The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR

Ray'n Terry, Chief People Officer at Moo, joined us on The Modern People Leader to discuss why AI should create more space for humanity at work instead of simply increasing productivity. 
We talked about balancing business performance with employee wellbeing, rethinking performance management in an AI-powered world, and why leaders must intentionally help people reclaim time, creativity, and connection.
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(05:12) Ray'n's Career Journey and Moving from the U.S. to London
(10:05) Joining Moo and Choosing the Right Leadership Opportunity
(12:25) The Interview That Almost Went Wrong
(14:18) Vulnerability, Resilience, and Leadership Self-Awareness
(16:05) Opening Moo’s South Africa Office and Scaling Globally
(17:28) Why Strong Culture Changes the Role of a CPO
(18:10) AI, Humanity, and Giving People Time Back
(20:08) The Washing Machine Story and Lessons for AI Adoption
(21:55) Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Human Connection in an AI Era
(24:05) Why Leaders Must Intentionally Reclaim Time
(26:10) Fighting the Culture of Filling Every Minute with Work
(26:52) Moo’s Experiment: Reinvesting Free Time Into Personal Wellbeing
(28:15) The ROI of AI: Better Humans, Not Just More Productivity
(30:20) Leadership, Employee Engagement, and Human Performance
(31:05) Can HR Still Make Work Better?
(32:15) Why Human Impact Often Happens Behind the Scenes
(34:15) Moo’s AI Survey and Understanding Employee Sentiment
(35:20) Speed vs. Quality: What Employees Are Experiencing
(36:40) Leadership Responsibility in High-Pressure Environments
(38:20) AI’s Impact on Productivity and Workday Design
(39:05) Recognition, Performance, and AI-Assisted Work
(40:35) Rethinking Performance Reviews in an AI World
(42:10) Why Traditional Performance Management May Need Reinvention
(44:00) Balancing Compliance, Governance, and Modern Talent Practices
(46:45) Leadership, Humanity, and High Performance Can Coexist
(49:45) Clear Expectations, Feedback, and Human-Centered Leadership
(51:20) Productivity, Flexibility, and Managing Outcomes Instead of Time
(52:30) Rapid Fire: Advice for New HR Professionals 
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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.

Amy Reichanadter, Chief People Officer at Databricks, joined us on The Modern People Leader to discuss her upskilling journey throughout her career, creating consumer-grade employee experiences, and leading through rapid technological change. 
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(07:28) Long-Term Career Growth and the Value of Staying Power
(10:35) Why Continuous Learning Matters for Modern HR Leaders
(13:11) The Builder Mindset: AI, Leadership, and Hands-On Learning
(16:08) How Databricks Uses AI Internally Across HR
(17:37) Upskilling in the AI Era and Accelerated Learning Loops
(19:10) Building AI Readiness: From Baseline Knowledge to Power Users
(20:59) Identifying AI Champions and Future Talent
(23:18) Databricks’ AI Transformation Journey and Early Use Cases
(26:08) Prioritizing HR Automation and Building AI-Native Processes
(28:39) AI Transformation as a Full-Time Organizational Effort
(30:18) Consumer-Grade AI Experiences for Employees
(33:19) Building HR Agents and Delivering Instant Employee Support
(36:42) Product Design Lessons from Consumer Technology
(39:29) Creating a North Star for AI Transformation
(42:26) AI, Critical Thinking, and the Future of Learning
(45:17) Learning Resources, Podcasts, and Professional Development
(47:39) Does AI Free Creative Capacity or Reduce Critical Thinking?
(50:08) Reimagining the HR Function Through AI
(51:47) Why AI Skills Are Becoming Essential for Every Employee 
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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.

Cameron Price, Head of People & Talent at Medium, joined us on The Modern People Leader to discuss how people teams can lead AI change management through trust, curiosity, and human-centered design. 
We talked about AI fluency, balancing innovation with authenticity, measuring employee sentiment around AI adoption, and why humans-first leadership matters more than ever.
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🔗 Explore the 2026 ​Deloitte Human Capital Trends Report
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(06:22) Cameron’s Career Story and Journey Into People Leadership
(07:20) From Poetry Degree to Startups and Customer Support
(08:18) Building Teams Across San Francisco, Dubai, and the Philippines
(09:10) Growing Through Recruiting, HR, and Leadership at Medium
(10:05) Biggest Lessons Becoming Head of People
(11:20) What Medium Does and Why Human Content Matters
(12:50) Content Businesses, AI, and Why These Times Feel Different
(14:10) Medium’s AI Journey: Observation to Transformation
(15:40) AI as Change Management, Not Just Tool Adoption
(17:05) Humans First: Medium’s Values and AI Philosophy
(18:45) What Humans First Actually Looks Like in Practice
(20:05) Knowing When Not to Use AI
(21:15) Balancing Human Creativity with AI Capabilities
(22:10) Creating AI Policies Without Top-Down Control
(24:00) Experimentation Culture and Building AI Guidelines
(25:20) AI as a Capability Expander, Not a Content Machine
(26:35) AI Fluency Expectations and Behavior-Based Frameworks
(28:15) Why Judgment Matters More Than Tool Usage
(29:00) Building an AI Culture Without Centralized Control
(30:10) The Role of Managers in AI Adoption
(31:10) Using AI to Make Management More Effective
(32:10) Rolling Out AI Fluency Expectations Through Managers
(34:10) Addressing AI Skeptics and Resistance to Adoption
(36:05) Staying Curious While Managing AI Concerns
(37:30) AI Skills, Career Development, and Job Market Realities
(39:15) Why AI Won’t Replace You, But AI Fluency Might Matter
(40:00) Development Responsibility and Proactive Learning
(42:10) Measuring AI Sentiment Instead of AI Spend
(43:10) AI Brain Fry and Managing the Pace of Change
(44:40) What Happens If AI Tools Disappear Tomorrow?
(45:30) Designing Medium’s AI Sentiment Survey
(47:00) Survey Findings: Friction, Slop, and Downstream Work
(49:05) Engagement, Satisfaction, and Employee Trust
(50:15) AI Overload, Burnout, and Context Switching
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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.

Nir Leibovich, Product Executive at QuickBooks Workforce, joined us on The Modern People Leader to discuss why HR and finance teams struggle when data lives in silos and how unified systems create better business decisions. 
Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode306
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Sponsor Links:
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(06:34) Nir’s Entrepreneurial Journey: Builder Mindset and Solving Problems
(15:12) HR’s Admin Burden and Why the Function Still Feels Broken
(17:23) Why HR and Business Teams Operate in Silos
(20:08) Why HR Teams Must Understand the Business to Support People Better
(21:17) Why Finance and HR Alignment Matters More Than Ever
(22:29) The Problem with Separate Systems and Separate Data Sources
(23:18) Construction Industry Example: Real-Time Workforce Data in Action
(26:11) Why Unified Systems Create Better Business Decisions
(26:34) The Spreadsheet Problem: Finance vs HR Source of Truth
(28:22) Moving Beyond Parallel Processes and Building Shared Metrics
(34:00) AI, Unified Data & Better Business Recommendations
(35:02) AI Use Cases and Why Unified Workforce Data Changes Everything
(36:18) Employee Trust, Sensitive Data & Responsible AI Adoption
(38:16) The Two Biggest Barriers to AI Adoption: Value and Trust
(40:00) Using AI to Become Better Managers and People Leaders
(42:25) How Close Are We to the Future of AI-Powered Workforce Decisions?
---- 
📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get episode recaps
💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn
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😊 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.

Amy Schwartz, Chief People Officer at Wiz, joined us on The Modern People Leader. 
We talked about why HR alone can't create a high-performance culture, why relationships and influence matter more than HR systems, and why "picking up the trash" - a leadership philosophy she picked up working in casinos - has stuck with her ever since.
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(07:02) Amy’s Career Story: From Casinos to Chief People Officer
(10:01) Life in Vegas and Leadership Lessons Outside the Strip
(11:40) What Wiz Does and Joining a Hypergrowth Company
(12:33) Google Acquisition and Joining the Google Cloud Family
(13:42) Why HR Alone Cannot Create High Performance
(16:11) HR Systems Aren’t the Work, Influence Is
(18:01) High Performance Obsession and Getting the Fundamentals Right
(19:53) Why Leadership Shapes Culture More Than HR Programs
(21:00) The Limits of HR Ownership and Building Executive Influence
(22:25) Breaking Out of Traditional HR Thinking
(24:10) The MVP Mindset and Reallocating Time to What Matters
(25:15) Introducing “Pick Up the Trash” Leadership Philosophy
(29:33) What Picking Up the Trash Looks Like at Wiz
(31:45) HRBP Expectations and Operating Principles for Teams
(34:25) Future-Proofing HR: MVP Thinking and Operational Excellence
(37:08) Burnout, Humanity, and Why EQ Still Matters
(41:08) People Ops as Product and Design Thinking for HR Teams
(45:08) Avoiding Rip-and-Replace Change Management
(47:10) Starting Small: Bringing Product Thinking into HR Teams
(49:17) Rapid Fire Questions Begin
(50:05) Career Advice: Pick Up the Trash
(51:30) Team Superpower: The Beacon
(52:42) Performance Questions Every Leader Should Ask
(53:36) Dream Guests, Molly Graham, and Operator Mindsets 
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📬 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.