The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR

Isabel Naidoo, Chief People Officer at Wise, joined us on The Modern People Leader to share how Wise builds a cohesive employee experience across global offices while still honoring local identity. 
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Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode281
Sponsor Links:
🔗 Try Viva’s $950 one-month trial at execviva.com/mpl
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MPL Links:
🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.
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(05:23) Isabel’s Career Story and Path to Wise
(10:54) Shift to Culture and the Global Playbook Topic
(11:58) Why Wise Needs a Global Footprint: Customer Proximity and Regulation
(13:27) Designing a Seamless Employee Experience Across Locations
(14:27) Global Consistency vs Local Identity in Workplace Design
(16:38) How Wise Creates an Irresistible Office Experience
(19:22) Measuring Culture vs Driving Business Outcomes
(21:47) Product Operating Model and Avoiding “HR Theatre”
(23:05) Rituals That Maintain Mission Focus During Growth
(24:31) Company Calls, Demos, and Ownership Through Equity
(25:26) Quarterly Planning Rituals and Open Participation
(27:38) Observable Signals of Culture and Employee Pride
(28:25) AI and How It Changes Talent Strategy at Wise
(28:58) Three Focus Areas: AI Usage, Building AI Skills, and Leading AI Teams
(32:32) Measuring AI Impact Beyond Usage and Where to Start
(35:22) Prerequisites for AI: Data and Operating Model
(37:05) Choosing Use Cases, Human-in-the-Loop, and Reinforcing Human Skills
(39:33) In-Person Connection and What Sets Strong Cultures Apart
(40:34) Value of Community Learning in AI and HR Networks
(43:22) Collaboration Model, Flexible Work, and Benefits That Support Performance
(45:43) Sabbaticals and Work-From-Anywhere Policies
(47:24) AI Use Case Example: Feedback Coach and Scaling Support
(48:48) Innovation at Wise: Hiring for Excellence and Practicing Feedback
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Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.

Chase Warrington, Head of Operations at Doist, joined us on The Modern People Leader to break down how async-first work enables faster decision-making, stronger culture, and scalable operations. We talked about building trust without offices, the systems and rituals behind Doist’s execution velocity, and why async workflows are foundational to effective AI adoption.
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Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode280
Sponsor Links:
🔗 Try AskChartHop at ChartHop.com/AI
🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl
🔗 Go deeper on Viva's AI Journey in Roundtable with Jani (only 10 seats)
MPL Links:
🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.
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(07:30) Chase’s Origin Story
(11:15) What Doist Does: Productivity Tools, Todoist, and Async-First Principles
(14:45) Why Async Work Changes How Leaders Think, Decide, and Scale
(17:28) Independent Decision-Making as a Non-Negotiable at Doist
(20:44) The Doist Operating System: Squads, Quarterly Cycles, and Decision Frameworks
(23:17) Rituals That Power Execution: Async Standups, Demos, Retros, and Dashboards
(26:30) Communication as Infrastructure: Async Guidelines, Transparency, and Trust
(30:45) How Async Enables Better AI Adoption and an Organizational “Brain”
(33:44) Inside Doist’s AI Ops Squad: Redesigning Planning, Search, and Workflows with AI
(38:17) Vibe Coding, Non-Engineers, and the Rise of AI-Enabled Builders
(47:22) Partnering with Head of People Nadia Vatalidis and Scaling People Systems
(53:30) The Biggest Misconception About Remote and Async Culture
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😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn
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Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.

Jani Sanguino joined us on The Modern People Leader to share how Viva built an award-winning, manager-led AI transformation.
We talked about the three AI competencies they prioritized, their 13-week manager-led learning path, and the most impactful use cases for their business.
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Go deeper on Viva's AI Journey in Roundtable with Jani (only 10 seats): execviva.com/mpl
Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode279
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Sponsor Links:
🔗 Learn more about Wellthy at wellthy.com/mpl
🔗 Try AskChartHop at ChartHop.com/AI
🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl
MPL Links:
🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.
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(06:03) Jani’s Path Into People Ops
(09:28) What Music Taught Her About Org Design
(12:55) Why Viva Went All-In on AI
(13:46) Winning the Zapier Award
(17:32) Viva’s AI Adoption Strategy
(19:31) 3 AI Competencies: Prompting, Automation, Business Acumen
(22:09) The 13-Week Manager-Led Learning Path
(23:35) Picking Use Cases and Measuring ROI
(26:46) Handling Resistance and Fear
(30:16) Explorer to Builder to Multiplier
(32:42) Viva Ambassador Program and Content GPTs
(37:29) People Ops Slack Bots: Fixie and Aura
(40:04) TA Dashboard Using Lovable
(41:45) EAs Helping Clients Adopt AI
(43:14) What They’d Change Next Time
(45:18) AI Debt and Automation Pitfalls
---- 
📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get episode recaps
💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn
😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn
😊 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn
---- 
Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.

We recapped MPL Live Austin with attendees Cindy Lopez (Senior Director, People & Culture, Pattern Bioscience) and Marlene Arroyo (Founder, Peoplecraft).
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Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode278
Sponsor Links:
🔗 Try Viva’s $950 one-month trial at execviva.com/mpl
🔗 Learn more about Nava Benefits
🔗 Check out AirMason
MPL Links:
🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.
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(09:04) Cindy background, why she attended, and what felt different about the event experience
(10:57) Marlene background, why she returned, and what she valued from 2024 to 2025
(16:14) Cindy’s take on Innovation Hall (missed Day 1, but feedback from others and Day 2 vendor conversations)
(18:05) Marlene’s take on Innovation Hall: vendor conversations shifting from “AI can” to workflow integration
(19:11) Bingo gamification: origin, how it worked, and what it enabled
(21:11) Programming integration: how Day 1 was structured alongside the Innovation Hall
(22:53) Day 1 highlights
(25:49) Day 2 highlights
(34:36) Key learnings from the week
---- 
📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get episode recaps
💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn
😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn
😊 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn
---- 
Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.

Jon Couture, CHRO at Vanguard, joined The Modern People Leader to share how Vanguard is balancing 50 years of legacy with the next 50 years of change. 
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Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode277
Sponsor Links:
🔗 Try Viva’s $950 one-month trial at execviva.com/mpl
🔗 Try AskChartHop at ChartHop.com/AI
🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl
MPL Links:
🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.
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(04:35) Jon Couture’s Career Story: Air Force Firefighter to CHRO
(08:16) Vanguard Culture: Stability, Performance & Long-Tenure Talent
(10:16) New CEO from Outside: Preserving Culture While Driving Change
(12:38) The Paradox of Theseus: Evolving Vanguard Without Losing Its Soul
(14:52) CHRO–CEO Alignment & Translating Strategy Into People Priorities
(20:00) Enterprise Priorities: Advice, Wealth Management & Democratization
(24:29) AI as a Productivity Engine for Clients and Crew
(26:48) Balancing 50 Years of Legacy With the Next 50 Years of Change
(27:33) Repositioning HR: Enabling How Work Gets Done
(31:48) Strategic Workforce Planning & Task-Level Work Design
(36:24) Agile HR, MVP Thinking & Avoiding Over-Documentation Traps
(39:14) Building Trust in AI Adoption & Change Management
(44:01) Satisfaction = Expectations ÷ Actuals: Managing Change Realistically
(45:50) Leadership Development at Scale: ELDP & Leadership Experience
(50:16) Rethinking Learning: From Content Consumption to Skill Mastery
(53:21) Middle Management: Investing in Effectiveness, Not Flattening
(56:00) The Time Dividend: Productivity as a Path to Better Training
---- 
📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get episode recaps
💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn
😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn
😊 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn
---- 
Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.