Monne Williams

▶0:00HostWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. I'm excited to welcome Monet to the Built by People podcast. Monet, thank you so much for joining us today. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:50GuestHappy to, and glad to be here, Dave. I always describe myself as a people nerd, and I think that that has very much been the through line going back to when I was a kid in school. Through now in my professional life. But I grew up in Virginia, and when I was in high school, I was a good student, so I had lots of cool opportunities to get exposed to different careers and professionals. And one of those things was working at Jefferson Lab, which was for an externship, and it was a national accelerator beam, national beam accelerator facility, mouthful. But while I was working there, I knew that I did not want to be an engineer after being there, but I did meet a great mentor who knew a lot about Duke because he had a nephew going there., and he encouraged me to research the school. I did, uh, ended up at Duke, loved it. Literally life-changing experience for me, helped me get exposed to so many more things. And while I was there, I decided I wanted to work in sports. So, spent some time in NASCAR and then the Red Sox, got to work on some pretty cool things there. And then while I was working there, met some consultants and decided that I probably wanted to go to business school and do that. Got into Harvard for business school, and then when I went out, I joined McKinsey and I spent 11 years there in our people and organization practice. And had a lot of cool opportunities to work on transformations and change and do research and really hone my, my people nerd, nerdom while I was there. And then that landed me at Handshake.

▶2:15HostThanks for the great introduction, Monet, and I appreciate the Massachusetts connection, being a native of Massachusetts and now in Salt Lake City. Just as a follow-on question, I'm curious if there was a key person or moment that shifted your path, and maybe this was you deciding to go into B-school or spending 11 years at McKinsey, transitioning out from consulting to being in-house, what was a major shift for you and what were kind of the influential factors in driving that shift?

▶2:45GuestSince I was a good student in school, I was really pushed to do math and science because I was very much the sign of the times and what everyone was getting encouraged to do. And I was involved in this like mayor's youth commission program in the city I grew up in. And the woman who ran that program looked at me and said, you don't want to work in a lab. And I was really struck by her saying that because after I did I did this internship, I was 1,000% sure I did not want to work in a lab. And I think that was the first time I'd really considered not just the stuff I'm good at at school, but what are the things I enjoy and how do I bring more of those things together to do something that I think would be enjoyable and impactful?

▶3:22HostYou've done a lot of, I would say, high-stake work with really prominent groups and organizations. What was a point in your career where something was at stake personally for you and what did you do in that moment?

▶3:34GuestOne of the things I would go back to is during my time at McKinsey, I was responsible for a part of the organization and we needed to significantly change how we were delivering the work and the training that we had to clients. And one, to make it sustainable and make sure it was cutting edge, but also to think about the cost and like what that would look like over time. And it was high stakes because I was responsible for figuring out what 120 people were going to do for their career and how to do that in response in a responsible and sustainable way and, and make sure that the stuff that we were delivering was still good and clients felt good about it. And so, the first thing I tried to do was listen to all the concerns. Like, I knew the financial concern, but how do I understand the other pieces to the puzzle so that when I'm making that a set of decisions, I really would understand all the different people who were at play and how to make a decision that, you know, I could, I could feel good about and I could explain to people and felt that, you know, it was the right direction for the company.

▶4:33HostWhat's the most meaningful change that you've made in a company that employees still feel today? And how did you make that happen?

▶4:40GuestOne of the things that I'm really proud of is during my time at the Red Sox, um, we were thinking about new revenue streams. And so that predated me, but I came into the company at the moment that that was happening. And one of the ways we thought about that was, of course, like you could have events or you could do festivals, you could do other things at the ballpark. You could sell more things to get more money, but that was a lot of thinking about the same fans and customers that we already had, and I was really bullish on expanding who the customer base was. And so just understanding the demographics of Boston and the area, understanding spending patterns and what the new opportunities were, and really, really encouraging people to think about new, um, aspects of the fan base and new customers that would help us, of course, expand revenue, but really build a stronger connection to the community and people that we wanted to follow us long-term.

▶5:30HostThat sounds like a really major change management initiative that required influencing a lot of executives. I'm curious what resistance was met when you brought up that idea and how you overcame that resistance.

▶5:45GuestI think it was two pieces. One, I was a 22-year-old bringing up this idea, so there's just lack of credibility in some ways that I've never done it before. And two, I probably didn't do a great job of helping people understand why I thought this was a good idea and so connect connected to what we were doing anyway. And I think I just took for granted that the data was so obvious that other people would just understand and like want to do the same thing. And so required me to go back and really say, okay, this is why I believe this is true. Here's what other companies are doing. If we bring in these like most recent data, this is how we can see what the potential opportunity is. And so really being able to bring a much more logical argument to that, to somebody who doesn't necessarily see the problem the same way as me. Which I think helps me a lot in my role at Handshake and working with employers as well.

▶6:35HostWhen have you had to make an unpopular decision for the long-term good of the organization, and how did you bring people along?

▶6:43GuestI think very similar to the, the first example we were talking through when I was at McKinsey, having to make that shift in the organization. And it was unpopular because the people who were currently doing the work didn't believe that there was a problem. And so they weren't necessarily privy to all the other things that were happening or understanding long-term costs and, and that kind of thing. And so trying to help them understand that there was a problem where they didn't believe there was one was the first sort of unpopular thing I had to do because it felt like criticism of what they were doing. And then two, I had to do some things that certainly in the short term for a lot of people did not feel comfortable and created more uncertainty and stress for people. Than it did certainty or being able to know what the future was going to look like. But I do think it was something that had to happen so that we could be positioned to keep doing this work in the long haul, and that those folks would be in a good position to continue to bring their expertise to all of our clients.

▶7:38HostWhat's a leadership move or initiative that you've repeated in more than one company because it just works?

▶7:45GuestI think the most consistent thing, both in my client work and also in all the companies I've worked at, the Red Sox and Handshake included, Thinking about employee resource groups, which I always think are really important and can be helpful to, uh, manage culture and retention and get new ideas into the company. But oftentimes people are in volunteer roles when they're doing that, so they aren't thinking about it from a super strategic or this is how I would do this in a systematic way. And so helping those ERGs really connect what they want to do to the business impact that they want to see. And so sometimes that can feel stifling at the beginning, but long-term, I think it's a better answer because your effort can last longer than you and yourself being in the role, but really have an overall institutional impact.

▶8:31HostSay I'm an HR leader that has a vested interest in setting up ERGs. What's the first step you would recommend I take to try that in my own organization?

▶8:42GuestMaybe a 1A and a 1B, if I could give you a, a more complicated answer. I think the first part is know why you want them. Like, what do you want this to do? And think about that in the setup. And two, don't force fit. You should do it where there is natural employee interest so that you are finding the people who are really interested in being able to carry that out. So, you're not pushing people up a hill, but more enabling them to do the stuff that they wanna do anyway.

▶9:07Host[Speaker:MICHAEL KRIGSMAN] Looking ahead, what do you see as the single biggest shift you think HR leaders need to prepare for? In the next 5 years?

▶9:15GuestSo, I've been talking to lots of employers in my work at Handshake because they're looking for talent and early talent specifically that they need. Students are looking for jobs and trying to make this, this match happen. And there are a few things that I think are challenging them. One is that things feel constantly changing right now. And so, this idea that you could plan for 5 years is a little insane. You still have to do it, but really building in the flexibility and trial into the process and the work that you do so that everything doesn't feel like a a one-way door and you create some two-way doors for yourself and being able to iterate and get better as you learn.

▶9:51HostAnd if you could leave one piece of advice for our community, something you wish you had known earlier in your career, what would it be?

▶9:59GuestPeople generally want to do the right thing, and if they're not doing it, it's probably because you haven't made it easy for them to do it. I think it really goes back to the change management. So, if I want you to do something new, do I— have I told you why I want you to do it? And have I said that in a way that actually resonates with you? Are there role models who are doing the right thing, the senior leaders? Have I made it easy for you to learn the skills that you need to learn? And have I taken away the barriers? Like, am I asking you to act against your own self-interest in some of these cases? And if once I have all of those things in place, I think it's fair to try to encourage people to change. But if you're missing some of those, I think it really is a hard, hard, hard lesson to learn that probably isn't gonna be that effective, and you'll probably have to go back and add those things anyway.

▶10:43HostThank you so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶10:47GuestThank you so much.