AltHR Hive | The Shift

Everyone's heard of neurodiversity by now. Almost nobody's asking what happens on a Tuesday morning when someone's just trying to get their work done.

In this episode of The Shift, we sit down with Shawn Utterback, founder of NeuroTalent Connect, to talk about why so many workplace "performance problems" are actually design problems — and why building for clarity ends up working better for everyone, not just neurodivergent employees.

We get into:

• Why "culture fit" is really just comfort and conformity in disguise — and what changes when companies hire for culture add instead
• The DEI committee conversation nobody thought to have — and why it became one of the most-attended sessions his last company ever ran
• Masking, and the hidden cost of spending your energy decoding the workplace instead of doing the work
• The curb-cut effect — why captions, ramps, and clear documentation weren't built for everyone, but end up helping everyone anyway
• AI as a two-edged sword: it can shrink cognitive friction, or just help bad workplace design move faster
• Building Workplace by Design, his in-beta "People OS" — and why he shipped a rough version instead of waiting six months for a perfect one

Because you can't hire for cognitive diversity and then manage for conformity. Fix the system. Don't fix the person.

Connect with Shawn:

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnutterback/

NeuroTalent Connect — https://www.neurotalentconnect.com/

Everyone’s talking about burnout. Almost nobody’s asking what it actually costs to keep leading through it.

In this episode of The Shift, we sit down with Christy Honeycutt, executive coach and author of The Inner Work of Leading in a Broken System, to talk about what it takes to lead with your spirit intact inside systems that were never built for it.

We get into:

• Her throughline; and how she fell into recruitment almost by accident, to two decades leading talent at IBM and Korn Ferry
• The health scare that forced her to choose between her job and her life
• Why she believes we’ve entered a "bully era" of leadership; and what real accountability actually requires
• The real reason "AI is taking jobs" has become an excuse for leaders who won’t have hard conversations
• Why HR has a seat at the table…but only if it chooses to take it
• Her deceptively simple practice for finding joy again, starting with a grocery store trip in her late 40s

Because you can’t build a healthy culture on top of leadership nobody’s holding accountable.

Connect with Christy:

LinkedIn

Website

Book: The Inner Work of Leading in a Broken System (Pre-order now on Amazon, out November 17th)

Job boards promised speed. What they delivered was volume: resumes optimized for keyword bots on one side, and 5,000 applicants for a single role on the other. Filtering got faster. Matching didn't get better.

In this episode of The Shift, we sit down with Robert Foldes, founder of CareerNav, a "career dating" platform built to match job seekers and organizations on more than keywords, to talk about what's actually broken in how we find work, and how we find people.

We get into:

• Why keyword-matching optimizes for the wrong thing, for job seekers and employers alike
• The aha moment from Robert's own job search — and why he started treating it like dating
• Culture fit vs. "culture connectedness": the shift from hiring "more of the same" to hiring for shared values
• Why small and mid-sized businesses lose the talent war to brand-name employers — even though they're the vast majority of the market
• The trouble with paying for referrals, and what breaks when the incentive replaces the trust
• Why nothing replaces meeting the person — and how better data gets you there faster
  

Because a resume can tell you what someone's done. It can't tell you who they are.

Connect with Robert:

LinkedIn

CareerNav

We sit down with Greg Wasserman, Head of Relationships at RSS.com and self-described "relationship generator," to talk about why podcasting might be the most underused relationship-building tool HR and People leaders have.

We get into:

• Why the real ROI of a podcast was never the download count.It's the relationship
• Greg's throughline: "life is about time and relationships" (and how it shaped two decades in relationship development at Yahoo!, CBS, and a string of startups)
• Why cold outreach feels transactional, but "come on my podcast" doesn't
• How an internal podcast rebuilds trust HR often doesn't have; the shift from "HR wants to talk to me" dread to "I get to be a guest"
• Using podcasting for the vulnerable, messy conversations (think layoffs, reorgs, hard calls)...not just the highlight reel
• Why every employee having (or guesting on) a podcast builds brand ambassadors, whether they stay or eventually leave
• The tactical starting point: a $75–100 mic, one relationship worth building, and 30 honest minutes
  

Because you don't need a content strategy. You need one relationship worth having on the record.

Connect with Greg:

LinkedIn

Podcast Network Insights (Greg's podcast)

RSS.com

Everyone's worried AI is coming for their job.

Almost nobody's asking what job they'd design for themselves if they could.

In this episode of The Shift, we sit down with Beth White, Founder & CEO of MeBeBot — she was building AI-powered employee experience tools nearly eight years before generative AI made this a boardroom conversation — to talk about what it means to know thyself in the age of AI.

We get into:

• Why the AI panic isn't really about AI — it's about identity, agency, and the question nobody's saying out loud
• The shift from shadow AI and solo chatbot bubbles to real, team-level AI literacy
• Why HR and People leaders have to stop being “victims of systems” — Workday, ADP, and otherwise
• AI governance as an act of care, not just compliance — building guardrails the way FMLA built trust
• “Who wrote the rule?” — the first-principles question that unsticks decades of default process
• Tokens, data centers, and why AI pricing might eventually look like a utility bill

Because you can't outsource knowing what you're good at. But you can build the conditions — and the guardrails — for it to matter.

Connect with Beth:

LinkedIn

MeBeBot

If you're in HR, you know the rhythm. You start the week meaning to build something. By midweek you're buffering: another escalation, another avoided conversation, another policy that exists on paper but not in practice. Most of that resistance isn't a people problem. It's a readiness problem.

In this session, Mindy and Marnie launch their new Signal Loop e-guide: how to pick one real friction point, run it through a single loop, and build readiness one clear move at a time. No overhaul. No grand declaration. Just a repeatable way to turn heat into forward motion.

What they get into:

-What "heat" actually is, and why your body often notices it before your calendar does
-The six steps of the SIGNAL Loop, and why going small on purpose is how you build momentum
-How readiness (shared ownership, a clear why, a doable next step) softens resistance without forcing it
-Where most change efforts quietly fizzle, and how reinforcement keeps them alive

The Signal Framework meets you were you are at. It helps you identify what is in your realm of control and get unstock to move forward.

Get unstuck with forward movement.

Purchase the Signal Loop e-guide here: https://althr.kit.com/products/the-signal-loop-field-guide

Learn about Signal Loop workshops: https://althr.kit.com/workshops

More ways to follow:

AltHR Hive Linked In Iterations Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/company/althrhive

Marnie Robbins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marnierobbins/

Vibe People Studio: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vibeps/

Mindy Honcoop: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindyhoncoop/

Agile in HR: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agileinhr/

If you're in HR, you know the rhythm. You start the week meaning to build something. By midweek you're buffering: another escalation, another avoided conversation, another policy that exists on paper but not in practice. Most of that resistance isn't a people problem. It's a readiness problem.

In this session, Mindy and Marnie launch their new Signal Loop e-guide: how to pick one real friction point, run it through a single loop, and build readiness one clear move at a time. No overhaul. No grand declaration. Just a repeatable way to turn heat into forward motion.

What they get into:

-What "heat" actually is, and why your body often notices it before your calendar does
-The six steps of the SIGNAL Loop, and why going small on purpose is how you build momentum
-How readiness (shared ownership, a clear why, a doable next step) softens resistance without forcing it
-Where most change efforts quietly fizzle, and how reinforcement keeps them alive

The Signal Framework meets you were you are at. It helps you identify what is in your realm of control and get unstock to move forward.

Get unstuck with forward movement.

Purchase the Signal Loop e-guide here: https://althr.kit.com/products/the-signal-loop-field-guide

Learn about Signal Loop workshops: https://althr.kit.com/workshops

More ways to follow:

AltHR Hive Linked In Iterations Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/company/althrhive

Marnie Robbins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marnierobbins/

Vibe People Studio: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vibeps/

Mindy Honcoop: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindyhoncoop/

Agile in HR: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agileinhr/

Most leadership, culture, and employee experience conversations come down to one thing: the everyday conversations managers have with their teams. In this episode of The Shift, we sit down with Stacy Lademar, a fractional learning and development officer who's trained leaders at Walmart, Royal Caribbean, and major senior living operators, to talk about the three conversations most managers were never trained for — feedback, difficult conversations, and coaching.

We get into:

• Why being promoted for technical skill doesn't prepare anyone to lead people
• The "trust bank account" — how commitment (not compliance) gets built one conversation at a time, and lost all at once
• Why "being nice" by withholding feedback is actually the opposite of being kind
• The SBI model (Situation, Behavior, Impact) — and how to use it to give feedback that actually changes behavior
• Why a culture of "busy" is the biggest blocker to manager training
• What happens when leaders lean on AI to have the conversations they should be having themselves
  

Because at the end of the day, better managers make better workplaces — and that starts with conversations, not titles.

🎁 Bonus: Stacy is sharing a free feedback guide (the SBI model with next-step examples plus a practical planning worksheet) — available in her LinkedIn featured section.

Connect with Stacy:

LinkedIn

Website

Everyone's heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Almost nobody's heard of the motivation theory with thousands of studies actually behind it.

In this episode of The Shift, we sit down with Aaron Robbins, President and Co-Founder of Intrinsic First and creator of ProACTr, to talk about what actually drives people at work — and why most organizations are still running on carrots and sticks.

We get into:

• Why rewards and punishments get quick wins but kill creativity, persistence, and well-being
• Motivation as quality, not quantity — the shift from controlled to autonomous
• The three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, relatedness
• The gardener analogy — leaders set the environment, they don't yell at the pepper plant
• Short-term thinking vs. building something sustainable
• Why communication is the biggest motivation gap in organizations — and how to practice it

Because you can't make someone motivated. But you can build the conditions where motivation thrives.

Connect with Aaron:

LinkedIn

Intrinsic First

ProACTr — leadership conversation practice tool

Only 6% of organizations are seeing measurable ROI from AI.

Everyone else? They did the training, ticked the boxes, bought the licenses... and stalled.

In this episode of The Shift, we sit down with Helena McAleer and Dave Birss, co-founders of The Gen AI Academy, to talk about why AI adoption stalls — and why the fix isn't more tech training. It's more human.

We get into:

Why most organizations stall at 10–20% AI adoption (and how to get unstuck)

Why HR — not the CTO — might be the most important leader in AI adoption

How usage metrics get gamed, and what actually matters instead

Thinking vs. doing — and how organizations accidentally discourage the one that adds value

The neuroscience of friction: why “faster” can make us dumber, and what real learning requires

IKEA's masterclass: retraining 8,500 call-center employees instead of replacing them

And the Roomba Poopocalypse — why you have to clean up your company's mess before AI amplifies it

Because AI doesn't fix your organization. It multiplies whatever's already there.

🎁 Bonus: Helena and Dave are giving our listeners free access to Dave's Human Skills in the Age of AI course — link in the comments.

Connect with Helena & Dave:

Helena on LinkedIn

Dave on LinkedIn

The Gen AI Academy