Dr. Michael Arena is an author, researcher, and co-founder of Connected Commons and former talent executive at companies including General Motors, Bank of America and Amazon. With a passion for research in the studies of collaboration, social connection and organizational dynamics, Michael has a keen sense and understanding of the state of today’s workplace, and ideas for what organizations can do to create opportunities for their people to work productively and collaboratively.

During our conversation, Michael spoke about key topics including the importance of social capital, the power of intentional collaboration and what organizations can do to maximize the impact of the work of their teams. Michael also shared his thoughts on the true impact of serendipity, the importance of creating the right conditions for collaboration, and his own thoughts on how to create a better world of work.

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-arena-21b6164/
• Articles: https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/contributor/michael-arena
• Book: Adaptive Space:

Note: This is a special episode from our conversations with talent development leaders at the ATD ‘24 Conference in New Orleans back in May 2024.

Jason Hudgins is a Senior Consultant of Leadership Development at Wellstar Health. During our conversation, Jason spoke about the challenges that many hospital leaders face today, and the important characteristics that leaders need to effectively lead in complex healthcare environments.

Jason also highlighted a coaching program that he helped roll out to leaders inside Wellstar, providing details on some of the key business objectives the leadership development program and coaching helped solve, and his advice to other organizations looking to leverage coaching as part of their leadership development programs.
- Jason's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkhudgins/
- Sounding Board Inc: https://www.soundingboardinc.com/

Jelena Djordjevic is the Chief People Officer at Thumbtack. During the early months of the 2020 Global Pandemic, Thumbtack made the decision to go virtual first, and subsequently and iteratively implemented a people strategy that enabled its thousands of employees to work effectively in a whole new way. Three years later, Thumbtack remains virtual first, and under Djordevic’s leadership has taken a strategic and intentional approach to aligning their people strategy with their business strategy to drive results, for both the business and their people.

During our conversation, Djordjevic shared her own philosophy as a Chief People Officer about how she strategically thinks about the role of the HR function in enabling business strategy. Jelena also shared some of the programs and policies that are a part of their people strategy for a virtual-first organizations, how she and her team use data to drive strategy and programs, and how she and Thumbtack thing about critical levers of a virtual first organization, such as fostering connection, in-person experiences, and the role of their managers.

Links:

• Jelena’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jzdjordjevic/
• https://blog.thumbtack.com/two-years-in-our-virtual-first-model-is-here-to-stay-and-its-only-getting-better-18d33c443d80
• https://blog.thumbtack.com/new-report-finds-employees-perform-their-best-when-working-virtually-and-senior-leaders-agree-59eee67c8aac