Moderna merges HR and IT, the price of office politics, and is sustainable scaling achievable?

In this episode, we explore three critical workplace strategy topics: how effective leaders can minimize office politics through transparency, accountability, and encouraging diverse viewpoints—strategies that seem obvious yet many workplaces still struggle to implement; Moderna's innovative approach to merging their tech and HR departments under a single "chief people and digital technology officer" role, complete with over 3,000 custom GPTs, representing a thoughtful years-long integration rather than a knee-jerk AI adoption; and the challenges of scaling a business sustainably, where the advice to build systems for 10x capacity sounds great in theory but often conflicts with the reality that HR infrastructure typically lags behind growth, creating a delicate balance between building too little too late versus over-engineering for your current stage.

Connect

Katya Laviolette on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katya-laviolette-6907b726/

Stacey Nordwall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceynordwall/

Articles

• How Effective Leaders Minimize Office Politics
• Why Moderna Merged Its Tech and HR Departments
• Why Scaling a Business is the Hardest—and Most Important—Stage of Growth