The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR

Dan Mishin, Founder & CEO of Manifest OS, joined us on The Modern People Leader. 
We talked about how Manifest is rebuilding immigration law for the AI era, why talent strategy now requires faster, more creative support for global employees, and how AI-native companies are changing management, engineering teams, vendor strategy, and the war for 10X talent.
----  
Sponsor Links:
🔗 Schedule a consultation with Manifest
🔗 Learn more about Beqom at beqom.com/mpl
MPL Links:
🔗Go sign up for MPL Build.
----  
(13:00) Charlie Munger, Incentives and the AI Economy
(14:30) The Problem With Billable Hours
(15:20) Why Legal Pricing Should Be Fixed, Transparent and Outcome-Based
(20:45) Immigration as a Talent Acquisition and Retention Lever
(21:40) Why Tech Companies Need Creative Immigration Strategy
(23:25) How AI Frees Lawyers to Focus on Strategy and Service
(25:20) Why High Output Management No Longer Fits the AI Era
(26:20) How Manifest Structures AI-Native Teams
(26:45) One AI Engineer, One Lawyer and Full Autonomy
(27:20) Using AI Agents to Orchestrate Work and Avoid Duplication
(30:00) Treating AI Agents Like Independent Employees
(31:20) Why CEOs Need Daily AI Education Time
(31:45) Hiring People Who Grew Up AI-Native
(32:10) Why Dan Does Not Want Professional Managers in Technical Roles
(36:20) Rethinking Vendor Strategy Around AI-Native Partners
(38:00) Why Executives Should Do the Grunt Work
(40:25) Revisiting Decisions in Real Time
(41:00) Why Going Back Down the Mountain Is So Hard
(42:25) The New Talent Strategy in the AI Economy
(43:40) Why A-Players Have 10X More Leverage Now
(46:40) Career Advice: HR Needs to Become HR Plus Ops Plus Product
---- 
📬 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.

Laura McGann joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about why change management no longer feels like the right term, how the ADKAR framework helps people name where they are stuck, and what leaders need to do as AI, velocity, overwhelm, and constant change reshape work.
----  
Sponsor Links:
🔗 Request a demo of Shapes
🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl
🔗 Explore the 2026 ​Deloitte Human Capital Trends Report
MPL Links:
🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.
----  
(12:25) Why “Change Management” No Longer Feels Like the Right Term
(17:35) Why Defining Success Is the Most Important Part of Change
(18:20) People-Side Metrics: Utilization, Adoption and Proficiency
(21:10) Why Change No Longer Has Clear End Dates
(22:20) No Recovery Gap and the Rise of Change Fatigue
(25:10) Naming What Is Happening Through ADKAR
(25:35) ADKAR: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement
(26:40) Using ADKAR to Name Where You Are Stuck
(29:00) Why Leaders Often Skip Awareness and Desire
(29:45) AI and the Perpetual Knowledge-to-Ability Cycle
(33:30) Why the Pace of Change Feels So Uncomfortable
(35:10) Why Leaders Need a Portfolio View of Change
(38:10) Why Leaders Should Not Be Afraid to Say “Overwhelmed”
(41:00) What Future Leaders Need to Learn About AI
(45:45) Why Leaders Need Hands on Keyboards
(46:30) AI as an Enabler of Business Strategy, Not the Strategy
(47:15) Daniel’s Suitcase Metaphor for Manager Overload
(50:00) Deciding What AI Can Do and What Must Stay Human
(52:00) Stephen on Knowing What Not to Do
(56:00) Career Advice: Learn the Business Before You Try to Change It
---- 
📬 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.

Olivia Williams joined us on The Modern People Leader. 
We talked about how Vercel shortened its performance review cycle from 11 weeks to two weeks and how they built a 15-factor flight risk tool to retain top talent.
----  
Sponsor Links:
🔗 Request a demo of Shapes
MPL Links:
🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.
----  
(12:25) Why Vercel Rethought Its Performance Review Cycle
(13:35) Realizing Vercel Was Spending Five Months a Year in Review Mode
(14:05) Why Most Employees Submitted Reviews on the Last Day Anyway
(14:40) Cutting the Review Cycle From 11 Weeks to Two Weeks
(17:35) Faster Feedback and More Relevant Review Conversations
(18:55) What the Two-Week Review Cycle Looks Like
(20:50) Treating the Review Cycle Like a Product for the Business
(22:10) PerfBot and Continuous Monthly Feedback
(22:35) Why Olivia Wants to “Kill Culture Amp”
(24:05) Monthly Slack Check-Ins With Three Simple Questions
(26:00) Hiring an HR Technologist Inside the People Org
(27:15) Stephen’s Rant: Why Traditional SaaS Tools Are Cooked
(29:45) The Importance of Play, Curiosity and Building
(30:20) Why People Teams Need AI Muscle and HR Technologists
(32:30) Olivia Demos PerfBot in Slack
(37:40) Vercel’s Employee Health Score and Attrition Risk Tool
(40:40) Using Claude to Analyze 15 Employee Risk Factors
(43:20) Thinking of HR as a Product for Employees
(46:45) Advice for People Teams With Head Trash Around AI
(49:00) Why Companies Should Bake in Time to Build
---- 
📬 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.

Conor Sweeney joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about what it's looked like to scale culture while doubling in size every year for three years straight.
----  
Sponsor Links:
🔗 Schedule a consultation with Manifest
🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl
🔗 Explore the 2026 ​Deloitte Human Capital Trends Report
MPL Links:
🔗Go sign up for MPL Build.
----  
(12:05) Lessons From Jessica Swank and Tiffany Stevenson
(12:40) Learning Patience, Empathy and Flexibility as a Leader
(18:25) What Form Health Does in Plain English
(21:30) Scaling Culture While Form Health Doubles in Size
(23:25) The Fork in the Road: What to Keep and What to Let Go
(25:05) Why Consensus-Driven Decision-Making Stops Scaling
(28:00) Trust as the Foundation for Faster Decision-Making
(31:15) How to Scale Trust Day to Day
(32:35) Why Nailing the Fundamentals Still Matters
(33:25) Hiring for Both the What and the How
(35:40) “Don’t Crush the Butterfly” and What Form Health Must Protect
(36:30) Form Health’s First Butterfly: Clinical Care Quality
(38:45) Form Health’s Second Butterfly: Partnership
(43:20) Build With, Not Build For, as a People Leader
(45:30) Project Compass and Form Health’s Job Architecture Upgrade
(48:00) Building Consistency Around Levels, Competencies and Compensation
(49:15) Building Job Architecture for the Next Phase of Growth
(51:10) Why People Leaders Can’t Only Rely on Old Benchmarking Tools
(53:00) The Rise of the High-Impact Individual Contributor
(56:00) The Player-Coach Model of Modern Management
---- 
📬 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.

Alexis Fink joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about how AI is changing work, why org design needs to move beyond boxes and lines, and how curiosity, influence, courage, and better systems thinking can help people leaders design for the future.
----  
Sponsor Links:
🔗 Schedule a consultation with Manifest
🔗 Learn more about Tilt at hellotilt.com/mpl
🔗 Learn more about SixFifty
MPL Links:
🔗Go sign up for MPL Build.
----  
(14:10) The One-Way Door of AI and Work
(17:15) Why AI Transformation Will Take Longer Than 18 Months
(19:05) What Org Design Means in the AI Era
(20:30) Work Organization, Decision Rights and the Role of Machines
(22:15) Why the Org Chart Is the Wrong Question
(23:05) Inverted Pyramids, Hourglass Models and Different Assumptions About Talent
(25:00) The IKEA Example: Turning Automation Into New Human Work
(28:05) Why AI Should Free Capacity, Not Just Eliminate Jobs
(31:40) How to Reframe the Headcount Reduction Conversation
(33:25) Breaking Through Constraints, Vendor Issues and Learned Helplessness
(36:45) Budget Constraints and the Problem With Legacy Decision Rights
(40:20) Lessons From Past Transformations at Microsoft
(43:00) Creating a Hard Gate for Vice President Promotions
(44:10) Creating a Real Individual Contributor Career Path
(47:30) What Has Changed About Change Management
(49:05) Multiple Layers of Change and the Need for a Clear North Star
(50:25) Avoiding Shiny Object Syndrome and Finishing the Last Mile
(53:10) The Difference Between Influence and Convincing
(55:45) Creating Gravitational Pull Instead of Pushing
---- 
📬 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.