treating interactions as a strategy, not administration, helps firms navigate m&a, private equity, and constant change.
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move like this
with bonnie buol ruszczyk
for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
on the latest move like this, host bonnie buol ruszczyk sits down with alice grey harrison of agh consulting to talk about the people side of firm transformation. harrison, a three-decade veteran of strategic communications and change management in the accounting sector, helps firms navigate m&a, private equity, leadership transitions, and system rollouts by focusing on how people experience change.
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harrison’s central thesis: culture, clearly tied to mission–vision–values, is a growth engine. when people see how their daily work advances firm goals, they give “discretionary energy.” she illustrates this with a pivotal chapter from her big-firm years: after a streak of acquisitions, offices clung to local traditions and bespoke tax methods that trapped capacity. moving to a true “one firm” model, aligned methodologies, systems, and talent, unlocked scale and accelerated growth that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
getting there requires choice and clarity. harrison urges leaders to define the kind of firm they are, such as people-first or growth-first, and then hire and manage to that purpose. values only matter when translated into observable behaviors (“responsiveness” becomes “every email acknowledged within 24 hours,” for example). leaders must model the standards they publish; otherwise, trust erodes.
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her two non-negotiables for communication during change are refreshingly practical. first, always lead with the “why,” and repeat it relentlessly. during the pandemic, every firm update began with the same guiding principle – health, safety, and well-being – so shifting directives made sense in that context. second, communicate even when there’s “nothing new.” in silence, people fill gaps with worst-case assumptions. short milestone notes and explicit “next update” dates keep rumors at bay and confidence intact.
harrison also offers tools leaders can use now. borrowing from marketing, build internal personas to tailor messages by audience segment and career stage; a single announcement rarely meets everyone’s needs. use ai to scan message boards and surface likely objections, then address that exact language in faqs. choose the medium that fits the speaker. some leaders should write, others should be on video. and don’t hesitate to get media training. on dei, where many firms are retrenching, she advises anchoring in stated values and the practical necessity of belonging for teamwork. skipping visible recognition (e.g., pride) can undercut trust. remote work has widened talent options, so clarity and consistency matter more than ever.
for firms intent on becoming employers of choice, harrison says to treat communication as a strategy, not a series of memos. set a cadence and channels, publish them, and bake them into onboarding. revisit mission, vision, and values for a modern language that resonates (her favorite micro-fix: changing “careers for our people” to “careers with our people”). in a field awash in change, her through-line was simple: when leaders create shared understanding, performance follows.
5 key takeaways:
- decide whether you are people-first or growth-first, then align recruiting, rewards, and management to that choice so you attract (and keep) the right talent.
- standardize methodologies, systems, and roles, especially post-m&a, to eliminate silos and unlock scale, capacity, and profitable growth.
- translate values into behavior. turn generic ideals into clear standards (e.g., “acknowledge emails within 24 hours”) so that everyone knows what good looks like on a day-to-day basis.
- lead with the why every time. anchor every change message in the rationale and repeat it consistently to sustain alignment and reduce resistance.
- communicate even when there’s “nothing new.” set a cadence, share milestones, and state the next update date to prevent rumor-driven narratives.
- tailor messages by persona. segment internal audiences by role and career stage, use the medium that fits the messenger, and pre-empt objections with faqs.
- anchor dei in belonging and values. in a volatile climate, focus on the firm’s stated values and the operational need for belonging to maintain trust and team performance.
more about alice grey harrison
with a proven track record of success, alice grey harrison is a seasoned strategic change and communications professional who excels in partnering with executives to implement change, build performance, and shape culture. she meets organizations where they are and helps them build toward the future.
transcript
(transcripts are made available as soon as possible. they are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.)
bonnie buol ruszczyk: hello and welcome to a new episode of move like this, sponsored by the accounting move project. i am excited to be here with an old friend, somebody i have known for quite a while. we won’t say the exact number, because that may age us, but i am very happy to be here with alice gray harrison. she is has her own company called agh consulting, and i would love to hear all about it. alice gray, so thank you for being here.
alice grey harrison: yeah, thank you for having me. we are a small boutique firm that focuses on the accounting industry, and we help organizations going through change firms that are, as you can imagine, experiencing m and a private equity coming in changes in leadership, even down to implementing a new crm system or workday, and we focus on the people side of the change. so it’s about, how do we bring people along the continuum of change so that we can reach performance as quickly as possible. so that’s, that’s what my firm does. i have almost 30 years of experience in strategic communications and change and and really it’s, it’s what i love to do. so i am just honored that i get to do it every day.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: i think that’s wonderful and a much needed service in an industry that is constantly going through change, and so i’m glad you’re out there doing that. in addition to your change management, i know that both of us have a background in marketing and firm growth as well. yes, and so i guess i would kind of like to tie the two things together a little bit, yes, and talk about how a strong culture and can fuel growth. i’m going to say that again. i’d like to talk a little bit about how a strong culture can fuel firm growth and why it is becoming, or i would imagine, already, a competitive advantage.
alice grey harrison: yeah. so i’ve done a ton of work in the culture space. i worked for a firm that now is a top eight firm and and i very much was plugged into the people side, the culture side. i began on the marketing side of the fence, and it evolved as we grew. and what we learned over the years is that when people are aligned to the mission, vision, values, which helps drive what the culture of the firm is, that performance is is greater. we can achieve peak performance when there is alignment between what the goals of the firm are and how people understand their job, what they’re doing every day. is it is affecting what those goals are. so i need to understand why. why is it that i’m doing the work that i’m doing? how is that impacted the forward momentum of the firm? because we all as humans desire to to be part of something larger than us, and when people feel that way, they give discretionary energy, and when we give discretionary energy, we grow.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: that makes sense. and it’s that whole idea of having a purpose. yes, absolutely. and ty, i would think tying that purpose, like an individual purpose to that of the firm as a whole, and feeling a part of that. yes, i like that.
alice grey harrison: yeah, you know. i mean, one of the things that really helped solidify this in my mind was one of the ways that we grew when i worked for a firm was through a number of acquisitions, some of them really large, some of them smaller, tuck ins. and we arrived at this point in the mid 2000s where we had grown via m and a and organic, but mainly m and a and everybody continued. to kind of do what they were doing in their space. so, you know, if it was this one office in whatever city it is, they kind of kept their own traditions. we had every office kind of doing different tax methodologies. and you know, you might have a partner here, a partner there, who had their own methodology, which meant that only like a certain number of people, could support that partner. and so what happened was we were spending all this energy and time and resources in in a very inefficient system, and what we needed was a one firm mentality, one firm process, one firm functions. and so we began this, this mantra, every firm kind of talks about being one one firm, but when you show people what that means in real life, what does it mean to be one firm? how do we live out that purpose? and we began to align all of our methodology, we aligned our systems, we began to align our people, and we began to operate as one firm, and that’s when we began to see our growth just, you know, exponentially go off the charts we could not have continued if we had not had that purpose as acting as one firm for the benefit of our people and of our clients, and that had to be a communication challenge in a way, because people are also, just in general, often resistant to change, right?
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yeah, yes. we worked with a lot of accounting firm partners, and certainly some of them are like, no, this is how i’ve always done it. and so i kind of want to tie that into my next question is i have worked with firm leaders, i imagine you probably have too that are resistant to change, and have say things like, you know, i had to suffer through x, you know, i had to work 80 hour weeks during busy season. so why shouldn’t you know, this generation do that and i turned out okay? and to which i often will argue that i’m not 100% sure that you did turn out okay, if you want others to suffer, you know, yes, yes, that’s probably a whole different topic for a whole different day, but i do kind of would love to get your input on what shifts in mindset and management style firms need to start looking into and adopting to remain competitive and attractive to today’s talent, because today’s talent can go anywhere they want to. so sure, how do you become that firm where people want to work and want to stay?
alice grey harrison: yeah, well, and you know, i think there are a lot of different there is no one right way for a firm to be in terms of their purpose. i think it’s so super important for you to be able to define what your culture is, what’s important to you. i’m going to use the word purpose because you used it earlier, like, what is your purpose, and and stick to it. you know, are you a people first firm? where? where? when i say people first, i mean people over profit. mm, hmm, okay, you’re going to attract people who believe in people over profit, and it’s not going to be as important to them. probably to be, you know, getting giant bonuses. the partners aren’t going to be, you know, wanting that, you know, million plus take home. mm, hmm, but that’s that you’re going to attract like minded people, because you that you have identified that your purpose, if your purpose, if you’re you’ve decided that your culture is a growth first purpose, you’re going to attract those types of people. so it’s important for you to understand what your strategic goals are in order to be able to attract and retain the people who align with those goals. but you can’t be, you can’t you can’t have it all, because then you’re, you’re just not going to be able to sustain keeping the right people in the firm. does that make sense?
bonnie buol ruszczyk: it does. and you know so much. i mean, we’ve been talking for, you know, 10 minutes now or so and what so much of this is going back to the firm, truly identifying and understanding and communicating their mission, vision, values, yes, and you know, everybody i. okay, any group of people are not going to think exactly alike and right? but there needs to be some sort of alignment and buy in on these mission vision values. otherwise, it’s like, you know, you’re trying to go down the road in 14 different directions, right?
alice grey harrison: yes, and, and i do think a lot of it does come down to communication and being able to effectively communicate it. so what i mean by that is, if you took two firms that had and you looked at their values, i mean, chances are their values are going to be probably nine out of 10. the same, right? okay, we’re humans. we want relationships. we want trust. you know, but what does that mean in everyday life? what does relationships mean at your firm? does that mean command and follow, or does that mean everybody has a voice, and your voice matters, and we’re more consensus driven so being able to define that and even articulating it down to, what does that look like in everyday activities, what does that mean in terms of how you communicate with your clients? what does that mean and how you interact with each other? you know, responsiveness. everybody says, you know, you know, one of our client service guidelines is to be responsive. well, what does that mean? mm, hmm. does that mean we reach out to them once a year and give them their tax organizer? or does that mean that we have a policy that we respond within 24 hours to every email? does that mean that we always deliver 24 hours in advance of when we say we’re going to what, what does responsiveness mean? and if you can’t, if you can’t distill what those actions look like in everyday life, your team members are going to interpret it however their little minds want to, mm, hmm. and you can’t have alignment,
bonnie buol ruszczyk: i completely agree. and i would also say, like, you have to live it as well. yeah, absolutely. you can’t just be out there saying, alright, this, you know, we respond to emails in 24 hours. okay, but then the partners don’t do that, or they don’t set up a system where maybe an executive assistant can do that however that executed can be done differently by different people. but i’ve seen a lot of situations, and particularly since, you know, in move, we’re looking at culture and opportunities for everybody that’s there, regardless of, you know, race, age, gender, all of that. there are times when people say they believe something, but then, and i think they want everybody else to deliver on that. but there are cases where i’ve seen that the partner group or the leadership group doesn’t necessarily put their money where their mouth is.
alice grey harrison: yeah, or, or they think they believe it because their understanding of it is, it’s different. i mean, they they aren’t, maybe disingenuous, you know, but they don’t realize it until that that belief system is either put to the test, or or, or they are shown by example what that means in real life.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: now that’s a really good point.
alice grey harrison: i mean, i do think that, like, i use people first as a great example, because there isn’t a firm in the world that wouldn’t say, oh yeah, we’re people first. but what does that mean? because it can mean so many different things. mm, hmm,
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yeah. and i, you know, we’ve seen firms that execute on that and very well, and then those that don’t necessarily, you know, so. and i think that kind of takes me to the next question i wanted to talk about, which is change can often put some of these beliefs or values to the test, yes, and right now, something is always changing in accounting firms out there, whether a merger, pe infusion, you know, introducing a new service or just keeping pace, right? so, right? what are some of the biggest communication missteps that you’ve seen during these times of transition or just regular change?
alice grey harrison: okay, i have two, and i feel like a broken record, because i say these two all the time. you always start with the why. people have to understand why. and you don’t just communicate it once. you communicate it over and over and over and over again. and every single communication should include a nod towards the why, why this change is happening. and i use the example of the pandemic. i. um, during the pandemic, i worked for a very, very people first firm, and we started every single communication with the statement. our number one priority is the health, safety and well being of our people, our clients and our communities. and for this reason, whatever it was that we were communicating that day, you know, you are not returning to the office, or if you return to get i mean, whatever it was we were communicating, because i felt like that for about 365, days, i communicated something. and it was like one day i’d say one thing in the next day i’d say completely the opposite. but it was all in honoring the health, safety and well being of our people, our clients and our communities. and so just being able to repeat that was the why. that was always the why. so always being able to communicate that why is my first thing. and then the second is you need to communicate, even when you have nothing to communicate. and that may sound odd in this world that we live in, full of white noise and brown noise and all the noise, yeah, to communicate when you don’t have anything, but that is because we as humans, in the absence of information, our minds go to the darkest place, not the lightest place. and so, you know what happens is, if people, let’s just say, you know, the ceo, i don’t know what would be, well, i’m trying to think of something that might be, whatever, whatever it is if, if we say, okay, we’re going to implement a new tax methodology and and then we don’t, we tell people that, but the implementation doesn’t happen for three or four months. in that absence of all that, if you don’t communicate along the way, even if you’re just communicating milestones or saying, you know, this continues to be a work in progress. our our launch date remains the same. you know, nothing has changed. people are going to start to go to a dark place, and they can say, you know what, we haven’t heard anything about that new tax methodology. you know what? i bet ai is coming in. i bet they’re getting ai and we’re going to lose our jobs. i mean, that is exactly where our minds go, sure if we are not continuously given information, and assuring people that there is no additional information. the other thing on that front, it’s always helpful to say the next communication we plan to communicate again in two weeks, or four weeks, or whatever the next is, and then that four weeks, if there’s still nothing new, you read reiterate what was in the first communication, and you say, you know nothing new to communicate, because guess what? the chance that somebody remembers what was in that first communication is probably slim, or that they even symbol it in their inbox, because we have so much information coming in and out. so those are the two things. one, always start with the why and communicate the why over and over. and the second thing is, communicate even when there’s nothing to communicate.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: that’s a really good point, and not necessarily one i would have thought of the why certainly, but the communicate even when there’s nothing to communicate. you’re right. i mean, i’ve caught myself doing that, you know, and if we don’t hear something, then we’re like, oh, something must be wrong.
alice grey harrison: yeah, oh, my mother is the worst at that. she’s a great example. i haven’t heard from you. are you sick? no, mom, i’m busy.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yeah, i’m right. i am just fine, or for some reason i was going to like relationships, right? mac, sure, to go when i was dating. you know, if you didn’t hear from somebody you’d gone out on a date with, will you assume the word oh, he hated me or, right, oh, it was terrible. i’ll never hear from this person again. when, in reality, we all do that, we right, forget to respond, or don’t respond as quickly as somebody else. we’re busy. well, yeah, we’re busy um, but you’re right. you do tend it is probably everybody’s human nature. i’ve fallen into that trap for sure, like, say, filling in gaps, yes, things that you have no real basis to do so with, right? you still do, you know.
alice grey harrison: and i had a call yesterday with a brilliant marketer, and she was telling me they were going through some change. and i thought she did something that was really interesting along long these lines. she used ai to help her look through the message boards that were out there, read it and whatnot to see what negative things where, what were the negative things that people were saying about this change, that they were going not specific to her firm, but other firms who had been through this in the past, and what was the language they used to describe it? and she took it. she took. that exact language and those exact negative sentiments, and she addressed all of them in her faqs. so she went to the negative place that everybody’s mind is going to go, and she flipped it to show how this was going to be a positive. and i thought that was a really interesting way to to to communicate, to alleviate the mind from going, you already have gone there for people in the negativity and mitigated the risk of what they were thinking by sharing, you know, the truth about what was change. this change was going to mean to them.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: that’s fascinating. great way to use ai, yeah, for sure. wow. well, moving on to a little bit of a different topic, but a space where i live quite often is in a lot of firms, or maybe fewer than what i assume, but a number of firms, for sure, are kind of quietly retreating from their dei efforts, whether that’s however they describe them. and part of that retreat to me, and what i’m hearing from younger people that work at firms is they? i want to start at this one over to again, okay,
alice grey harrison: oh, this one’s a tricky one.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: it is, um, i want to move on to a little bit of a different topic and talk a little bit about dei, which is a space where i live in and, you know, as firms are quietly retreating from some of their dei efforts, not all of them, but quite a few, they risk losing the trust of younger employees who expect a visible commitment to inclusion and want to feel a sense of belonging. there’s study after study that says that, and what i recently saw that was like more than half of gen z would quit a job or not accept a job if the leadership did not have some sort of diversity. so this is important to them. how can firm leaders navigate this current climate of pulling back from dei without alienating some stakeholders or abandoning the values that matter most to their future leaders? i know it’s a lot.
alice grey harrison: it is a lot, and you know, a lot of it just depends on the leader. it depends on the firm. but one of the things that i’ve recommended to firms that i’m working with currently is that to really, you cannot go wrong if you place emphasis on your values, and you focus on your values rather than whatever is the i hate to say it, but you know the climate of the day, and i don’t know of anywhere from a accounting perspective, that would find it beneficial to have an environment that did not create a sense of belonging, because you can’t have teams working together if people don’t feel that they belong. so, you know, i think a lot of firms really are focusing on that sense of belonging rather than and they are abandoning some of their dei initiatives like, you know, i know pride month happened at a really tricky time, and i was working with a firm that, you know, thought last year they were going to really be able to come forward with their pride month, and instead, they didn’t even acknowledge it, which did cause issue in the firm. and i think that as a leader, they have to weigh the pros and cons of what what is at stake. is it worth it to not address it. you know, is it? is it? is it going against again, going back to that shared purpose? if we have a shared purpose, are we? are we going against our shared purpose by not acknowledging it? if that isn’t the case, and you don’t have that shared purpose, then you’re not really going to lose so much, and you may lose employees, but it’s but to but that may be something that, again, it isn’t as important to you and you you only were going along because it was the thing of the day at some point. and i hate to say that. because that’s not really what i personally believe, but that could be the case for a firm, but i have advised all of my firms to really focus on their values, because you cannot go wrong if you focus on your values and what it means to live your values and and that’s going to be unique for each firm. the words might be the same, but the way they’re lived out is probably going to be unique.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: and while you made a good point there with the idea that you may lose some people, but in reality, to go to the example of pride month, you know, if you have gay employees there who that’s not necessarily a group that you feel the need to make them feel like they belong, then they probably aren’t your next generation of leaders.
alice grey harrison: exactly. it’s a, i mean, i hate to say that. it pains me, but you know that employee is going to be better off somewhere else, yep. quite frankly, like adam, want to work somewhere that’s like, have this fake sense of belonging. i want to work somewhere that i belong. like, you know, it’d be like me working for an all male firm that really did not believe that women had a place in the work. you know, in the workplace, i don’t, i mean, if i, if i knew that’s not, they weren’t genuine in their stance, and they really didn’t think i belonged, then i don’t want to be there either, and i’m glad to know that that that’s how they feel. so i don’t know. i just that’s a tricky one. i mean, it’s really tricky, especially you started out by talking about the war on talent, because it is true, there is a war on talent. but at the same time it you said, you gotta think about what, what does the future of the firm look like, and what do you desire the leadership to look like? and you know that goes back to again, to your values and your shared, shared purpose.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: and kind of one of the good things that came out of covid is remote work, and that gives people looking for a firm to work for that fits their values a lot more opportunity. you know, yes. i mean, yes, i know. i had conversations. i had multiple conversations with firms before 2020 that were like, there is no way we could have remote work, and that would absolutely not work for us. and then come march 2020 we all gotta figure it out one way or the other, whether we like it or not, right? and somehow everybody did. and you know what that now does, and firms, some of them, have returned to office, kind of policies. i work with two firms right now that have gone the opposite of that and gone up and but it gives good employees and opportunity a much larger base of potential employers, absolutely, and i, i do like that a lot. and you know, i’m with you. if this is the leadership here is kind of saying what they think they need to say, but don’t really believe it. i do want to know that.
alice grey harrison: yeah, i mean, it’s a hard pill to swallow, and it’s hard for me to talk about, because i want everybody to sing kumbaya, create a sense of belonging for everyone, right? but in reality, that’s not the way the world is today.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yeah, yeah, one of the things i’ve heard you say before, and you may have actually said it today, is great communication can win hearts and minds and kind of what we’ve been talking about somewhat, but what are some practical ways for firm leaders to build connection and trust through communication? i know we’ve talked about communicating the why communicating even when you don’t have something to say, but i would say, how can they build that trust, especially when they’re afraid of saying the wrong thing, which connects to dei and a lot of things like that. there’s a lot of around them.
alice grey harrison: there is, you know, one of the things that i love to do is create personas. they are something that the external marketers have used forever and ever and ever, but also i believe in using them internally. if you have a 10 person firm or 10,000 person firm, you’ve got personas. so you’ve got different constituents that you’re communicating with. and by creating personas, you’re able to really understand what’s important to them. because when you communicate, i mean, you’re talking about a probably 30 to 40 year age span in most firms, so you have from probably 22 to 65 i’m not good at math, that’s why i’m in
bonnie buol ruszczyk: at the more than 44
alice grey harrison: more than 40 years. but what is important to the partner who’s about to retire is very different than what’s important to someone who’s just starting their career. and so as you’re trying to gain the confidence of your audience. it’s important to be able to speak to what is important to them, what are their priorities and and using personas really allows you to take that target audience and look at your message and say, have i answered this, or have i communicated in a way that’s going to resonate, and often that means doing more than one communication. you know, it may be a waterfall where, you know, the firm leadership gets the first instance that it says this, the partner group might get something a little bit different. your manager, senior managers might get something and then your staff might get something a little bit different. and it does create more work. it also could be in the same communication, but you’re able to address, you know, each of the different audience segments throughout the same message, but it’s just really important to think about what’s going through the mind of who of your audience when you communicate what? let me think about this. there’s a there’s a quote that i think it was george bernard shaw, the i uh, the the problem with communication is that we think that we communicated. that’s not exactly how it is, but the the bottom line is, what we think we have communicated is not what the actual person heard. and so, you know, the same thing goes when for leaders, when they’re communicating, they have to get into the mind of their audience in order to ensure that their message resonates.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yes, and i would add to that, long before i got into the accounting space, i actually worked for an internal communications firm at one point. and i think to go back to the quote that you were talking about, what you think you’ve communicated is not always what you’ve communicated. so surveying your people or testing messaging out with a small group of people or something like that to like make sure it that you’re saying what you want to say and it’s being received in yes, you want to receive it. now, i’m not saying lie to people by any means, but there’s ways say things that are going to be received better than others. and you’re right that in some cases, depends on your age or where you are, experience, or your experience even, i mean, you can’t get this granular, but even your experience with personal experience with educations, or, you know, if you worked with a firm that was acquired by another firm, and you’re about to be acquired again, you know, you bring your baggage to that experience, which indeed, kind of does influence how you’re going to receive messages. so i think that’s a really good advice and that.
alice grey harrison: you know, i brought up ai a minute ago. i’ll bring it up again. god, what an advantage we have now to be able to run messaging through ai, you know, share with ai. these are my target audiences. these are the personas you know. have i addressed what you know? have i addressed each of these audiences in this message? could something? is there anything in here that could be received, perceived negatively? how can i adjust my message? you know, i think all of that’s really, really important and and i also think some firm leaders do really well communicating live, either in person or on video, and some don’t. and i think leaders need to understand, what is their what are their communication strengths? and there’s nothing worse than somebody who is a terrible person on camera or live in front of an audience. using that as their primary communications channel, like you’re going to be unbelievable people are not going to trust you because you’re not being your authentic self up there. and so i think it’s important for you to figure out what your right medium is and use that as your primary communication channel, because all of the channels, you know, can be used in so many different ways.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: i agree, and i would add to that, like there are situations where speaking in front of a group or video is the proper channel, right? oh, absolutely. but media training. there is no shame in going out there and getting some media training absolutely. i mean, i remember, i went through it a long time, you know, we’re talking about 25 years ago, and it was awkward, and it felt weird and all of those things, but i learned stuff in that training that i still use whenever i do presentations.
alice grey harrison: absolutely i do too. i mean, you know, i always, and i’ve always been fairly good in on camera, on the stage, but there are certain things that i took with me and do use all the time. i mean, same with writing. if you’re a horrible writer and you’re ceo, then, like, maybe, right? maybe written messaging, you either get somebody to write it for you, or maybe you rely on a different communications channel.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: mm, hmm, and as somebody in that role be open to feedback, and, you know, don’t take it personally, like, yes. and he’s like, okay, you suck at this. yeah, okay. how can i get better? and you may never be, you know, the up doing ted talks on a regular basis or something, but at least you can feel more confident and feel like you’re communicating in a way where you’re going to be heard, yeah, and understood,
alice grey harrison: i guess, exactly,
bonnie buol ruszczyk: well for my last question, real question, and we’ve talked about a lot of things here, but for firm leaders who really do want to build a culture of transparency and become an employer of choice and get that messaging out there? what is the most important piece of advice you would offer?
alice grey harrison: oh, man, this is a hard one. bonnie, you know, i think, i think having a strategy. i know that sounds so cliche, but a lot of people think that if they can talk, if they can type, they’ve got a strategy, they’ll just communicate when they need to. and i think really understanding your organization or your firm and and creating a strategy that that that addresses what your firm’s vision is, what your firm’s strategy is. you mentioned surveying earlier, understanding, you know, what are the needs of the the audience members? maybe they, maybe they only really need to be communicated with once a quarter because their line partners are communicating all the time, maybe the line partners don’t communicate at all, and you need to communicate. do you know an update once a month? you know, whatever it is, it’s having that strategy that that informs that and informing the firm. this is my strategy. you can expect to hear from me on, you know, once a quarter, once a month. you know, whatever it is, you will hear from me via email. if we you know on, once a once, once a month with my blog, you will hear from me once a quarter with a firm wide update. you know, if we have breaking news such as a merger acquisition, something, bringing in a new partner out. it depends on the size of the firm. but anyway, you can expect to hear from me via a short video, whatever it is helping the firm understand. this is what i this is how i can expect to hear from my leader. i think that’s really important for people to know and using that in onboarding. so when you onboard a new employee, that how the communications for the firm is shared in that onboarding process. here’s where you go to get information, here’s how you will receive information, etc, etc.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: i think that’s great, and i would add to that because i worked with firms who do not have stated mission vision values.
alice grey harrison: oh, my gosh, yeah. oh, sorry i did. i thought that was table stakes.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: it should be. it absolutely should be. but there have been times when i get a blank stare back when i say, you know what is what? what is your mission and vision? values. so, you know, if that’s something that you haven’t created or gone through the process on, then i think that’s definitely something you should do right away, absolutely otherwise, how can you communicate that to everybody in the firm? and how can you make sure that there is a, you know, baseline expectations of how you’re going to act, how you’re going to treat clients.
alice grey harrison: yeah, oh, yeah, absolutely. and i’ll add to that, bonnie, some firms do have mission vision values, but they were created 25 years ago, and while the mission hasn’t changed or the values, the language has evolved over the past 25 years, and so it’s not going to resonate with your younger generation that you’re trying to recruit and retain. so there’s several firms i’ve worked with in the past year who brought me on just to help them bring the language up to 2025, and so, you know, we did not change. their mission didn’t change, but the way we articulate it changes. so i think also, i’ll add to that, that it’s really important that that mission, vision values, is written in a way that can that is memorable and that can be understood by the audience.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yeah, and that it just becomes something that you look at every whether it’s every couple of years or whatever it is. i mean, it’s certainly not something that’s going to change on a routine basis, right, regular basis, but it’s still smart to take a look at it, and hopefully it’s something that you’re living and seeing all the time. so yes, you know, there may be something in there that you’re like, you know, we might need to expand this or further clarify this or write something
alice grey harrison: one and they were at the end of time, but a great people are probably wondering, what does that even mean? a great example is the firm i worked for. our mission was we build valuable careers with our people and help our clients achieve their goals. and we brought on a new chief people officer, and she changed one word, because our mission statement was we build valuable careers for our people. and she came on and she said, we’re not building careers for them. we’re building careers with them. yeah, so that one word was a subtle change that really create showed that showed you how important relationships were at that firm. i mean, it was all about we are partners. we are we have relationships with each other. we are growing together, rather than the top down. kind of a more it that little difference really shows you the difference in the way people first looks at the
firm.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yeah, that’s great. and you’re right, that one word change there, because when you repeated it the second time, i’m like four. and then, of course, that was the word. so, yeah, that’s, that’s fascinating. well, thank you. i do want to close with just a couple of fun questions. i always joke that they entertain me, and i have heard from others that they enjoy hearing this. so when you were five years old or a kid, young child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
alice grey harrison: i wanted to be a veterinarian. i love animals, and i had horses, and i thought i was going to be a veterinarian. and guess what? i don’t like blood. i couldn’t be a veterinarian.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yeah, i kind of had sights on a similar thing. and also do not like blood so and then all the math and science that was involved.
alice grey harrison: oh yeah. also, there’s math. we’ve learned through this short time together that i’m not good at math.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: same. well, i know you just got back from a very big trip, but if you were given the chance to travel anywhere for free, you don’t have to worry about taking time off, or any of those things that keep us from just traveling wherever we want to, when we want to, where would you go and why?
alice grey harrison: you know, i think that i would probably go to new zealand because i travel a lot. bonnie knows this. i travel a lot, but new zealand is so far that you really need a good amount of time. it’s not somewhere that you go for a week. so i choose new zealand because you said time is not an issue. so i would go and spend a number of months in new zealand and learn what life is like in new zealand.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: that’s on my bucket list, too. i love that. and finally, if you can have one superpower, what would it be?
alice grey harrison: hmm, well, i have an 11 year old, so my superpower would be to help her understand that i am not. dom, the mom, is kind of smart and you know, it’s really not worth disagreeing with me.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: okay, that’s a first, right. that would be valuable. i would think, yeah,
alice grey harrison: i did just spend 24 hours a day for six weeks straight with her. so that is top of mind for me. i under because i was not very smart. many, many days this summer.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: i hear you, and i think that’s a pretty smart superpower. there you go. i like it.
alice grey harrison: but if i had, if i had, like, a real superpower it might be to bring shared understanding to the world we live in.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: i like that one too.
alice grey harrison: that one’s probably a little bit better, little more lofty and less selfish,
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yeah, but actually, together, they would accomplish the same thing, right?
alice grey harrison: exactly. yes. they would great point. i like it. it’s just, it’s just a different way to communicate that.
bonnie buol ruszczyk: yes, there we go. see, full circle, i love it. okay, love it. well, thank you so much. it’s always great to see you. alice grey, and appreciate you taking the time and look forward to hopefully seeing you in person somewhere soon.