July 17, 2023 • 24 mins
Tara Carcillo is the CEO of The Clearing, a people-centered management consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She’s passionate about the design of organizational development practices and their implementation into the operating and management environments in which today’s leaders must survive and thrive.
To that end, Tara has supported leaders across the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), American Red Cross, Small Business Administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Administrative Office of the Courts, and various global financial institutions.
She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Washington College and holds a Master of Arts in Whole Systems Design and Organizational Systems Renewal from Antioch University.
To that end, Tara has supported leaders across the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), American Red Cross, Small Business Administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Administrative Office of the Courts, and various global financial institutions.
She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Washington College and holds a Master of Arts in Whole Systems Design and Organizational Systems Renewal from Antioch University.
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(00:00):
M and T Bank President CEOs youshould know powered by Iheartadia. Let's meet
Tara Carsillo. She is the presidentand CEO for The Clearing, a Washington,
DC based company that helps government andcommercial leaders build strategy, managed to
change, and solve complex challenges asefficiently as possible. Before we talk more
(00:20):
about Tara's company, I first askedher to talk a little bit about herself,
where she's from, and her originstory. I grew up in a
family of four in upstate New York, just outside Poughkeepsie. My father was
a school teacher, my mother wasa school nurse, and I grew up
playing lots of sports, playing outsideand enjoying science and leadership and music.
(00:42):
Kind of an all around average Americankid at the time. Well, we're
here to talk about The Clearing andcurrently president and CEO, but I know
a lot happened before that. SoI do want to know about your journey
after school and what you did,and then we'll talk about everything about The
Clearing. Will tell us what happenedbefore. Yeah, sure, So I
grew up as a student athlete andafter high school made my way to a
(01:07):
small liberal arts school called Washington Collegeon the Eastern Shore of Maryland for my
undergrad and I played basketball and Iwas a rower there and got very interested
in leadership development at the time throughthe programs that they offered, but also
studied biology for my major. Andwhen I was finishing school, I wasn't
really ready to go to grad school, and I was looking for an opportunity
(01:30):
to take advantage of my curiosity andsort of like science thinking, but not
sit in a lab and be ableto interact with humans more so than things
and microscopes. And so I endedup being a rowing coach for a little
while, and I got my graduatedegree in something called whole Systems Design,
which is my foray into understanding organizationsand change and how humans experience change.
(01:57):
And that led me to very leadershipprograms and workshops outside my professional life,
where I learned a lot about facilitationand team dynamics and human dynamics. And
it was through that network that Imade my way into the consulting space.
And my first job in consulting wasin Washington, DC in the early two
(02:21):
thousands, and that company was focusedon a lot of transformation and government at
the time, and it was thepost nine to eleven era so I did
a lot of work with emergency respondersand radio communications interoperability, and then from
there I spent a few years,you know, focusing on my family.
I have three children now, andworked for a startup that failed. I
(02:46):
spent some time in government. Iworked with the General Services Administration, and
then found my way back into theconsulting space at the clearing Well. Thank
you for sharing all of that,And if you could indulge me just for
a second, And because most ofour listeners know that I'm a big sports
guy. It's been a big partof my life and I'm always very excited
to talk to a leader that playedsports. And the reason is is that
(03:08):
I know you know this, andI'd love for you to articulate this about
when you play organized sports and youhave that experience and then you take it
into a leadership position and how thatworks and the transition, about how it's
seamless, about leadership structure, learningand losing, and when you become the
head of a company. There areso many life lessons out there from sports
(03:30):
that can apply to the real world. It really is amazing, isn't it.
Absolutely I agree with you one hundredpercent. I think the influence of
athletics and sports in my life translatesinto paying attention to how I talk to
myself right in the midst of crisisor hard times. I apply it as
(03:50):
it relates to having a sense ofendurance and grit, you know, knowing
that everything can't be solved in themoment, and sometimes you just got to
hang with it, bear it out. I think also when I'm thinking about
hiring people or assigning teams or askingpeople to play certain roles in the organization,
I not only think about their individualcompetence and leadership skill, but also
(04:14):
how well they play with others andif you know, if they complement others,
and their ability to execute on what'sin front of them and what others
have to do. So that overallsense of designing a team, and ultimately
just the idea that you can havean identity with a group of people where
you can work really hard but alsocelebrate and play hard. You know.
(04:35):
I did not serve time in themilitary, but I see some of the
camaraderie that those men and women andothers have built as a result of triumph
and dealing with hard situations. AndI think that sense in the private sector
can just be lightly touched in termsof the conditions of small business can face
(04:56):
from time to time. So Ireference it all the time, all the
time. It's a big part ofmy identity before and probably to this day.
Okay, before we talk about themission statement and exactly what you do
at the clearing, I do wantto talk about you joining the company,
because you did in twenty twelve,and then you became president and CEO in
twenty fourteen. So I've seen yourresume. It's absolutely spectacular, and I
(05:19):
know why the company wanted you,But why did you want to join the
clearing? Yeah, I had beenspending time on the government or client side
based on my perspective today, andI learned a tremendous amount about what I
thought worked before I joined the governmentside and my client side, and what
(05:42):
it actually felt like to be aleader in a large organization. And you
know, long story story, itwas not nearly as simple as some of
my tips and tricks and tools seemedto make it. And so when I
had the opportunity to come back andbe on the consulting or external consulting side,
I felt quite privileged because I washumbled by my experience of being able
(06:05):
to sit in my client seat,and I knew I liked this work right.
I had grown up doing this workas a professional, So this was
just a chance to kind of stepout of the context that I was in
the customer side and step back intoa service delivery side. So what did
you do for the first two yearsfrom twenty twelve before you became president and
(06:26):
CEO in twenty fourteen, I wasdeep in the delivery of the company.
We were not big at the time, about a dozen or so people,
and so everybody was working on clientwork. There wasn't much overhead around that
we could hold on to, andso I spent time working with the Red
Cross as a client. I spentsome time supporting projects with United States Air
(06:47):
Force, and of course continued todo some work in relationship to the General
Services Administration related to workplace dynamics andhow humans were using real estate at the
time and how that was on thefront end of changing. Certainly, during
the era of the pandemic we sawa lot of that changed radically, but
(07:10):
folks had been experimenting with how touse real estate and technology in new ways,
and so I did some consulting workin that regard as well. All
Right, we're going to circle backabout becoming the CEO and president, because
I think there's an exciting story fora lot of our future leaders out there
about making that leap, not onlya leap of faith, but also all
the extra duties that come on youas a president and CEO and all the
(07:30):
other things that come with running acompany. But before that, let's talk
about the clearing. What's the missionstatement right now? Yeah, So it
has always been and continues to be. We're a company that believes in,
inspires and outfits people to take onextraordinary causes that matter, and we like
to sit alongside those leaders, whetherthey're in the public sector or private sector,
(07:53):
to help them think through the strategiesfor creating change in their organizations.
I am intrigued by name to justkind of catch my fancy saying, well,
that's a cool name for a company, but I'm not sure maybe what
they do. So what say,do you know the origin of the name
of the company? I sure do. The founders, John Miller and Chris
McGough, having spent a lot oftime in the consulting world and certainly facing
(08:16):
a lot of public and private sectorleaders. They discovered that these senior leaders
very rarely had a quiet place toreally think through all the different dynamics that
they were facing as they were managingand leading in organizations. And so they
thought that it would be really powerfulin the heart of DC to create a
(08:37):
consulting firm that allowed that space forsenior leaders where they had the ability to
be sort of intellectually vulnerable and alsoexplore all the dynamics inside their personal experience
of leadership as well as the politicsand organizations that we're sitting inside. And
so that's where the nature of theClearing showed up in terms of the company
(09:00):
name. I love that and itmakes a lot of sense. All right.
So if somebody has been introduced tothe Clearing for the first ever time,
your pitch, what exactly do youdo? Yeah, So we're a
professional services firm, right. Wehelp leaders execute on change strategies. Sometimes
they need help designing those strategies,sometimes they need validation of those strategies,
(09:20):
and sometimes they need assistance in supportand how to execute on them. And
so we really understand the human dynamicsand the human dimension inside organizations and the
ecosystems inside which many of these organizationssit, and so sometimes the technical solution
that is warranted inside a particular opportunityor problem for a leader can be straightforward,
(09:43):
but then when you have to dealwith the humans who sit next to
those technical components and functions, itcan become quite complex and in some cases
quite emergent. So you can createa plan that makes sense on paper,
but then you move out into theworld and you're experiencing all these different components
of organizations and structures and biases andprocesses. So we help our clients make
(10:07):
sense of all that and continue toget measurable results. So, Tara,
I don't want to assume that thereare other businesses and companies just like yours.
But if there's anybody that does somethingsimilar to you, how do you
differentiate yourself from other businesses that dowhat you do? Yeah? Well,
in particular, we tend to hirea diverse set of employees from senior levels
(10:30):
all the way to early early careeremployees, and we ask them to think
about problem solving source from a varietyof ways, thinking about the technical portions
of the problem, thinking about analyticsfrom both a quantitative and qualitative standpoint.
So how are we applying data scienceto change management and change execution today?
(10:54):
That's really different. You know,a lot of times change firms focus on
process alone but fail to measure theresults that they're creating alongside their clients.
And so we shink and use designthinking and systems thinking and return on investment
in a way that I think oursenior leaders can go back to the individuals
(11:16):
they serve or have to report to, and they can talk about the investments
they made on the human dimension ofa strategy and really prove out some measurable
results. One of the things thatpique my curiosity about what you and your
team do is that you are certainlyin the people industry, and that means
sometimes face to face contact like wehad before COVID, but that's changed everything
(11:39):
from just people in the workplace regularlyto working remotely. So as a leader,
I'm curious how you navigate that beingin a people business and sometimes having
to do things remotely or not.How does it work? Yeah? Well,
one of the things we've learned alot about and has been part of
a core service area offering is theculture of an organization, and so we've
(12:01):
spent quite a bit of time describingand making explicit what culture means inside a
virtual environment, inside a physical faceto face environment, you know, And
we think about culture in the waythat there are behaviors that are observable that
individuals in that organization endorse and promoteor they don't tolerate. And so we
(12:24):
look to establish and design in waysthat humans can continue to engage and collaborate
and interact in the virtual space.But we also know that there's occasions where
being in person really does matter fora team performance, for a leader's engagement,
you know, tackling conflict. There'sreally situations where it becomes quite challenging
(12:45):
to do that in the virtual space. But we found that leaders today are
being asked to do both. So, you know, the unique part of
our company is that we live andexperience the solutions and tools that we offer
to our customers. And so Ithink that's a little bit of good medicine,
right. It keeps it keeps usfresh and clear on what does and
(13:07):
doesn't work. It keeps our empathyhigh and compassion for our customers. And
we certainly know that, you know, continuously looking to like stop doing things
that you've failed on or promote thethings that you unexpectedly succeeded on. Is
all part of leadership and management,regardless of the organization that you lead.
Tera. I want to circle backto you becoming leader almost a decade ago
(13:30):
now in twenty fourteen as president andCEO, and I've run into a lot
of people, no matter what theydo for a living, that aren't interested
in ascending. But there's a lotof people that do want to grow,
challenge themselves take that leap of faith. So why did you in twenty fourteen?
Yeah, I think you know,the founders at the time, we're
looking to rethink who is in whatrole in the organization. We had sort
(13:54):
of reached a growth plateau, andwe we're trying to figure out might changing
individuals in the seats that they weresitting in and the positions that they were
performing in make a difference. Andyou know, I really I remember not
at all feeling ready, but thecompany needed something different. And I think
that's a critical part of understanding careerjourneys that you have to be able to
(14:18):
listen to the invitation, right,what are the conditions and context that you're
in, and you know the invitationthat sits inside. It might come in
the form of a title change oran opportunity change. It might come with
compensation, but it might not.But I think so often when we're faced
with choice and changing the role thatwe're playing in any given day, it's
(14:41):
being really clear on what you're beinginvited to do and and sort of having
the courage to potentially be bad atit. You know, I don't at
all feel like at the time Iwas ready or equipped or fully prepared,
but I was all in. Youknow. It wasn't a half yes when
invited me into the role. Itwas a full yes. And I think
(15:03):
that level of commitment probably propelled mefor the first part of my tenure,
and then certainly learning and continuing tolisten and progress along the way has probably
carried me to today. Well,I'm glad you shared all that, and
I'm going to go back to anothersports analogy that I know you know about
that I share with my twenty oneyear old that also played sports, and
(15:24):
I'm sure you share with your kidsand all your staff, is that there's
a lot of failing going on there, and if you don't fail, you're
not going to learn how to doit incorrectly, so you can do it
correctly the next time around. It'sa hard lesson out there. That's what
sports is all about. I can'ttell you how many championship teams I've seen
out there the loss badly at first, came back, didn't like that feeling,
came back and won the championship.So I'm sure you can really relate
(15:46):
to that analogy, absolutely, andjust the sense of upon a quote failure
and actual failure, knowing what choicesyou made that contributed to that, and
sort of fully owning that and understandingwhat we're your assumptions at the time,
what were your beliefs at the time, and then how to progress. You
(16:07):
know, I think you know we'rewe're a little bit biased, very much
so in our societies, in ourschool systems at times were that single grade
or that single moment is the beall end all when when we all really
know and the practice of leadership orlife for that matter, that it really
is much more. I think abouthow you recover and how you move forward
from those moments of hardship, andso again, right, sports for sure,
(16:33):
Right if I hadn't lost in myhigh school basketball team, you know,
I probably wouldn't think much of myself, you know, when I tripped
over something inside the space of beinga CEO or a manager today. Yeah,
I concur and I always you knowin those situations too, that there
are so many life lessons that comeout of it. And I always tell
(16:53):
my daughter to the same thing.It's how you respond after that failure,
that mistake, and the cream willit rises to the top almost all the
time. So you and I areon the same page about that. I
did want to ask you about somesuccess stories, or at least one,
but also some challenges because we'd liketo talk to our leaders, because you
know, it's not all unicorns andrainbows all the time when you're running a
company. Let's put a pin ina success story just for now. What
(17:15):
kind of challenges do you have currentlywith a company? Yeah, well,
you know, as a as asmall company, you know, you always
have a sense of vulnerability in termsof what I've heard called rogue waves,
right, extreme conditions impacting your abilitiesto succeed. But they may be things
that you cannot affect, you know. So our recent our country's recent deliberation
(17:40):
related to the debt ceiling was goingto have a significant impact both on us
as citizens but us as business ownersand managers. That was going to be
a really big deal. You know, we were facing possible scenarios where we
would need to continue to provide servicesto our government clients with no confirmation of
when we would be paid. Soagain, as a business manager and employer,
(18:03):
that creates a lot of complexity forfiguring out what do I communicate to
my employees? How do I communicate, but also how do I convey that
some of these factors really truly areout of our control. And so you
know, some things we do inthose situations as we operate against some clear
and explicit principles. So we say, look, we can't control all these
factors, but this is our valueset, and we're going to seek to
(18:27):
make decisions that reflect our value set. And I think that that one small
move alone sometimes can create a senseof sort of trust and safety across employees
and managers that allows you to kindof progress inside those really ambiguous conditions and
survive them, you know, ideallyor if not, again feel like you
(18:48):
were clear and transparent and accountable forthe decisions you made that impacted others.
So that was probably my quote scariestmoment as of late is you know,
no more revenue, lots of employees, but still having to provide services.
Understood, when you're in charge ofthe many people and lives are on the
line and families are at stake,I get it completely. When you just
want to put food on the table. So understood in message receive All right,
(19:11):
how about a success story. Youdon't have to name the company anybody
specific, but maybe over the lastseveral years and you ask yourself, you
know what, I think we knockedone out of the park for that client.
That that's a pretty cool story.Yeah. Well, you know.
One of the things that we areable to do is sort of in this
small but mighty company, is becauseof our proximity to very senior leaders.
(19:33):
We're touching hugely complex problems like organizationstrying to figure out how to provide secure
cloud services and of the ramifications ofthat and the speed with which that needs
to be done on the government sideor the private sector side. A few
years ago, we had the privilegeof working alongside members inside the Department of
Defense to stand up and launch anew defense agency that focused on the recovery
(20:02):
and identification of fallen service members.There had been a number of agencies that
had tackled that problem for quite anumber of years, and it became clear
that consolidation of all those efforts neededto be drawn down into one agency,
and so we supported many leaders onthat front. And so in my mind,
those are some of the biggest challengesand problems of today, right the
(20:23):
appropriate respect and commitment to our servicemembers and making sure they are honored for
what they've done for our country.But certainly on the technology side, because
it's become so embedded in the waysthat we interact as humans in our homes
as well as organizations, to makesure that we're attending to risk and safety
issues that are really paramount in today'sleadership environment. Tara. We also like
(20:45):
to ask our leaders about philanthropic andcharity work and when you have time,
because we know everybody's so busy,but when you do have time to do
anything, when it comes to charablethings, what do you like to be
a part of. So because ofour organization a unique skill and building coalitions
and understanding customer experience, what I'vefound is that members of our employee base
(21:08):
have found themselves next to really complexproblems like gun violence and the opioid crisis
in this country, and so we'veworked with organizations like Building Blocks DC and
Livelong DC again respectively, on issuesrelating to the safety of our communities.
And so we work across the publicand private sector in those instances to ensure
(21:33):
that the right conversation as being hadand that you know, these coalitions essentially
of the willing, are able toorganize themselves and have a greater collective impact
than if they've worked independently, sothat coalition building work sits inside our paid
customers as well as our pro bonowork. And certainly we feel very proud
of our impact in the local DCarea, in particular given this as our
(21:57):
home base. Outstanding thank you forsharing. As we put a bow in
our conversation once again, there's goingto be a lot of people that are
introduced to the clearing for the firsttime. So well, that's sort of
what's one takeaway that you like allour listeners to take away with when it
comes to your company and what youdo. I think we're incredibly in tune
to the level of responsibility today's leadershold across taking care of employees, customers,
(22:25):
citizens, organizations and the changing natureagain of the threat and risk inside
organizations. I think the future isbright, right. I think there's a
lot of possibility with how technology isevolving, but I don't think today's leaders
and managers receive adequate support, andso I think a company like ours helps
(22:47):
sit alongside them, make sense ofthis environment that we're all facing, and
make the best possible choices on thefewest most important priorities at the time.
So that sits inside lots of differenttopical issues and lots of different organizations,
and I look forward to the nextset of opportunities right that The Clearing has
an opportunity to face alongside our clientsand customers. I love that well said.
(23:08):
I know that you're hiring and lookingfor great people, but if somebody's
interested in learning more about the Clearing, maybe you want to partner with you
work with you in several different waysthat they can. What's that website address
www dot the Clearing dot com.Tara, I can thank you enough for
your time. It's a cool company, you know. One of my big
takeaways of what you do is thata lot of people out there in companies
(23:33):
freeze. I've seen it through mywhole life. When the stress is hitting
or they don't have the proper infrastructureor the proper people there, that you
come in and integrate yourselves and partnerup when people freeze and help them out.
It's a really cool service and acompany that you have. It's really
you really need stuff. Yeah,for sure, there's always a way,
right, you might not be ableto the moment, but there's always a
way. Yeah. It's been apleasure. Thank you for having me while
(23:56):
it is our pleasure, and thankyou for joining us on CEO as you
should know and continues us. Thankyou. Our community partner, M ANDT
Bank supports CEOs you should know aspart of their ongoing commitment to building strong
communities, and that starts by backingthe businesses within them. As a Bank
for communities, M and T believesin dedicating time, talent, and resources
(24:17):
to help local businesses thrive because whenbusinesses succeed, our communities succeed.
M and T Bank President CEOs youshould know powered by Iheartadia. Let's meet
Tara Carsillo. She is the presidentand CEO for The Clearing, a Washington,
DC based company that helps government andcommercial leaders build strategy, managed to
change, and solve complex challenges asefficiently as possible. Before we talk more
(00:20):
about Tara's company, I first askedher to talk a little bit about herself,
where she's from, and her originstory. I grew up in a
family of four in upstate New York, just outside Poughkeepsie. My father was
a school teacher, my mother wasa school nurse, and I grew up
playing lots of sports, playing outsideand enjoying science and leadership and music.
(00:42):
Kind of an all around average Americankid at the time. Well, we're
here to talk about The Clearing andcurrently president and CEO, but I know
a lot happened before that. SoI do want to know about your journey
after school and what you did,and then we'll talk about everything about The
Clearing. Will tell us what happenedbefore. Yeah, sure, So I
grew up as a student athlete andafter high school made my way to a
(01:07):
small liberal arts school called Washington Collegeon the Eastern Shore of Maryland for my
undergrad and I played basketball and Iwas a rower there and got very interested
in leadership development at the time throughthe programs that they offered, but also
studied biology for my major. Andwhen I was finishing school, I wasn't
really ready to go to grad school, and I was looking for an opportunity
(01:30):
to take advantage of my curiosity andsort of like science thinking, but not
sit in a lab and be ableto interact with humans more so than things
and microscopes. And so I endedup being a rowing coach for a little
while, and I got my graduatedegree in something called whole Systems Design,
which is my foray into understanding organizationsand change and how humans experience change.
(01:57):
And that led me to very leadershipprograms and workshops outside my professional life,
where I learned a lot about facilitationand team dynamics and human dynamics. And
it was through that network that Imade my way into the consulting space.
And my first job in consulting wasin Washington, DC in the early two
(02:21):
thousands, and that company was focusedon a lot of transformation and government at
the time, and it was thepost nine to eleven era so I did
a lot of work with emergency respondersand radio communications interoperability, and then from
there I spent a few years,you know, focusing on my family.
I have three children now, andworked for a startup that failed. I
(02:46):
spent some time in government. Iworked with the General Services Administration, and
then found my way back into theconsulting space at the clearing Well. Thank
you for sharing all of that,And if you could indulge me just for
a second, And because most ofour listeners know that I'm a big sports
guy. It's been a big partof my life and I'm always very excited
to talk to a leader that playedsports. And the reason is is that
(03:08):
I know you know this, andI'd love for you to articulate this about
when you play organized sports and youhave that experience and then you take it
into a leadership position and how thatworks and the transition, about how it's
seamless, about leadership structure, learningand losing, and when you become the
head of a company. There areso many life lessons out there from sports
(03:30):
that can apply to the real world. It really is amazing, isn't it.
Absolutely I agree with you one hundredpercent. I think the influence of
athletics and sports in my life translatesinto paying attention to how I talk to
myself right in the midst of crisisor hard times. I apply it as
(03:50):
it relates to having a sense ofendurance and grit, you know, knowing
that everything can't be solved in themoment, and sometimes you just got to
hang with it, bear it out. I think also when I'm thinking about
hiring people or assigning teams or askingpeople to play certain roles in the organization,
I not only think about their individualcompetence and leadership skill, but also
(04:14):
how well they play with others andif you know, if they complement others,
and their ability to execute on what'sin front of them and what others
have to do. So that overallsense of designing a team, and ultimately
just the idea that you can havean identity with a group of people where
you can work really hard but alsocelebrate and play hard. You know.
(04:35):
I did not serve time in themilitary, but I see some of the
camaraderie that those men and women andothers have built as a result of triumph
and dealing with hard situations. AndI think that sense in the private sector
can just be lightly touched in termsof the conditions of small business can face
(04:56):
from time to time. So Ireference it all the time, all the
time. It's a big part ofmy identity before and probably to this day.
Okay, before we talk about themission statement and exactly what you do
at the clearing, I do wantto talk about you joining the company,
because you did in twenty twelve,and then you became president and CEO in
twenty fourteen. So I've seen yourresume. It's absolutely spectacular, and I
(05:19):
know why the company wanted you,But why did you want to join the
clearing? Yeah, I had beenspending time on the government or client side
based on my perspective today, andI learned a tremendous amount about what I
thought worked before I joined the governmentside and my client side, and what
(05:42):
it actually felt like to be aleader in a large organization. And you
know, long story story, itwas not nearly as simple as some of
my tips and tricks and tools seemedto make it. And so when I
had the opportunity to come back andbe on the consulting or external consulting side,
I felt quite privileged because I washumbled by my experience of being able
(06:05):
to sit in my client seat,and I knew I liked this work right.
I had grown up doing this workas a professional, So this was
just a chance to kind of stepout of the context that I was in
the customer side and step back intoa service delivery side. So what did
you do for the first two yearsfrom twenty twelve before you became president and
(06:26):
CEO in twenty fourteen, I wasdeep in the delivery of the company.
We were not big at the time, about a dozen or so people,
and so everybody was working on clientwork. There wasn't much overhead around that
we could hold on to, andso I spent time working with the Red
Cross as a client. I spentsome time supporting projects with United States Air
(06:47):
Force, and of course continued todo some work in relationship to the General
Services Administration related to workplace dynamics andhow humans were using real estate at the
time and how that was on thefront end of changing. Certainly, during
the era of the pandemic we sawa lot of that changed radically, but
(07:10):
folks had been experimenting with how touse real estate and technology in new ways,
and so I did some consulting workin that regard as well. All
Right, we're going to circle backabout becoming the CEO and president, because
I think there's an exciting story fora lot of our future leaders out there
about making that leap, not onlya leap of faith, but also all
the extra duties that come on youas a president and CEO and all the
(07:30):
other things that come with running acompany. But before that, let's talk
about the clearing. What's the missionstatement right now? Yeah, So it
has always been and continues to be. We're a company that believes in,
inspires and outfits people to take onextraordinary causes that matter, and we like
to sit alongside those leaders, whetherthey're in the public sector or private sector,
(07:53):
to help them think through the strategiesfor creating change in their organizations.
I am intrigued by name to justkind of catch my fancy saying, well,
that's a cool name for a company, but I'm not sure maybe what
they do. So what say,do you know the origin of the name
of the company? I sure do. The founders, John Miller and Chris
McGough, having spent a lot oftime in the consulting world and certainly facing
(08:16):
a lot of public and private sectorleaders. They discovered that these senior leaders
very rarely had a quiet place toreally think through all the different dynamics that
they were facing as they were managingand leading in organizations. And so they
thought that it would be really powerfulin the heart of DC to create a
(08:37):
consulting firm that allowed that space forsenior leaders where they had the ability to
be sort of intellectually vulnerable and alsoexplore all the dynamics inside their personal experience
of leadership as well as the politicsand organizations that we're sitting inside. And
so that's where the nature of theClearing showed up in terms of the company
(09:00):
name. I love that and itmakes a lot of sense. All right.
So if somebody has been introduced tothe Clearing for the first ever time,
your pitch, what exactly do youdo? Yeah, So we're a
professional services firm, right. Wehelp leaders execute on change strategies. Sometimes
they need help designing those strategies,sometimes they need validation of those strategies,
(09:20):
and sometimes they need assistance in supportand how to execute on them. And
so we really understand the human dynamicsand the human dimension inside organizations and the
ecosystems inside which many of these organizationssit, and so sometimes the technical solution
that is warranted inside a particular opportunityor problem for a leader can be straightforward,
(09:43):
but then when you have to dealwith the humans who sit next to
those technical components and functions, itcan become quite complex and in some cases
quite emergent. So you can createa plan that makes sense on paper,
but then you move out into theworld and you're experiencing all these different components
of organizations and structures and biases andprocesses. So we help our clients make
(10:07):
sense of all that and continue toget measurable results. So, Tara,
I don't want to assume that thereare other businesses and companies just like yours.
But if there's anybody that does somethingsimilar to you, how do you
differentiate yourself from other businesses that dowhat you do? Yeah? Well,
in particular, we tend to hirea diverse set of employees from senior levels
(10:30):
all the way to early early careeremployees, and we ask them to think
about problem solving source from a varietyof ways, thinking about the technical portions
of the problem, thinking about analyticsfrom both a quantitative and qualitative standpoint.
So how are we applying data scienceto change management and change execution today?
(10:54):
That's really different. You know,a lot of times change firms focus on
process alone but fail to measure theresults that they're creating alongside their clients.
And so we shink and use designthinking and systems thinking and return on investment
in a way that I think oursenior leaders can go back to the individuals
(11:16):
they serve or have to report to, and they can talk about the investments
they made on the human dimension ofa strategy and really prove out some measurable
results. One of the things thatpique my curiosity about what you and your
team do is that you are certainlyin the people industry, and that means
sometimes face to face contact like wehad before COVID, but that's changed everything
(11:39):
from just people in the workplace regularlyto working remotely. So as a leader,
I'm curious how you navigate that beingin a people business and sometimes having
to do things remotely or not.How does it work? Yeah? Well,
one of the things we've learned alot about and has been part of
a core service area offering is theculture of an organization, and so we've
(12:01):
spent quite a bit of time describingand making explicit what culture means inside a
virtual environment, inside a physical faceto face environment, you know, And
we think about culture in the waythat there are behaviors that are observable that
individuals in that organization endorse and promoteor they don't tolerate. And so we
(12:24):
look to establish and design in waysthat humans can continue to engage and collaborate
and interact in the virtual space.But we also know that there's occasions where
being in person really does matter fora team performance, for a leader's engagement,
you know, tackling conflict. There'sreally situations where it becomes quite challenging
(12:45):
to do that in the virtual space. But we found that leaders today are
being asked to do both. So, you know, the unique part of
our company is that we live andexperience the solutions and tools that we offer
to our customers. And so Ithink that's a little bit of good medicine,
right. It keeps it keeps usfresh and clear on what does and
(13:07):
doesn't work. It keeps our empathyhigh and compassion for our customers. And
we certainly know that, you know, continuously looking to like stop doing things
that you've failed on or promote thethings that you unexpectedly succeeded on. Is
all part of leadership and management,regardless of the organization that you lead.
Tera. I want to circle backto you becoming leader almost a decade ago
(13:30):
now in twenty fourteen as president andCEO, and I've run into a lot
of people, no matter what theydo for a living, that aren't interested
in ascending. But there's a lotof people that do want to grow,
challenge themselves take that leap of faith. So why did you in twenty fourteen?
Yeah, I think you know,the founders at the time, we're
looking to rethink who is in whatrole in the organization. We had sort
(13:54):
of reached a growth plateau, andwe we're trying to figure out might changing
individuals in the seats that they weresitting in and the positions that they were
performing in make a difference. Andyou know, I really I remember not
at all feeling ready, but thecompany needed something different. And I think
that's a critical part of understanding careerjourneys that you have to be able to
(14:18):
listen to the invitation, right,what are the conditions and context that you're
in, and you know the invitationthat sits inside. It might come in
the form of a title change oran opportunity change. It might come with
compensation, but it might not.But I think so often when we're faced
with choice and changing the role thatwe're playing in any given day, it's
(14:41):
being really clear on what you're beinginvited to do and and sort of having
the courage to potentially be bad atit. You know, I don't at
all feel like at the time Iwas ready or equipped or fully prepared,
but I was all in. Youknow. It wasn't a half yes when
invited me into the role. Itwas a full yes. And I think
(15:03):
that level of commitment probably propelled mefor the first part of my tenure,
and then certainly learning and continuing tolisten and progress along the way has probably
carried me to today. Well,I'm glad you shared all that, and
I'm going to go back to anothersports analogy that I know you know about
that I share with my twenty oneyear old that also played sports, and
(15:24):
I'm sure you share with your kidsand all your staff, is that there's
a lot of failing going on there, and if you don't fail, you're
not going to learn how to doit incorrectly, so you can do it
correctly the next time around. It'sa hard lesson out there. That's what
sports is all about. I can'ttell you how many championship teams I've seen
out there the loss badly at first, came back, didn't like that feeling,
came back and won the championship.So I'm sure you can really relate
(15:46):
to that analogy, absolutely, andjust the sense of upon a quote failure
and actual failure, knowing what choicesyou made that contributed to that, and
sort of fully owning that and understandingwhat we're your assumptions at the time,
what were your beliefs at the time, and then how to progress. You
(16:07):
know, I think you know we'rewe're a little bit biased, very much
so in our societies, in ourschool systems at times were that single grade
or that single moment is the beall end all when when we all really
know and the practice of leadership orlife for that matter, that it really
is much more. I think abouthow you recover and how you move forward
from those moments of hardship, andso again, right, sports for sure,
(16:33):
Right if I hadn't lost in myhigh school basketball team, you know,
I probably wouldn't think much of myself, you know, when I tripped
over something inside the space of beinga CEO or a manager today. Yeah,
I concur and I always you knowin those situations too, that there
are so many life lessons that comeout of it. And I always tell
(16:53):
my daughter to the same thing.It's how you respond after that failure,
that mistake, and the cream willit rises to the top almost all the
time. So you and I areon the same page about that. I
did want to ask you about somesuccess stories, or at least one,
but also some challenges because we'd liketo talk to our leaders, because you
know, it's not all unicorns andrainbows all the time when you're running a
company. Let's put a pin ina success story just for now. What
(17:15):
kind of challenges do you have currentlywith a company? Yeah, well,
you know, as a as asmall company, you know, you always
have a sense of vulnerability in termsof what I've heard called rogue waves,
right, extreme conditions impacting your abilitiesto succeed. But they may be things
that you cannot affect, you know. So our recent our country's recent deliberation
(17:40):
related to the debt ceiling was goingto have a significant impact both on us
as citizens but us as business ownersand managers. That was going to be
a really big deal. You know, we were facing possible scenarios where we
would need to continue to provide servicesto our government clients with no confirmation of
when we would be paid. Soagain, as a business manager and employer,
(18:03):
that creates a lot of complexity forfiguring out what do I communicate to
my employees? How do I communicate, but also how do I convey that
some of these factors really truly areout of our control. And so you
know, some things we do inthose situations as we operate against some clear
and explicit principles. So we say, look, we can't control all these
factors, but this is our valueset, and we're going to seek to
(18:27):
make decisions that reflect our value set. And I think that that one small
move alone sometimes can create a senseof sort of trust and safety across employees
and managers that allows you to kindof progress inside those really ambiguous conditions and
survive them, you know, ideallyor if not, again feel like you
(18:48):
were clear and transparent and accountable forthe decisions you made that impacted others.
So that was probably my quote scariestmoment as of late is you know,
no more revenue, lots of employees, but still having to provide services.
Understood, when you're in charge ofthe many people and lives are on the
line and families are at stake,I get it completely. When you just
want to put food on the table. So understood in message receive All right,
(19:11):
how about a success story. Youdon't have to name the company anybody
specific, but maybe over the lastseveral years and you ask yourself, you
know what, I think we knockedone out of the park for that client.
That that's a pretty cool story.Yeah. Well, you know.
One of the things that we areable to do is sort of in this
small but mighty company, is becauseof our proximity to very senior leaders.
(19:33):
We're touching hugely complex problems like organizationstrying to figure out how to provide secure
cloud services and of the ramifications ofthat and the speed with which that needs
to be done on the government sideor the private sector side. A few
years ago, we had the privilegeof working alongside members inside the Department of
Defense to stand up and launch anew defense agency that focused on the recovery
(20:02):
and identification of fallen service members.There had been a number of agencies that
had tackled that problem for quite anumber of years, and it became clear
that consolidation of all those efforts neededto be drawn down into one agency,
and so we supported many leaders onthat front. And so in my mind,
those are some of the biggest challengesand problems of today, right the
(20:23):
appropriate respect and commitment to our servicemembers and making sure they are honored for
what they've done for our country.But certainly on the technology side, because
it's become so embedded in the waysthat we interact as humans in our homes
as well as organizations, to makesure that we're attending to risk and safety
issues that are really paramount in today'sleadership environment. Tara. We also like
(20:45):
to ask our leaders about philanthropic andcharity work and when you have time,
because we know everybody's so busy,but when you do have time to do
anything, when it comes to charablethings, what do you like to be
a part of. So because ofour organization a unique skill and building coalitions
and understanding customer experience, what I'vefound is that members of our employee base
(21:08):
have found themselves next to really complexproblems like gun violence and the opioid crisis
in this country, and so we'veworked with organizations like Building Blocks DC and
Livelong DC again respectively, on issuesrelating to the safety of our communities.
And so we work across the publicand private sector in those instances to ensure
(21:33):
that the right conversation as being hadand that you know, these coalitions essentially
of the willing, are able toorganize themselves and have a greater collective impact
than if they've worked independently, sothat coalition building work sits inside our paid
customers as well as our pro bonowork. And certainly we feel very proud
of our impact in the local DCarea, in particular given this as our
(21:57):
home base. Outstanding thank you forsharing. As we put a bow in
our conversation once again, there's goingto be a lot of people that are
introduced to the clearing for the firsttime. So well, that's sort of
what's one takeaway that you like allour listeners to take away with when it
comes to your company and what youdo. I think we're incredibly in tune
to the level of responsibility today's leadershold across taking care of employees, customers,
(22:25):
citizens, organizations and the changing natureagain of the threat and risk inside
organizations. I think the future isbright, right. I think there's a
lot of possibility with how technology isevolving, but I don't think today's leaders
and managers receive adequate support, andso I think a company like ours helps
(22:47):
sit alongside them, make sense ofthis environment that we're all facing, and
make the best possible choices on thefewest most important priorities at the time.
So that sits inside lots of differenttopical issues and lots of different organizations,
and I look forward to the nextset of opportunities right that The Clearing has
an opportunity to face alongside our clientsand customers. I love that well said.
(23:08):
I know that you're hiring and lookingfor great people, but if somebody's
interested in learning more about the Clearing, maybe you want to partner with you
work with you in several different waysthat they can. What's that website address
www dot the Clearing dot com.Tara, I can thank you enough for
your time. It's a cool company, you know. One of my big
takeaways of what you do is thata lot of people out there in companies
(23:33):
freeze. I've seen it through mywhole life. When the stress is hitting
or they don't have the proper infrastructureor the proper people there, that you
come in and integrate yourselves and partnerup when people freeze and help them out.
It's a really cool service and acompany that you have. It's really
you really need stuff. Yeah,for sure, there's always a way,
right, you might not be ableto the moment, but there's always a
way. Yeah. It's been apleasure. Thank you for having me while
(23:56):
it is our pleasure, and thankyou for joining us on CEO as you
should know and continues us. Thankyou. Our community partner, M ANDT
Bank supports CEOs you should know aspart of their ongoing commitment to building strong
communities, and that starts by backingthe businesses within them. As a Bank
for communities, M and T believesin dedicating time, talent, and resources
(24:17):
to help local businesses thrive because whenbusinesses succeed, our communities succeed.
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