June 23, 2025 • 32 mins
Ready to level up your business operations? In this episode of Count Me In, host Adam Larson sits down with La Tonya Roberts, CEO of Harmony Consulting Group. La Tonya shares her journey from corporate consulting to helping small businesses thrive, opening up about real-world challenges and her favorite strategies for building sustainable growth, strong teams, and systems that actually work (without the burnout).
Adam and La Tonya dig into how to make the switch from doing everything yourself to confident delegation, ways you can borrow Fortune 500 strategies without overwhelming your team, and the major impact that company culture has on your success. You’ll also hear practical advice about strategic planning, using data for better decisions, and creative ways to use AI to boost your business.
Whether you’re a small business owner, team leader, or just curious how successful organizations operate behind the scenes, you’ll find plenty of fresh insights and actionable tips. Tune in for a motivating conversation and walk away ready to make your business simpler, smarter, and more sustainable—with expert guidance from La Tonya Roberts.
Sponsor:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Adam Larson (00:20):
Welcome To Count Me In. I'm your host, Adam Larson,
today I'm thrilled to be joinedby La Tonya Roberts, CEO of
Harmony Consulting Group.La Tonya brings a wealth of
experience in operationalexcellence, especially when it
comes to helping smallbusinesses scale and improve. In
our conversation, La Tonyashares her journey from
corporate consulting tolaunching her own venture, and
dives deep into the operationalhurdles organizations face when
(00:42):
it comes to growth.
She offers practical advice onhow small businesses can create
intentional cultures ofinclusion, leverage technology
for AI for maximum efficiency,and incorporate Fortune 500 best
practices without overwhelmingtheir teams. Whether you're
running a small business or justlooking to level up your
organization's operations,you'll walk away from this
episode with some actualinsights on building simple,
(01:04):
sustainable, and scalablefoundations for success. Well,
La Tonya, I'm very excited tohave you here on the podcast,
and today we're going to betalking about things like
operational excellence and justhow organizations can do better.
And I figured we'd start alittle bit by sharing a little
bit of your story. You know, youstarted working with firms like
(01:25):
Deloitte and then you startshifted into helping with small
businesses achieve thatoperational excellence.
And I'd love to hear a littlebit more about your story.
La Tonya Robers (01:33):
Yeah, I mean, I work I work with the big
companies and got anunderstanding of what it's like
to to run the company, how tobuild businesses, how to do your
strategic planning and yourprocesses. Really a lot of those
foundational practices that helpmake a business run better, more
smoothly. And then I had someexperiences working with some
(01:54):
smaller consulting firms too.And so blessed in that area
because it allows you to take ondifferent roles, right? You have
to get really scrappy, you wearmany hats.
And then I went back to a biggerfirm. So back to Booz Allen and
then back to Deloitte and thenthe pandemic hit and like many
people, I said, you know what,I'm stressed out and I'm ready
(02:15):
to go, go out on my own. And soI took my talents to go team up
with a couple other people anddo what I've been doing for at
that time, the last fifteenyears and help them with
building out their business,putting that structure in place
from working in the BearConsulting Firms. And then I
eventually became the COO for,for one of the people that I, I
(02:37):
teamed up with and love doingthat. Right.
It brought together everythingthat I had done from, putting
together key performanceindicators, managing talent,
doing the processes and thestructure and helping to really
scale the business up to 7figures. And now I do that for
others.
Adam Larson (02:56):
Wow. That's quite a story, especially helping that
scale up. I'm sure it's not aneasy task, going from a small
business to scaling up to sevenfigures in an organizational.
What are some common operationalchallenges that those businesses
face, especially when they whenthey want to do that scaling?
La Tonya Robers (03:13):
So it's really, it's, it's setting that
foundation, right? I mean, youstart your business, you are a
very small and mighty team andyou're wearing many hats. And so
you start to, you own a lot ofthe processes and now you have
to get used to delegating andteaching other people how to do
the things and trusting thatthey're going to do them. Maybe
(03:33):
not as well as you, but close toit. Right.
So that's going to start withreally documenting what it is
that you do and putting systemslike your CRM, your customer
relationship management tool inplace that can actually track
your sales pipeline with, youknow, when are people coming or
being introduced to yourcompany? How are you tracking
(03:54):
your notes? What are your nexttasks? What is their contact
information? And then workingwith your team to figure out,
well, how do we actually servicethem once they, once they enter
our ecosystem?
You know, what is that salesprocess? How do we move them to
being a client? How do wedeliver? And then how do we off
board them? And so I work with alot of my CEOs on defining that
(04:15):
process and slowly removing themfrom being so hands on in that
work.
Adam Larson (04:22):
How does one change that mindset of because when
you're when you're doingeverything yourself, you're in
it and you're like, if I can't,you know, if I can't if somebody
else can't get it done, justgoing to do it myself. And you
have that mindset of doingeverything yourself. How does
one shift from that mindset ofI'm gonna do everything myself
to actually getting delegating?Because it's not an easy
transition, especially if you'reso used to doing it all
yourself.
La Tonya Robers (04:42):
We have to rip the band aid off, right?
Announcer (04:44):
I mean, it's a little bit of it's a little bit
La Tonya Robers (04:48):
of tough love because when you are doing all
the things, there are certainthings that aren't getting done.
Right. And you, you only have somany hours in the day, say
you're spending ten, twelvehours on your business, because
let's be honest, when you anentrepreneur, you work a lot,
you work a lot, right? But youmay not have as much time to
(05:08):
build the relationships withpotential new clients, or you
may not have as much time toreally do the work and work with
your VIP clients. Right.
So you have to train someoneelse to do that work. And so
what I do is I get themcomfortable with you know, what
are those processes that onlyyou can do who can come in and
take over some of those roles,whether it's bringing on a
(05:31):
virtual assistant, bringing onan account specialist, bringing
on someone who focuses solely onthe marketing or the sales
process for you, or bringing oncontractors to start delivering
the work and teaching them. Mybackground does include change
management and it includestraining as well. So I am really
big on setting people up forsuccess and making sure that
(05:54):
they understand their role. Andwe slowly again, start to remove
that CEO from being so hands onin the process.
One great example right now, I'mworking with a young lady and
she has been that person that isvery client delivery focused.
And so we've been bringing oncontractors and teaching them
the process. She, or I may beinvolved in the first meeting
(06:16):
with the assessment. And then aswe build out the staffing plan,
we build in project managementhours that includes leadership
check ins. So you still get thatclient focus and that client
activity.
You're not the one actuallydelivering work. And so now she
can focus on building out thebusiness and has a team that
supports her in servicing theclients, but with those regular
(06:36):
checkpoints to make sure thatthings are happening as they
should.
Adam Larson (06:39):
I like that approach, especially the whole,
like, this is ripped the bandaid off. Let's just dive right
in because otherwise you'll keepyou'll keep missing things, keep
things will keep falling throughthe cracks. Because I like that
because if you're doingeverything, you can't
everything's not getting done.
La Tonya Robers (06:52):
Right. Exactly. Exactly.
Adam Larson (06:54):
Yeah. So when you and I spoke before you were
talking, you know, we weretalking about sustainable
systems. Can let's talk aboutwhat are what are sustainable
systems and how can that helpsmall businesses kind of
implement and foster growthwithin their organization?
La Tonya Robers (07:07):
So when I think about sustainable systems, it's
twofold. It's your processes,it's your technology that you
put in place. It's how people dothe job, but it's doing it in a
way that prevents burnout. Youcan spend a lot of time doing
something and create this, thisenvironment that is very high
turn and you're constantlymoving, but eventually you lose
(07:28):
your talent. Right.
So what I like to do is I workwith my clients and we put
together things like the CRM orproject management tracking
tool, content development. Youknow, how can we leverage AI to
do some of those repetitivetasks? And then how can we
figure out what are some ofthose things that where do you
need human intervention toactually come in and make tweaks
(07:50):
or assess? We put together ourkey performance indicators to
make sure that we are on theright path or do we need to
pivot? And we're constantlymonitoring the data
Adam Larson (08:00):
when you're running a small business. Burnout is a
big thing. So you mentioned, youknow, having sustainable systems
helps you to avoid getting tothat burnout. Are there any
other recommendations that youhave, especially when you have
small teams and a lot of peopleare doing a lot of things and
you don't want your team to burnout, you don't want to lose your
top talent that you have.
La Tonya Robers (08:19):
Sure. So along with documenting your process, I
believe in having regular checkins. And I'm not saying you do
it five days a week, but justeven a fifteen minute check-in
to make sure that peopleunderstand what their role is,
how do they fit into the biggerpicture, making sure that you
are very clear in what your askis and your expectations. So,
(08:41):
you know, a couple of check insa week, big team meeting where
everyone understands here's thepriorities over the next couple
of weeks, understands lessonslearned from a previous project.
The lessons learned sessions orthe debriefing sessions are
really, really big.
And that's something that weused to do in big corporate
where after every majormilestone, project milestone, or
(09:03):
after the project ended washaving that debriefing session
where we sat down and we talkedabout what are we going to
start, stop, or continue doing?And what really worked well? And
then how did the team feel goingthrough the process? What tweaks
do we need to make? What do weneed to make sure that when we
do similar work with the nextclient, we're doing what works.
(09:26):
And that is super helpful to doit as close to the end of the
project or a major milestone tomake sure that it's top of mind
and that you're constantlyimproving your processes.
Adam Larson (09:37):
Yeah, that's super important because otherwise
you'll keep doing the same thingover and over again and never
actually improve the team andget to a better place. Yeah. So
one thing that we had talkedabout was, you know, I had read
you had said that you would liketo adopt Fortune 500 operational
practices. So how does a smallbusiness or what are some of
(09:57):
those practices that they canhelp adopt, but that also
doesn't overwhelm the team? Youknow, we've been talking about
trying not to overwhelm theteam, but I'm sure that there's
practices that small businessesmight not be aware of.
La Tonya Robers (10:07):
Yeah, moving with intention and
strategically, right? So doingyour annual strategic planning
process, doing your quarterlybusiness reviews, making sure
that your goals are beingtracked and measured. And, you
know, goals may change, right?Depending on what's going on in
the environment. Are you able toquickly adapt to those things?
(10:27):
And a lot of times when you arehaving those regular check ins
and you're tracking that data,you can forecast when something
needs to happen. For example,diversity, equity and inclusion
was a large part of my business.But two years ago, I saw the
change in the market, right? Itwas because I was looking at,
well, what are the clientshiring me for? What's happening
(10:47):
in the government?
What's happening with the peoplethat actually fund my clients?
This is changing, you know, howare people responding to these
initiatives? And so I knew thatI needed to change, right? So it
meant from going to from DEI tolet's use inclusion, let's use
culture to just really let'sfocus on what it's about. And
it's the operations and it's theculture of the organization and
(11:10):
making sure that people are setup for success.
And so I really shifted myentire practice to focusing on
just on operations for the mostpart. And so that is one thing
that I definitely take from bigbusiness is being ahead of the
game, building relationships,right? Because as you can see
that things are starting tochange, it's nothing like having
(11:31):
that heart to heart conversationwith your client to say, Hey,
I've noticed this is happeningright now. How is this impacting
you? What changes are youmaking?
How is this affecting yourfunding? How is this affecting
your stress levels in yourteams? How can I best support
you through these changes? Andthat was something that we did a
lot working with our clientsbecause we're there to support
(11:52):
them and meet them where theyare. You know, the business
development doesn't just startat the point where you may see a
request for proposal.
That business need has beenthere for quite some time and
someone is usually shaping whatthat RFP may look like. You do
that by having those regularcheck ins with your clients and
building those relationships sothat they actually trust you and
(12:12):
are okay with sharing. This iswhat's really happening. Well,
Adam Larson (12:18):
and it seems like culture does play a huge part,
especially with having goodoperations and having the
ability to grow, because if yourculture is not in the right
spot, you know, it just cascadesfrom there.
La Tonya Robers (12:30):
Right? Right. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean,
culture is, is how you dothings.
It's your norms and behaviors.Right. And so that not only
impacts what happens internallyin the business, but it also
impacts how the business servesits clients and clients aren't
stupid. They see when somethingis going on, they can see or
feel when the dynamics betweenteam members are off. Right?
(12:52):
So getting that culture, theright culture in place, whatever
that means for your organizationis super important to making
sure that you can actually servethe mission and make sure that
everyone is.
Adam Larson (13:06):
Well, you know, I know I know DEI is a big
buzzword, especially with whatthings are happening in our
government right now. But havinginclusion and equity within your
organization and having thatpart of your culture doesn't
mean you necessarily have tohave a program called that. But
if you're making sure that'spart of your culture, then
that's actually happeningwithout you having to have a
quote unquote program calledthat.
La Tonya Robers (13:26):
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. People should
people spend so much time intheir job, right? They spend
often more time with their teammembers than they do with their
own family.
Yeah. So you want to feel safe.You want to feel like you're in
a place where you belong. Youwant to feel like you are
included, even if you have anopportunity to share your voice
(13:46):
or your opinion on how certaindecisions impact you or impact
the client, whether you're theperson that makes the final
decision or not, just knowingthat your voice was heard and it
matters. Helps with retention.
It helps with bringing inadditional team members, right?
Because you become an employerof choice, get people to start
(14:06):
referring people to the companyand you just, you're happy.
Right. And people have toremember that rewards don't
always mean monetary rewards.You're not always able to give
the raise or give the bonus, butif you can provide other
opportunities or a feeling ofbelonging and inclusion, people
actually stay.
They become more loyal to thecompany.
Adam Larson (14:27):
Yeah. So in your experience, is what role has
data played, especially whenyou're working toward
operational excellence? Becausewe know that data is is a big
part of everything that we'relooking at as an organization.
La Tonya Robers (14:39):
Yeah. So when we when I first sit down with my
clients and I want tounderstand, well, what does
success look like to you? Right?We may have retention targets or
long or lifetime value targetsor what have you. But what does
success look like for you inwhere are you?
Like, what's your baseline?Where are you right now? Where
do you want to go? And then howdo we put together a sustainable
(15:02):
plan, a realistic plan that willactually help us get there? And
then putting in certainintervals along the way where we
know we're headed on the rightpath, Or do we need to pivot?
Do we need to, or something'sworking really, really well and
we're hitting those milestonesand those targets faster. Well,
maybe we can do more of that. Soconstantly looking at those
targets, sometimes weekly,sometimes monthly or quarterly,
(15:24):
and then using that information,that quantitative information to
figure out, you know, what areour next steps within also not
forgetting the qualitative parttwo. Right. And I know it seems
like very rude to think about,well, how is someone feeling
throughout this process?
Or, what is the sentiment? Butthose things are super important
as well because those thingsmatter, right? Like Maya Angelou
said, people never remember whatyou did, but they remember how
(15:46):
you made them feel. And everydecision, whether we own that to
it or not, it is a decisionbased on a feeling. Right?
You're upset, you're happy,whatever. It's still based on a
feeling. And so we have to takeinto consideration those
qualitative measures as well.
Adam Larson (16:03):
How do you how do you measure that? How do you get
you get that number and say,Okay, this is how everybody's
feeling?
La Tonya Robers (16:07):
It shows up in their actions.
Adam Larson (16:09):
Okay.
La Tonya Robers (16:09):
So say you go into a meeting and you want to
come up with a new idea. Arepeople actually raising their
hands to volunteer new ideas oris the room silent? If the room
is silent, you haven't created apsychologically safe space for
people to share and feel likethey're going to be retaliated
against. If you decide you wantto make a major change in the
(16:32):
organization and you're gettinga lot of resistance, something's
going on there. Are peopleactually speaking to you?
Are they smiling? It's lookingat the body language. It's
looking at what is said. It'spaying attention to what's not
being said. If you arecollecting engagement surveys,
you know, what are peopleputting in the surveys?
(16:53):
A lot of times people arekeyboard warriors and they will
write down everything, but won'tsay anything, right? Like they
feel more comfortable when it'sanonymous. Or how are people
feeling when somebody gets a newopportunity? Are they happy for
them or are they resentful? Areyou seeing the same people get
the opportunities?
(17:14):
Are certain people being leftbehind? So a lot of those things
goes in the culture, like howyou, how you're doing things and
then how are people feelingabout how you're doing things.
But pay attention to thoseactions. And a lot of times it's
more often, though, what's notsaid than what is said.
Adam Larson (17:27):
I wonder like if you're working with a leader and
they tell you like, well, Idon't know how to read people. I
don't get that. I don'tunderstand that. You know,
should they go take a psychologycourse so they can understand
how to read people? Or is likewhat is what is the what's the
first action they should takewhen they're trying to be more
comfortable in understanding howthey're like getting to know
their their folks?
La Tonya Robers (17:45):
I want to know how well do they know
themselves? How do you respondin certain situations? Right. So
I like for people to go inwardfirst, right? You know yourself
before you get to know others,right?
How do you respond when youreceive negative information or
positive information? Whathappened in that last meeting
(18:05):
when somebody said somethingthat you weren't expecting, you
know, or let's go back in timewhen you were in at a certain
level. How did someone treatyou? Were you mentored? Did
someone pull you aside and giveyou guidance on how you should
be operating in this situation?
Right. And thinking about whatis it that you needed at that
(18:26):
time? Right. And so goinginwards and looking at your own
self can actually be very eyeopening because a lot of people
don't know. I don't know who Iam.
I've just been going based onthese role models or these
people that are in these highimportant places, and this is
what they did. So I thought itwas okay to do it too. But is
that authentic to you? And isthat, is that what you really
(18:49):
want? And then after you dothat, it's having conversation.
People forget how importanthaving a simple conversation, a
one on one interaction withsomeone. Don't just have the
team meetings. Have the openoffice hours, invite people in
for a fifteen minute check-in.Hey, how are things going? Do
you need help?
How can I best support you? Andreally have that servant
(19:11):
leadership mindset of, I'm hereto make your job easier. What is
it that you need from me? Andhow do you like to receive
information? How do you like toreceive constructive feedback?
How do you like to be toldyou're doing a good job? Is it
one on one? Is it in front of agroup? You know, what do you
like?
Adam Larson (19:29):
Yeah, I it's it gets it's getting uncomfortable
and understanding yourself,having that emotional
intelligence to know whereyou're at so that you can
understand where at least whereyour team is and be open for
them. Because a lot of timesit's easy to get caught up in
numbers. It's easy to get caughtup in, you know, let me look at
all these spreadsheets and lookat all the data and forget that
there's people who are actuallydoing these tasks and they're
(19:51):
not just numbers. They're notjust another line in the HR's,
you know, line budget like, oh,this is how much we have to pay
these people. These are actuallyreal human beings who have
feelings and emotions and we'rehuman beings.
And if you're a leader, you're ahuman being who has feelings and
emotions, and we have to learnhow to work together. It's not
just a it's not a cut and dry, aone size fits all thing,
especially when working in anorganization.
La Tonya Robers (20:11):
It's absolutely not. And it's so funny. When I
had that revelation, maybe threeyears into my consulting career,
and I was working on these bigorganizational transformation
projects. And one common themethat I noticed was that there
was not a focus on the peopleand the impact of these changes
on the people. You'reimplementing new technology or
(20:33):
organizational redesigns or newprocesses.
And someone may have been inthat job for five or ten years.
And their whole world is beingchanged. And now they're just
expected to operate in this newenvironment overnight and they
weren't set up for success.
Adam Larson (20:49):
And
La Tonya Robers (20:50):
that's when I started doing more of the change
management with thecommunications and the training
and making sure that people wereon the same page. And, as I
wanted people to be set up forsuccess. I mean, that's really
what it came down to, you know?We know change is hard, but
we're constantly in a state ofchange. But it doesn't have to
be as hard as we make it, right?
(21:11):
Don't make easy hard.Communicate, be transparent as
you can be, collect feedback, beokay with adapting and pivoting
where you need to, train people,inform them of when something is
changing, why it's changing, andwhat is the impact to them. It's
really that simple. It really isthat simple. And people may not
(21:35):
always agree with the change orbuy into the change right away,
but the fact that you were openabout what's going on, the
impact, what this means forthem, they may eventually come
get on board or they make theinformed decision to say, this
works for me or it doesn't.
And they may leave. And that'sOkay, too. And because that
(21:56):
makes space for the right personto come in and fill that role.
Adam Larson (21:59):
Yeah, change management is a difficult thing.
I mean, there's reasons why,like if you're doing an MBA, you
can read like hundreds of bookson change management. Everybody
has their own opinion on it. Butit really it doesn't have to be
complicated. But not everybody Idon't why why do we make it
complicated?
And that's not really a questionthat you have to answer. But
it's like it's one of thosethings it's like, why do we have
(22:20):
to make it complicated? Andmaybe maybe we can answer that
in a different way. Like, whatis your what like what is your
approach to that changemanagement, especially when it's
coming to operational changes?Like you've touched on a lot of
those elements, but maybe we canthis is this is your approach to
change management because it'snot like it's it's probably one
of the hardest things we have togo through in our lives, like
whether it's in a business orwhether, you know, in your
(22:41):
personal life, if you're havinga baby or if you're getting
married, that's a changemanagement thing for yourself,
you know, or for your wholelife.
La Tonya Robers (22:48):
Yeah. I mean, in a business setting,
Adam Larson (22:51):
I'll
La Tonya Robers (22:51):
say, do you understand why the change is
happening? Right. And then doyou understand the impact of the
change on the differentstakeholder groups? Getting your
leaders all on board with here'sthe message that's going out.
When I speak to this group, thisis what they care about.
(23:11):
Here's the message for them. Ispeak to this group, here's what
they care about, and here's themessage for them. What is the
overarching message? What's ourtimeline? What are the things
that are changing?
How are we keeping peopleinformed of the progress that is
being made? Right? What trainingis being prepared for them? How
(23:34):
do their job roles change? Doyou have a plan in place for
when something goes wrong?
Right? Not just let's panic,everything is falling apart, but
okay, if this happens, we'regoing to do this. And being okay
with making mistakes, you'regoing to make mistakes. There is
no change that is perfect. Know,you find out things in the
doing.
(23:55):
And so how do you pivot? How doyou have resiliency and bounce
back from when something wrongoccurs? But that communication,
that training process, thedocumenting the processes,
right? One of the things I washelping to roll out a new
electronic health record systemthat impacted several 100,000
(24:17):
people all over the world. Andwe had to start with going to
the hospitals and saying, well,how are you currently doing
this?
You can't shut down a hospital.It just, it's not happening. So
pulling people out of their jobsfor a few days and say, how are
you doing this currently? Whatare those band aid fixes? What
(24:38):
would you change about thisprocess?
Why are you doing this? And youknow, it doesn't work. Right?
And then, okay, here's how itwould work in the new system
based on what we think we know.Now you are in the operating
room or in the emergency room.
Is this really going to work ifwe do it this way? Do you really
have time to get to the laptopor the iPad and put in this
(25:03):
information? Like real time,what would this look like?
Right. And taking thatinformation and going back and
tweaking, not just the, have thebusiness requirements, but now
let's meet it with the technicalrequirements.
Right. So it is constantlygathering information and then
figuring out what needs tochange to make it feasible.
Feasible. Right? We can sit inan office around the table and
(25:25):
we can theorize, I think it'llwork this way, da da da da da.
But the people that are actuallydoing the work, it needs to work
for them. And so we need theirfeedback too.
Adam Larson (25:35):
Well, that's a that's a huge part of it. The
people on the front linesactually doing the work, the
person in the engineering roomdesigning it in their mind, it
may make sense, but thepractical application, you know,
you have to find that way tobridge that gap. Otherwise it'll
just be a it'll be a nightmarefor everyone.
La Tonya Robers (25:52):
Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Adam Larson (25:58):
Excuse me. So when when you meet with organizations
who are looking to to grow andimprove their, you know, invest
into their operationalimprovements, you know, have you
ever, you know, encounter folkswho are meeting with you and
talking, but they're hesitant,you know, due to cost concerns
or, you know, am I able to reachthis goal? How do you, you know,
how do you have thoseconversations with those folks?
La Tonya Robers (26:20):
Actually just had this conversation last week
with an organization and theyneeded new HR. They didn't have
the HR practices in place. Andso one thing that I want to
start out with is an assessmentthat I have an operational
assessment that I give, and itwalks you through eight
different areas of operations.And that's just really to let me
(26:42):
know where you are, understandwhat are some of those. If you
think about red, yellow, andgreen, what are some of those
red areas that may be apriority?
Right. And I say may be apriority because just because it
shows up as red on my assessmentdoesn't mean it's a priority to
be it. And that's what happenedin this situation. Right. It
(27:02):
creates awareness around somethings that you may not have
thought about.
Right. Because you're so busydoing the day to day operations.
And so I'm going do thisassessment and I'm going to come
up with some recommendations.And then we're going to have a
conversation. Hey, this is whatI'm seeing.
What are you seeing? You know,where are you right now? And
then I do ask the question aboutbudget. I'm going to give you a
(27:27):
plan that is going to meet allof your reds, some of your
yellows, right? And it is the,and I love the way that this
particular client, he said, it'sa menu.
Yeah, it's a menu of things andyou get to choose. You get to
decide. And so my job isn't tomake things harder for you. It's
to create awareness around somethings that need to be, that can
(27:47):
change. How do you achieve thegoal that you want?
And then we sit down togetherand design what that plan is
going to be. So if your priorityis to make sure that your growth
model is in place, then we'regoing to focus on your products
and your services. And we'regoing to make sure that we've
simplified it, made itsustainable and to the point
(28:08):
where we can scale it. If yourfocus is on building a team,
then that's what we're going todo. We just have that
conversation.
Here's what I'm seeing. Here'swhat you're seeing. What's the
priority? What's your budget?And then we can go as fast or as
slow as you want.
Adam Larson (28:23):
Yeah. No, I like that because it's it's a matter
of understanding that you don'thave to do everything at the
same time. You can slowly build.You don't have to you can slowly
scale up as as it makes sensefor your organization. You don't
have to say, we're just going tothrow all this money in this
thing and just scale at an at anunprecedented rate, which isn't
healthy either for anorganization.
La Tonya Robers (28:43):
Right. And I don't want you to do everything
on there. It's not sustainable.Right? My three areas simple,
sustainable and scalable.
You know what? Let's make itsimple. Let's make it
sustainable. And then once we'vedone that, then we can scale it.
Adam Larson (28:59):
That's true. I like that. No, that's great. So, you
know, as we're looking to thefuture, you know, you're dealing
with clients, you know, arethere certain trends that
everybody should be aware of andprepare for? Like, what are you
seeing in the market as you'remeeting with different clients?
La Tonya Robers (29:12):
You've got to figure out how to make AI work
for you. Right? And it's notjust because this is the, I
don't say new kid on the blockbecause I've been dealing with
AI, it sounds like for tenyears, right? We may not have
called it AI. We may have calledit something else back then,
but, AI is here.
It's here to stay. And it hasbenefits for your organization,
(29:33):
right? Whether you're automatingthings, you're having it do some
of those repetitive processes.One client, we are looking at
how they do their assessment andcreate the report. And so
instead of spending hours goingthrough all the data, well, AI
can look at the data and quicklysummarize it and help you with
some of the recommendations andcome up with things that maybe
you didn't think about.
(29:54):
Right? Or how are you managingyour customer service? Right. So
say you typically have a frontdesk person who was collecting
all of your phone calls, but ifhe or she is on the phone with
somebody and someone else callsin, well, that could be a lost
opportunity. But what if you hadan AI assistant that came in and
said, Hey, sent you a textmessage.
I saw that you just called. Wewere on the phone. What I am,
(30:17):
let's say I'm Tanya, Tanya's AIassistant. And you just
acknowledged, Hey, I'm an AI.Right?
What can I help you with? Andstart collecting some of that
initial information to figureout how do we get to a solution
and maybe help book a comp or asales call with you or a
consultation. We're on ourphones all day anyway. We're
texting. Most people prefer totext versus talking to someone.
(30:41):
So why not offer multipleopportunities or someone who
11:00 at night or 2AM in themorning, all of a sudden they
get an idea and they're like, Ineed this service. Let me call.
Well, that AI employee doesn'tsleep. They're working 20
fourseven.
Adam Larson (30:54):
Right?
La Tonya Robers (30:55):
So there's so many ways that we can integrate
and work with AI in ourbusiness. And so I would say to
the business owner, get savvy inhow you can leverage it and work
with someone who understands itso that you can incorporate it
and make sure that yourworkforce of the future and of
now includes AI employees aswell as human employees.
Adam Larson (31:19):
Definitely. Well, La Tonya, thank you so much for
coming on the podcast and justsharing your expertize with our
audience. I really appreciateit.
La Tonya Robers (31:26):
Thank you for having me here. It's been great.
Announcer (31:30):
This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast providing
you with the latest perspectivesof thought leaders from the
accounting and financeprofession. If you like what you
heard and you'd like to becounted in for more relevant
accounting and financeeducation, visit IMA's website
at www.imanet.org.
Welcome To Count Me In. I'm your host, Adam Larson,
today I'm thrilled to be joinedby La Tonya Roberts, CEO of
Harmony Consulting Group.La Tonya brings a wealth of
experience in operationalexcellence, especially when it
comes to helping smallbusinesses scale and improve. In
our conversation, La Tonyashares her journey from
corporate consulting tolaunching her own venture, and
dives deep into the operationalhurdles organizations face when
(00:42):
it comes to growth.
She offers practical advice onhow small businesses can create
intentional cultures ofinclusion, leverage technology
for AI for maximum efficiency,and incorporate Fortune 500 best
practices without overwhelmingtheir teams. Whether you're
running a small business or justlooking to level up your
organization's operations,you'll walk away from this
episode with some actualinsights on building simple,
(01:04):
sustainable, and scalablefoundations for success. Well,
La Tonya, I'm very excited tohave you here on the podcast,
and today we're going to betalking about things like
operational excellence and justhow organizations can do better.
And I figured we'd start alittle bit by sharing a little
bit of your story. You know, youstarted working with firms like
(01:25):
Deloitte and then you startshifted into helping with small
businesses achieve thatoperational excellence.
And I'd love to hear a littlebit more about your story.
La Tonya Robers (01:33):
Yeah, I mean, I work I work with the big
companies and got anunderstanding of what it's like
to to run the company, how tobuild businesses, how to do your
strategic planning and yourprocesses. Really a lot of those
foundational practices that helpmake a business run better, more
smoothly. And then I had someexperiences working with some
(01:54):
smaller consulting firms too.And so blessed in that area
because it allows you to take ondifferent roles, right? You have
to get really scrappy, you wearmany hats.
And then I went back to a biggerfirm. So back to Booz Allen and
then back to Deloitte and thenthe pandemic hit and like many
people, I said, you know what,I'm stressed out and I'm ready
(02:15):
to go, go out on my own. And soI took my talents to go team up
with a couple other people anddo what I've been doing for at
that time, the last fifteenyears and help them with
building out their business,putting that structure in place
from working in the BearConsulting Firms. And then I
eventually became the COO for,for one of the people that I, I
(02:37):
teamed up with and love doingthat. Right.
It brought together everythingthat I had done from, putting
together key performanceindicators, managing talent,
doing the processes and thestructure and helping to really
scale the business up to 7figures. And now I do that for
others.
Adam Larson (02:56):
Wow. That's quite a story, especially helping that
scale up. I'm sure it's not aneasy task, going from a small
business to scaling up to sevenfigures in an organizational.
What are some common operationalchallenges that those businesses
face, especially when they whenthey want to do that scaling?
La Tonya Robers (03:13):
So it's really, it's, it's setting that
foundation, right? I mean, youstart your business, you are a
very small and mighty team andyou're wearing many hats. And so
you start to, you own a lot ofthe processes and now you have
to get used to delegating andteaching other people how to do
the things and trusting thatthey're going to do them. Maybe
(03:33):
not as well as you, but close toit. Right.
So that's going to start withreally documenting what it is
that you do and putting systemslike your CRM, your customer
relationship management tool inplace that can actually track
your sales pipeline with, youknow, when are people coming or
being introduced to yourcompany? How are you tracking
(03:54):
your notes? What are your nexttasks? What is their contact
information? And then workingwith your team to figure out,
well, how do we actually servicethem once they, once they enter
our ecosystem?
You know, what is that salesprocess? How do we move them to
being a client? How do wedeliver? And then how do we off
board them? And so I work with alot of my CEOs on defining that
(04:15):
process and slowly removing themfrom being so hands on in that
work.
Adam Larson (04:22):
How does one change that mindset of because when
you're when you're doingeverything yourself, you're in
it and you're like, if I can't,you know, if I can't if somebody
else can't get it done, justgoing to do it myself. And you
have that mindset of doingeverything yourself. How does
one shift from that mindset ofI'm gonna do everything myself
to actually getting delegating?Because it's not an easy
transition, especially if you'reso used to doing it all
yourself.
La Tonya Robers (04:42):
We have to rip the band aid off, right?
Announcer (04:44):
I mean, it's a little bit of it's a little bit
La Tonya Robers (04:48):
of tough love because when you are doing all
the things, there are certainthings that aren't getting done.
Right. And you, you only have somany hours in the day, say
you're spending ten, twelvehours on your business, because
let's be honest, when you anentrepreneur, you work a lot,
you work a lot, right? But youmay not have as much time to
(05:08):
build the relationships withpotential new clients, or you
may not have as much time toreally do the work and work with
your VIP clients. Right.
So you have to train someoneelse to do that work. And so
what I do is I get themcomfortable with you know, what
are those processes that onlyyou can do who can come in and
take over some of those roles,whether it's bringing on a
(05:31):
virtual assistant, bringing onan account specialist, bringing
on someone who focuses solely onthe marketing or the sales
process for you, or bringing oncontractors to start delivering
the work and teaching them. Mybackground does include change
management and it includestraining as well. So I am really
big on setting people up forsuccess and making sure that
(05:54):
they understand their role. Andwe slowly again, start to remove
that CEO from being so hands onin the process.
One great example right now, I'mworking with a young lady and
she has been that person that isvery client delivery focused.
And so we've been bringing oncontractors and teaching them
the process. She, or I may beinvolved in the first meeting
(06:16):
with the assessment. And then aswe build out the staffing plan,
we build in project managementhours that includes leadership
check ins. So you still get thatclient focus and that client
activity.
You're not the one actuallydelivering work. And so now she
can focus on building out thebusiness and has a team that
supports her in servicing theclients, but with those regular
(06:36):
checkpoints to make sure thatthings are happening as they
should.
Adam Larson (06:39):
I like that approach, especially the whole,
like, this is ripped the bandaid off. Let's just dive right
in because otherwise you'll keepyou'll keep missing things, keep
things will keep falling throughthe cracks. Because I like that
because if you're doingeverything, you can't
everything's not getting done.
La Tonya Robers (06:52):
Right. Exactly. Exactly.
Adam Larson (06:54):
Yeah. So when you and I spoke before you were
talking, you know, we weretalking about sustainable
systems. Can let's talk aboutwhat are what are sustainable
systems and how can that helpsmall businesses kind of
implement and foster growthwithin their organization?
La Tonya Robers (07:07):
So when I think about sustainable systems, it's
twofold. It's your processes,it's your technology that you
put in place. It's how people dothe job, but it's doing it in a
way that prevents burnout. Youcan spend a lot of time doing
something and create this, thisenvironment that is very high
turn and you're constantlymoving, but eventually you lose
(07:28):
your talent. Right.
So what I like to do is I workwith my clients and we put
together things like the CRM orproject management tracking
tool, content development. Youknow, how can we leverage AI to
do some of those repetitivetasks? And then how can we
figure out what are some ofthose things that where do you
need human intervention toactually come in and make tweaks
(07:50):
or assess? We put together ourkey performance indicators to
make sure that we are on theright path or do we need to
pivot? And we're constantlymonitoring the data
Adam Larson (08:00):
when you're running a small business. Burnout is a
big thing. So you mentioned, youknow, having sustainable systems
helps you to avoid getting tothat burnout. Are there any
other recommendations that youhave, especially when you have
small teams and a lot of peopleare doing a lot of things and
you don't want your team to burnout, you don't want to lose your
top talent that you have.
La Tonya Robers (08:19):
Sure. So along with documenting your process, I
believe in having regular checkins. And I'm not saying you do
it five days a week, but justeven a fifteen minute check-in
to make sure that peopleunderstand what their role is,
how do they fit into the biggerpicture, making sure that you
are very clear in what your askis and your expectations. So,
(08:41):
you know, a couple of check insa week, big team meeting where
everyone understands here's thepriorities over the next couple
of weeks, understands lessonslearned from a previous project.
The lessons learned sessions orthe debriefing sessions are
really, really big.
And that's something that weused to do in big corporate
where after every majormilestone, project milestone, or
(09:03):
after the project ended washaving that debriefing session
where we sat down and we talkedabout what are we going to
start, stop, or continue doing?And what really worked well? And
then how did the team feel goingthrough the process? What tweaks
do we need to make? What do weneed to make sure that when we
do similar work with the nextclient, we're doing what works.
(09:26):
And that is super helpful to doit as close to the end of the
project or a major milestone tomake sure that it's top of mind
and that you're constantlyimproving your processes.
Adam Larson (09:37):
Yeah, that's super important because otherwise
you'll keep doing the same thingover and over again and never
actually improve the team andget to a better place. Yeah. So
one thing that we had talkedabout was, you know, I had read
you had said that you would liketo adopt Fortune 500 operational
practices. So how does a smallbusiness or what are some of
(09:57):
those practices that they canhelp adopt, but that also
doesn't overwhelm the team? Youknow, we've been talking about
trying not to overwhelm theteam, but I'm sure that there's
practices that small businessesmight not be aware of.
La Tonya Robers (10:07):
Yeah, moving with intention and
strategically, right? So doingyour annual strategic planning
process, doing your quarterlybusiness reviews, making sure
that your goals are beingtracked and measured. And, you
know, goals may change, right?Depending on what's going on in
the environment. Are you able toquickly adapt to those things?
(10:27):
And a lot of times when you arehaving those regular check ins
and you're tracking that data,you can forecast when something
needs to happen. For example,diversity, equity and inclusion
was a large part of my business.But two years ago, I saw the
change in the market, right? Itwas because I was looking at,
well, what are the clientshiring me for? What's happening
(10:47):
in the government?
What's happening with the peoplethat actually fund my clients?
This is changing, you know, howare people responding to these
initiatives? And so I knew thatI needed to change, right? So it
meant from going to from DEI tolet's use inclusion, let's use
culture to just really let'sfocus on what it's about. And
it's the operations and it's theculture of the organization and
(11:10):
making sure that people are setup for success.
And so I really shifted myentire practice to focusing on
just on operations for the mostpart. And so that is one thing
that I definitely take from bigbusiness is being ahead of the
game, building relationships,right? Because as you can see
that things are starting tochange, it's nothing like having
(11:31):
that heart to heart conversationwith your client to say, Hey,
I've noticed this is happeningright now. How is this impacting
you? What changes are youmaking?
How is this affecting yourfunding? How is this affecting
your stress levels in yourteams? How can I best support
you through these changes? Andthat was something that we did a
lot working with our clientsbecause we're there to support
(11:52):
them and meet them where theyare. You know, the business
development doesn't just startat the point where you may see a
request for proposal.
That business need has beenthere for quite some time and
someone is usually shaping whatthat RFP may look like. You do
that by having those regularcheck ins with your clients and
building those relationships sothat they actually trust you and
(12:12):
are okay with sharing. This iswhat's really happening. Well,
Adam Larson (12:18):
and it seems like culture does play a huge part,
especially with having goodoperations and having the
ability to grow, because if yourculture is not in the right
spot, you know, it just cascadesfrom there.
La Tonya Robers (12:30):
Right? Right. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean,
culture is, is how you dothings.
It's your norms and behaviors.Right. And so that not only
impacts what happens internallyin the business, but it also
impacts how the business servesits clients and clients aren't
stupid. They see when somethingis going on, they can see or
feel when the dynamics betweenteam members are off. Right?
(12:52):
So getting that culture, theright culture in place, whatever
that means for your organizationis super important to making
sure that you can actually servethe mission and make sure that
everyone is.
Adam Larson (13:06):
Well, you know, I know I know DEI is a big
buzzword, especially with whatthings are happening in our
government right now. But havinginclusion and equity within your
organization and having thatpart of your culture doesn't
mean you necessarily have tohave a program called that. But
if you're making sure that'spart of your culture, then
that's actually happeningwithout you having to have a
quote unquote program calledthat.
La Tonya Robers (13:26):
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. People should
people spend so much time intheir job, right? They spend
often more time with their teammembers than they do with their
own family.
Yeah. So you want to feel safe.You want to feel like you're in
a place where you belong. Youwant to feel like you are
included, even if you have anopportunity to share your voice
(13:46):
or your opinion on how certaindecisions impact you or impact
the client, whether you're theperson that makes the final
decision or not, just knowingthat your voice was heard and it
matters. Helps with retention.
It helps with bringing inadditional team members, right?
Because you become an employerof choice, get people to start
(14:06):
referring people to the companyand you just, you're happy.
Right. And people have toremember that rewards don't
always mean monetary rewards.You're not always able to give
the raise or give the bonus, butif you can provide other
opportunities or a feeling ofbelonging and inclusion, people
actually stay.
They become more loyal to thecompany.
Adam Larson (14:27):
Yeah. So in your experience, is what role has
data played, especially whenyou're working toward
operational excellence? Becausewe know that data is is a big
part of everything that we'relooking at as an organization.
La Tonya Robers (14:39):
Yeah. So when we when I first sit down with my
clients and I want tounderstand, well, what does
success look like to you? Right?We may have retention targets or
long or lifetime value targetsor what have you. But what does
success look like for you inwhere are you?
Like, what's your baseline?Where are you right now? Where
do you want to go? And then howdo we put together a sustainable
(15:02):
plan, a realistic plan that willactually help us get there? And
then putting in certainintervals along the way where we
know we're headed on the rightpath, Or do we need to pivot?
Do we need to, or something'sworking really, really well and
we're hitting those milestonesand those targets faster. Well,
maybe we can do more of that. Soconstantly looking at those
targets, sometimes weekly,sometimes monthly or quarterly,
(15:24):
and then using that information,that quantitative information to
figure out, you know, what areour next steps within also not
forgetting the qualitative parttwo. Right. And I know it seems
like very rude to think about,well, how is someone feeling
throughout this process?
Or, what is the sentiment? Butthose things are super important
as well because those thingsmatter, right? Like Maya Angelou
said, people never remember whatyou did, but they remember how
(15:46):
you made them feel. And everydecision, whether we own that to
it or not, it is a decisionbased on a feeling. Right?
You're upset, you're happy,whatever. It's still based on a
feeling. And so we have to takeinto consideration those
qualitative measures as well.
Adam Larson (16:03):
How do you how do you measure that? How do you get
you get that number and say,Okay, this is how everybody's
feeling?
La Tonya Robers (16:07):
It shows up in their actions.
Adam Larson (16:09):
Okay.
La Tonya Robers (16:09):
So say you go into a meeting and you want to
come up with a new idea. Arepeople actually raising their
hands to volunteer new ideas oris the room silent? If the room
is silent, you haven't created apsychologically safe space for
people to share and feel likethey're going to be retaliated
against. If you decide you wantto make a major change in the
(16:32):
organization and you're gettinga lot of resistance, something's
going on there. Are peopleactually speaking to you?
Are they smiling? It's lookingat the body language. It's
looking at what is said. It'spaying attention to what's not
being said. If you arecollecting engagement surveys,
you know, what are peopleputting in the surveys?
(16:53):
A lot of times people arekeyboard warriors and they will
write down everything, but won'tsay anything, right? Like they
feel more comfortable when it'sanonymous. Or how are people
feeling when somebody gets a newopportunity? Are they happy for
them or are they resentful? Areyou seeing the same people get
the opportunities?
(17:14):
Are certain people being leftbehind? So a lot of those things
goes in the culture, like howyou, how you're doing things and
then how are people feelingabout how you're doing things.
But pay attention to thoseactions. And a lot of times it's
more often, though, what's notsaid than what is said.
Adam Larson (17:27):
I wonder like if you're working with a leader and
they tell you like, well, Idon't know how to read people. I
don't get that. I don'tunderstand that. You know,
should they go take a psychologycourse so they can understand
how to read people? Or is likewhat is what is the what's the
first action they should takewhen they're trying to be more
comfortable in understanding howthey're like getting to know
their their folks?
La Tonya Robers (17:45):
I want to know how well do they know
themselves? How do you respondin certain situations? Right. So
I like for people to go inwardfirst, right? You know yourself
before you get to know others,right?
How do you respond when youreceive negative information or
positive information? Whathappened in that last meeting
(18:05):
when somebody said somethingthat you weren't expecting, you
know, or let's go back in timewhen you were in at a certain
level. How did someone treatyou? Were you mentored? Did
someone pull you aside and giveyou guidance on how you should
be operating in this situation?
Right. And thinking about whatis it that you needed at that
(18:26):
time? Right. And so goinginwards and looking at your own
self can actually be very eyeopening because a lot of people
don't know. I don't know who Iam.
I've just been going based onthese role models or these
people that are in these highimportant places, and this is
what they did. So I thought itwas okay to do it too. But is
that authentic to you? And isthat, is that what you really
(18:49):
want? And then after you dothat, it's having conversation.
People forget how importanthaving a simple conversation, a
one on one interaction withsomeone. Don't just have the
team meetings. Have the openoffice hours, invite people in
for a fifteen minute check-in.Hey, how are things going? Do
you need help?
How can I best support you? Andreally have that servant
(19:11):
leadership mindset of, I'm hereto make your job easier. What is
it that you need from me? Andhow do you like to receive
information? How do you like toreceive constructive feedback?
How do you like to be toldyou're doing a good job? Is it
one on one? Is it in front of agroup? You know, what do you
like?
Adam Larson (19:29):
Yeah, I it's it gets it's getting uncomfortable
and understanding yourself,having that emotional
intelligence to know whereyou're at so that you can
understand where at least whereyour team is and be open for
them. Because a lot of timesit's easy to get caught up in
numbers. It's easy to get caughtup in, you know, let me look at
all these spreadsheets and lookat all the data and forget that
there's people who are actuallydoing these tasks and they're
(19:51):
not just numbers. They're notjust another line in the HR's,
you know, line budget like, oh,this is how much we have to pay
these people. These are actuallyreal human beings who have
feelings and emotions and we'rehuman beings.
And if you're a leader, you're ahuman being who has feelings and
emotions, and we have to learnhow to work together. It's not
just a it's not a cut and dry, aone size fits all thing,
especially when working in anorganization.
La Tonya Robers (20:11):
It's absolutely not. And it's so funny. When I
had that revelation, maybe threeyears into my consulting career,
and I was working on these bigorganizational transformation
projects. And one common themethat I noticed was that there
was not a focus on the peopleand the impact of these changes
on the people. You'reimplementing new technology or
(20:33):
organizational redesigns or newprocesses.
And someone may have been inthat job for five or ten years.
And their whole world is beingchanged. And now they're just
expected to operate in this newenvironment overnight and they
weren't set up for success.
Adam Larson (20:49):
And
La Tonya Robers (20:50):
that's when I started doing more of the change
management with thecommunications and the training
and making sure that people wereon the same page. And, as I
wanted people to be set up forsuccess. I mean, that's really
what it came down to, you know?We know change is hard, but
we're constantly in a state ofchange. But it doesn't have to
be as hard as we make it, right?
(21:11):
Don't make easy hard.Communicate, be transparent as
you can be, collect feedback, beokay with adapting and pivoting
where you need to, train people,inform them of when something is
changing, why it's changing, andwhat is the impact to them. It's
really that simple. It really isthat simple. And people may not
(21:35):
always agree with the change orbuy into the change right away,
but the fact that you were openabout what's going on, the
impact, what this means forthem, they may eventually come
get on board or they make theinformed decision to say, this
works for me or it doesn't.
And they may leave. And that'sOkay, too. And because that
(21:56):
makes space for the right personto come in and fill that role.
Adam Larson (21:59):
Yeah, change management is a difficult thing.
I mean, there's reasons why,like if you're doing an MBA, you
can read like hundreds of bookson change management. Everybody
has their own opinion on it. Butit really it doesn't have to be
complicated. But not everybody Idon't why why do we make it
complicated?
And that's not really a questionthat you have to answer. But
it's like it's one of thosethings it's like, why do we have
(22:20):
to make it complicated? Andmaybe maybe we can answer that
in a different way. Like, whatis your what like what is your
approach to that changemanagement, especially when it's
coming to operational changes?Like you've touched on a lot of
those elements, but maybe we canthis is this is your approach to
change management because it'snot like it's it's probably one
of the hardest things we have togo through in our lives, like
whether it's in a business orwhether, you know, in your
(22:41):
personal life, if you're havinga baby or if you're getting
married, that's a changemanagement thing for yourself,
you know, or for your wholelife.
La Tonya Robers (22:48):
Yeah. I mean, in a business setting,
Adam Larson (22:51):
I'll
La Tonya Robers (22:51):
say, do you understand why the change is
happening? Right. And then doyou understand the impact of the
change on the differentstakeholder groups? Getting your
leaders all on board with here'sthe message that's going out.
When I speak to this group, thisis what they care about.
(23:11):
Here's the message for them. Ispeak to this group, here's what
they care about, and here's themessage for them. What is the
overarching message? What's ourtimeline? What are the things
that are changing?
How are we keeping peopleinformed of the progress that is
being made? Right? What trainingis being prepared for them? How
(23:34):
do their job roles change? Doyou have a plan in place for
when something goes wrong?
Right? Not just let's panic,everything is falling apart, but
okay, if this happens, we'regoing to do this. And being okay
with making mistakes, you'regoing to make mistakes. There is
no change that is perfect. Know,you find out things in the
doing.
(23:55):
And so how do you pivot? How doyou have resiliency and bounce
back from when something wrongoccurs? But that communication,
that training process, thedocumenting the processes,
right? One of the things I washelping to roll out a new
electronic health record systemthat impacted several 100,000
(24:17):
people all over the world. Andwe had to start with going to
the hospitals and saying, well,how are you currently doing
this?
You can't shut down a hospital.It just, it's not happening. So
pulling people out of their jobsfor a few days and say, how are
you doing this currently? Whatare those band aid fixes? What
(24:38):
would you change about thisprocess?
Why are you doing this? And youknow, it doesn't work. Right?
And then, okay, here's how itwould work in the new system
based on what we think we know.Now you are in the operating
room or in the emergency room.
Is this really going to work ifwe do it this way? Do you really
have time to get to the laptopor the iPad and put in this
(25:03):
information? Like real time,what would this look like?
Right. And taking thatinformation and going back and
tweaking, not just the, have thebusiness requirements, but now
let's meet it with the technicalrequirements.
Right. So it is constantlygathering information and then
figuring out what needs tochange to make it feasible.
Feasible. Right? We can sit inan office around the table and
(25:25):
we can theorize, I think it'llwork this way, da da da da da.
But the people that are actuallydoing the work, it needs to work
for them. And so we need theirfeedback too.
Adam Larson (25:35):
Well, that's a that's a huge part of it. The
people on the front linesactually doing the work, the
person in the engineering roomdesigning it in their mind, it
may make sense, but thepractical application, you know,
you have to find that way tobridge that gap. Otherwise it'll
just be a it'll be a nightmarefor everyone.
La Tonya Robers (25:52):
Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Adam Larson (25:58):
Excuse me. So when when you meet with organizations
who are looking to to grow andimprove their, you know, invest
into their operationalimprovements, you know, have you
ever, you know, encounter folkswho are meeting with you and
talking, but they're hesitant,you know, due to cost concerns
or, you know, am I able to reachthis goal? How do you, you know,
how do you have thoseconversations with those folks?
La Tonya Robers (26:20):
Actually just had this conversation last week
with an organization and theyneeded new HR. They didn't have
the HR practices in place. Andso one thing that I want to
start out with is an assessmentthat I have an operational
assessment that I give, and itwalks you through eight
different areas of operations.And that's just really to let me
(26:42):
know where you are, understandwhat are some of those. If you
think about red, yellow, andgreen, what are some of those
red areas that may be apriority?
Right. And I say may be apriority because just because it
shows up as red on my assessmentdoesn't mean it's a priority to
be it. And that's what happenedin this situation. Right. It
(27:02):
creates awareness around somethings that you may not have
thought about.
Right. Because you're so busydoing the day to day operations.
And so I'm going do thisassessment and I'm going to come
up with some recommendations.And then we're going to have a
conversation. Hey, this is whatI'm seeing.
What are you seeing? You know,where are you right now? And
then I do ask the question aboutbudget. I'm going to give you a
(27:27):
plan that is going to meet allof your reds, some of your
yellows, right? And it is the,and I love the way that this
particular client, he said, it'sa menu.
Yeah, it's a menu of things andyou get to choose. You get to
decide. And so my job isn't tomake things harder for you. It's
to create awareness around somethings that need to be, that can
(27:47):
change. How do you achieve thegoal that you want?
And then we sit down togetherand design what that plan is
going to be. So if your priorityis to make sure that your growth
model is in place, then we'regoing to focus on your products
and your services. And we'regoing to make sure that we've
simplified it, made itsustainable and to the point
(28:08):
where we can scale it. If yourfocus is on building a team,
then that's what we're going todo. We just have that
conversation.
Here's what I'm seeing. Here'swhat you're seeing. What's the
priority? What's your budget?And then we can go as fast or as
slow as you want.
Adam Larson (28:23):
Yeah. No, I like that because it's it's a matter
of understanding that you don'thave to do everything at the
same time. You can slowly build.You don't have to you can slowly
scale up as as it makes sensefor your organization. You don't
have to say, we're just going tothrow all this money in this
thing and just scale at an at anunprecedented rate, which isn't
healthy either for anorganization.
La Tonya Robers (28:43):
Right. And I don't want you to do everything
on there. It's not sustainable.Right? My three areas simple,
sustainable and scalable.
You know what? Let's make itsimple. Let's make it
sustainable. And then once we'vedone that, then we can scale it.
Adam Larson (28:59):
That's true. I like that. No, that's great. So, you
know, as we're looking to thefuture, you know, you're dealing
with clients, you know, arethere certain trends that
everybody should be aware of andprepare for? Like, what are you
seeing in the market as you'remeeting with different clients?
La Tonya Robers (29:12):
You've got to figure out how to make AI work
for you. Right? And it's notjust because this is the, I
don't say new kid on the blockbecause I've been dealing with
AI, it sounds like for tenyears, right? We may not have
called it AI. We may have calledit something else back then,
but, AI is here.
It's here to stay. And it hasbenefits for your organization,
(29:33):
right? Whether you're automatingthings, you're having it do some
of those repetitive processes.One client, we are looking at
how they do their assessment andcreate the report. And so
instead of spending hours goingthrough all the data, well, AI
can look at the data and quicklysummarize it and help you with
some of the recommendations andcome up with things that maybe
you didn't think about.
(29:54):
Right? Or how are you managingyour customer service? Right. So
say you typically have a frontdesk person who was collecting
all of your phone calls, but ifhe or she is on the phone with
somebody and someone else callsin, well, that could be a lost
opportunity. But what if you hadan AI assistant that came in and
said, Hey, sent you a textmessage.
I saw that you just called. Wewere on the phone. What I am,
(30:17):
let's say I'm Tanya, Tanya's AIassistant. And you just
acknowledged, Hey, I'm an AI.Right?
What can I help you with? Andstart collecting some of that
initial information to figureout how do we get to a solution
and maybe help book a comp or asales call with you or a
consultation. We're on ourphones all day anyway. We're
texting. Most people prefer totext versus talking to someone.
(30:41):
So why not offer multipleopportunities or someone who
11:00 at night or 2AM in themorning, all of a sudden they
get an idea and they're like, Ineed this service. Let me call.
Well, that AI employee doesn'tsleep. They're working 20
fourseven.
Adam Larson (30:54):
Right?
La Tonya Robers (30:55):
So there's so many ways that we can integrate
and work with AI in ourbusiness. And so I would say to
the business owner, get savvy inhow you can leverage it and work
with someone who understands itso that you can incorporate it
and make sure that yourworkforce of the future and of
now includes AI employees aswell as human employees.
Adam Larson (31:19):
Definitely. Well, La Tonya, thank you so much for
coming on the podcast and justsharing your expertize with our
audience. I really appreciateit.
La Tonya Robers (31:26):
Thank you for having me here. It's been great.
Announcer (31:30):
This has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast providing
you with the latest perspectivesof thought leaders from the
accounting and financeprofession. If you like what you
heard and you'd like to becounted in for more relevant
accounting and financeeducation, visit IMA's website
at www.imanet.org.
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