doing. They're trying things. They are trying things. They're failing.
00:44:48
Speaker
They're registering why I failed. They're going back. They're um looking for feedback. They're surrounding themselves with great people. They're trusting their gut. um And I think that's something that I have to be reminded of too. like It's not like someone's done this before in this moment with everything happening in the world today.
00:45:07
Speaker
no one' Everyone's figuring it out. And I think we're really lucky at Concurrency. We have one single owner who is such an entrepreneur brain, very creative, very bold, doesn't necessarily want to do it like everybody else. And so we have the license at Concurrency to say, hey, this is what our clients are needing. This is what we want to do. Let's go do it. Let's try it.
00:45:30
Speaker
And then we have a boss and our COO who um who is that person who says, you know, I'm hiring someone who can say, hold my beer in this in this area of expertise. Right. Like I've hired you to tell me what needs to be done.
00:45:44
Speaker
or to hold me accountable or to challenge me, I work for you. um And the combination of those two leaders has really set the stage for concurrency, to be creative, to pivot with the org, to pivot with our clients.
00:45:57
Speaker
And I just think that reminder of like, you know, no one has it figured out. Yeah. Like we we got this. I i couldn't agree more.
00:46:09
Speaker
I couldn't agree more. I mean, failure is feedback. And um that's, a you know, that's what it is. I feel like we keep that mindset. You know, everybody's going to be pushing each other forward. But I love that.
00:46:21
Speaker
Megan, this has been amazing. this ah This was great. Thank you so much for joining me today. Well, I really appreciate it. Definitely got me thinking on some of these questions. I don't always like to try to predict the future, but it's inevitable that we have to think about it.
00:46:35
Speaker
You know, well, I want to thank everybody for tuning into Mustard Hub Voices behind the build. Please like and share this episode. ah Subscribe so you don't miss the next one.
00:46:46
Speaker
And be sure to visit mustardhub.com to learn about how we help companies become destinations for workplace happiness and turn culture into a competitive edge. Until next time.