People & Talent

Whitney Johnson is the CEO and Co-Founder of Disruption Advisors, a world-class leadership development and change management company that helps leaders and organizations navigate change and accelerate performance. Whitney is the WSJ and USA Today best-selling author of Smart Growth: How to Grow Your People to Grow Your Company and host of the Disrupt Yourself podcast. In this guide, Whitney makes the case for focusing on growth and walks you through how to utilize the S Curve, the Seven Accelerants of Growth, and the Ecosystem of Growth to develop high performing individuals, teams, and organizations.

Anthony Louis is an Engagement Manager at Beacon, a talent consultancy and recruitment firm that helps growing organizations level up their internal hiring programs. He’s helped 60+ companies with revenue from $5M - $50M build out their people and talent functions; scaling headcount from 10 - 250 employees. In this guide, he walks through building a Strategic People function, including HR evolution stages, structuring sub-functions, and HR org/leadership profiles.

Leang Chung is the Founder & CEO of Pelora Stack, a career coaching and people ops consulting company. Previously she served as Talent and HR leader at Getty Images, Xaxis, Havaianas, and L’Oreal USA. In this guide, she explains how to build a people function at a startup, including fundamentals like how recruiting and onboarding processes should function and what kinds of early benefits to offer.

Grift Krehnbrink is the Chief Commercial Officer at Thoughtium, a consultancy that’s worked with clients like E*Trade, Morgan Stanley, and Pax8 to formulate strategy, develop leadership and design and accelerate learning. He’s helped thousands of leaders across functions and levels improve their leadership skills. In this guide, Grift walks through building leadership skills including creating a compelling vision, developing empathy, improving communication, and fostering business acumen.

Grift Krehnbrink is the Chief Commercial Officer at Thoughtium, a consultancy that’s worked with clients like E*Trade, Morgan Stanley, and Pax8 to formulate strategy, develop leadership and design and accelerate learning. He’s helped thousands of leaders across functions and levels improve their leadership skills. In this guide, Grift walks through building leadership skills including creating a compelling vision, developing empathy, improving communication, and fostering business acumen.

Brett Ungashick is the Founder and Bryan Bridgford is the PEO Practice Leader at OutSail, an advisory firm helping companies research, evaluate and select new HR software. Brett and Bryan have helped more than 1000 companies evaluate and select HR technology solutions. In this guide, Brett and Bryan walk through the different categories of HR and Benefits tools, and how to select and build a technology ecosystem that supports your needs.

Christine Burns is a performance expert and master facilitator. With over 20 years of experience across diverse sectors, including FinTech and Life Sciences, and a foundational background in Big 4 consulting, she has developed a keen expertise in navigating teams through transformative phases. In this guide, Christine walks through how to enable performance without over-managing to help companies save time and money by empowering their people.

Christine Burns is a performance expert and master facilitator. With over 20 years of experience across diverse sectors, including FinTech and Life Sciences, and a foundational background in Big 4 consulting, she has developed a keen expertise in navigating teams through transformative phases. In this guide, Christine walks through how to enable performance without over-managing to help companies save time and money by empowering their people.

LifeLabs Learning is a leadership skills accelerator that’s served 2,300+ companies, including CapitalOne, TED, Reddit, Spotify, and The New York Times. This guide walks through key skills in the manager toolkit, including offering question-based coaching, providing specific and actionable feedback, prioritizing with limited resources, and holding developmental 1-on-1 conversations.

Simone Hill Okafor is the Founder and CEO of Culture Frame Studio (CFS), a culture design and change management firm that helps organizations build thriving, people-first workplaces. Previously, Simone served as the Talent Programs and Analytics lead at Upstart and led the execution of DEI initiatives and managed the pluralism and racial justice portfolio at Omidyar Network. In this guide, Simone explains how to build a culture based on core values and values-aligned behaviors, how to use microcultures, and best practices for addressing common culture challenges that are driven by scaling.