In this episode of the Future Proof HR podcast, our co-host and executive producer Jim Kanichirayil sits down with Nathan Peirson, Chief People Officer at Onit, to talk about leading organizational transformation while building momentum around AI adoption.

Drawing from his experience inside a PE-backed legal tech company, Nathan shares what it takes to scale a business, integrate teams, improve efficiency, and help employees move through change without losing trust in leadership.

They discussed how Onit approached transformation with a clear focus on transparency, candor, consistency, and operating as one company. Nathan explains why communication has to be constant during periods of restructuring, especially when employees are already navigating uncertainty around efficiency, AI, and the future of work.

From frontline communication and manager alignment to AI governance and employee enablement, this episode offers a practical look at how HR leaders can guide transformation with clarity, trust, and discipline. It is a grounded conversation about change management, AI adoption, organizational design, and the human work required to future-proof HR.

Topics Discussed

• How Onit approached transformation as a PE-backed legal tech company
• Why transparency, candor, and consistency matter during organizational change
• How HR can help employees understand the “why” behind restructuring and efficiency efforts
• Why AI adoption should be framed around enablement and empowerment, not replacement
• How Onit created a Chief AI Officer role to signal commitment and accountability
• What it takes to connect AI strategy across product, technology, engineering, and go-to-market teams
• Why frontline employees need clear communication about how AI will affect their work
• How training, governance, and responsible-use guardrails help prevent AI from becoming chaotic
• Why managers and leaders play a critical role in building trust during transformation
• How HR can help employees use AI to reduce low-impact work and focus on higher-value contributions

Additional Resources

• Cleary’s AI-powered HR Chatbot
• Future Proof HR Community
• Connect with Nathan Peirson on LinkedIn

Enablement, empowerment, not replacement.

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AI, it's not your coworker.

3

Don't go out there and have

them do your work for you.

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They can help you.

5

It can help you.

6

You can review it, but you have to own it.

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You have to own what's coming out of it.

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You're responsible for those things.

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Jim Kanichirayil: Navigating an

organizational transformation

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is complicated enough.

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There's always a lot of moving

pieces and any one thing that

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falls over can create a cascading

effect where everything falls over.

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It's difficult enough when you're

dealing with just one thing.

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But how complicated would a

transformation be if you're adding

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in the need to scale private equity

concerns and an AI initiative?

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So you're talking about three massive

variables that you're throwing into a

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transformation initiative that, that

you need to navigate successfully.

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specifically when you're looking at.

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Integrating AI into your operations and

getting, frontline employees to buy in and

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move forward in the vision for the future.

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That's a really complex task,

and that's what we're gonna

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tackle in today's conversation.

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We have Nathan Peirson who's

joining us, and he'll bring, over

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20 years of experience in building

world-class HR teams and functions

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across multiple industries.

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He specializes in, scaling talent

and culture practices in high

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growth, PE-backed technology

companies, and currently serves as

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the chief people officer at OnIt.

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Nathan is passionate about creating

highly engaged workplaces and

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delivering high impact HR teams and

people practices that accelerate

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business performance and growth.

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Nathan, welcome to the show.

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Nathan Peirson: Thanks for having me, Jim.

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Pleasure to be here today.

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Jim Kanichirayil: Yeah, it's always

fun to talk shop and for me as an

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amateur process guy, I'm always

interested in building playbooks.

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And that's a little bit of what

we're gonna do in this conversation

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is talk through how you actually can

construct an AI transformation playbook.

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So that's gonna be a pretty

fun conversation to dig into.

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Before we get into the meat and potatoes

of the conversation, I think it's gonna

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be important for you to establish the

lay of the land and tell us a little bit

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about the organization that you're in

and what you walked into when you joined.

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Nathan Peirson: Yeah that, that's great.

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So just a little bit of background.

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I'm the Chief People Officer at OnIt.

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OnIt is a legal tech platform company.

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So we do things like legal and

matter management, legal spend

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and billing workflows, automation

really across the gamut.

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When you look at legal enterprise.

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Yeah.

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Corporate law and those things.

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For us, we work with a lot

of different companies.

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Over 3000 clients global organization.

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We have about 650

employees across the world.

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Any day we've got upwards of 200 to

250,000 active users in the platform.

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So from a technology

standpoint, we're PE-backed.

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Little, bit of background where we are.

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The company's been around since 2010.

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I joined the company in Q1 of 2024.

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So the landscape and kind of the,

picture to paint of what we were walking

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into and really the challenge ahead

of us was an organization that's been

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around since 2010, PE backed great

customers deep legal expertise really

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relied on by a lot of the largest

companies in the world for the services

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and the technology that we provided.

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But we really had a good team, a lot of

expertise and things from that standpoint.

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Jim Kanichirayil: Thanks for

laying out that foundation.

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I think it gets us rolling.

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I think it's gonna be important

for us to dig in a little bit more.

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Especially given some of the

dynamics of the organization.

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So when you came in, what were the

things on the radar given where

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the company was in terms of its

stage of development and evolution?

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Nathan Peirson: Yeah.

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So I think first and foremost,

you had a new leadership team.

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So I joined in Q1.

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About a month before our new CEO joined,

we had a new chief revenue Officer.

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So you had a new leadership team

that was really charged with building

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scale, building efficiency and really

taking an organization that was

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10 plus years old and maturing it.

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So there were opportunities when you

looked at efficiencies across the

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organization, you looked at scale.

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And scale Could have been from

an operational, standpoint.

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It could also be from a tech standpoint.

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I think one of the other things just to

have a really good kind of view on for,

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listeners is like the legal tech space

was similar to probably HCM, to the human

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capital management space 15 years ago.

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So you saw things like PeopleSoft,

where you had OnPrem and you saw lots

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of development and all these dollars

and time and energy into those efforts.

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That's a lot of where legal tech was.

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Obviously with SaaS and with cloud,

things have started to change.

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So when we came in, that

was a big opportunity.

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As you looked at an organization that had

opportunities to integrate acquisitions

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that hadn't been integrated before.

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You had the opportunity to

integrate regionally to really

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start to operate as one enterprise.

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And you really started to look at

transforming the organization from

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a leadership, from a structure

just from a governance standpoint.

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So really building and maturing

a company that had some really

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good foundational pieces in place.

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But from a PE standpoint,

how do you really springboard

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drive growth and, drive scale?

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Jim Kanichirayil: What's interesting

about what you're describing is that

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for a passive observer, somebody

that's not in the organization, they

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can look at this and ask the question

how can you actually pull that off?

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So you have this modernization initiative.

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That has a focus on scale, but when you

think about modernizing from an enterprise

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on-prem to what's required to go to maybe

a cloud architecture, and you add in the

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PE layer where typically PE organizations

aren't really that interested in heavy

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investment into an organization that

can create the appearance of conflicts

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or work oppositional initiatives.

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Was that what you

experienced when you came in?

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if not did you get everybody

aligned in moving forward

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towards that scaling initiative?

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Nathan Peirson: Yeah I think the

opportunity, maybe it was I don't

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know if it was unique but I think

what we saw laid out in front of us

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was there's some really low hanging

fruit and quick wins to be able to

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create some of the, those efficiencies.

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And some of that was when you just

looked at like EBITDA and margins.

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And again, just from that efficiency

standpoint is you had you had acquisitions

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that had never been integrated.

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So you had products that you created,

maybe some confusion in the market

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because you had the Onit platform.

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You had the SimpleLegal platform,

you had the Bodhala platform, you

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had all these different platforms

that really weren't connected,

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that didn't talk to one another.

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You really didn't even.

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Sell them, like the cross-selling

opportunities, things like that.

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So part of it was looking at,

okay, how are we structured?

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And you had duplicate business

units within the organization.

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You had regional leadership, you

had a lot of things that just hadn't

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necessarily, been set up in a way that's

going to help an organization that

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is trying to grow and scale, really

operate from a more mature standpoint.

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So that, that was step one, is let's

really get our structure in place.

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And that's part of where I came in where

you had new leaders coming in and you

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were centralizing, you were creating

a chief revenue officer as opposed

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to multiple business unit leaders.

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You were taking roles that

existed in regions and you were

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giving those global oversight.

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So there was a lot of

that started at first.

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That created efficiency.

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So when you do something like

that, there's transformation.

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Those are difficult steps to

take, but they're necessary.

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So you immediately identified and drove

some costs out of the business, and that

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gave you an opportunity to understand,

okay, how do you reposition and realign?

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Expenses, investment, headcount and

those things into things that were

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gonna align with the strategy and

the vision we were working toward.

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So a lot of it was getting a baseline in

place first, and it was, there were tough

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decisions, but you could go through, then

you could identify pretty quickly from

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an organizational standpoint, just in

inefficiencies in structure and roles.

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So that would've been step one for

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Jim Kanichirayil: us.

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So when you look at that step one process

what you're describing and I'm gonna TLDR,

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it, you have a bunch of acquisitions that

probably weren't properly integrated.

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You have duplication of effort, you

probably have duplication of roles, and

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one of the first things that you need

to do is standardize the structure and

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go through a consolidation process.

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So when you look at doing

that depending on how long.

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That existing structure has been, in

place, you're gonna create a lot of

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angst within the employee population.

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So what was the messaging like to get

everybody aligned to the new way forward?

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As you work on getting the right

foundation before you can scale.

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Nathan Peirson: Yeah,

so it was transparency.

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Candor and consistency.

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That, that's the easiest way to talk

about it is we shared, we overshared,

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we did it a lot, and it was painful.

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That's the only way I can describe

it is yes, there's a lot of angst.

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There's a lot of changes,

a lot of uncertainty.

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There's a lot of.

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Distrust because you've got a leadership

team coming in, making changes.

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And look, I don't know these people.

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I don't know how they operate.

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I don't know if I can trust

the things that they're saying.

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So yeah, in those early stages,

you're being decisive, you're

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making decisions, you're really

trying to move those things along.

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But at the same time, you were

sharing all along and we had.

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We had a weekly town hall,

so every week we would get on

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and we would share updates.

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We would take q and a and there were

individuals that were impacted that were

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important to the organization, but they

may have had a three, or maybe in some

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cases a six months period where they were

still transitioning and working there.

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So it was a tricky time because you had

folks that knew they weren't part of

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the Go Forward organization that we're

still part of those conversations.

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A lot of it, you just had to get through

those and you knew it was gonna be rough.

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But we made a commitment to,

to share to bring people along.

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And the biggest, I would say,

commitment and stand we took is we're

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gonna operate as one organization.

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So as we talked about that,

it was a clear strategy.

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It was clear goals.

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We implemented a global bonus program.

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We didn't have one before.

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So everybody was aligned on sharing

in the success of the organization.

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So there were things like that, that

people appreciated and they liked, but

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they still didn't necessarily trust.

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'cause it was like, oh, that sounds

good, but I'll believe it when I see it.

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So you really started to have to

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deliver against some of the things

you talked about and you could see

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trust start to build over time.

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So yeah, first six months we moved

really quickly operationally, we got

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ourselves in a really strong I would say

performance and financial standpoint.

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But yeah, culturally it took us a

minute and that was what you expect.

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Change isn't gonna happen overnight.

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Jim Kanichirayil: So there's four elements

of what you described that I would

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categorize as maybe operational pillars.

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So transparency, candor, consistency,

and then the concept of one organization

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as as an operating philosophy.

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So I chalk that up in my head as,

okay, these are the pillars of how

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we behave and where we're going.

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What were the other pillars in terms of

operation or organizational philosophy

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that guided how you move forward as you

continue this transformation effort?

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Nathan Peirson: Yeah, so one company

obviously really critical from that

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standpoint, and we used strategy.

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We used strategy on the page.

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We used rally cry to get

people aligned to that.

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We really also thought about

as, an organization technology,

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what was so important.

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So we looked at it.

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So AI was a piece we talked about.

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We knew in the space that you're adamant.

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We're an AI native platform.

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It's what we talk to our customers about.

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It's what they want internally.

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It's, the way things are going, so

you're not gonna fight against it.

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So when we really looked at

transformation, it was about change.

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And part of that is we

have to be more efficient.

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We have to be able to, really

start to think differently about

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scale and growth in those things.

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So that was another tenet for us is.

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How can we think about our work structure?

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How can we think about starting

to embed and really talk about

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AI and tooling and those things?

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So we adjusted to that pretty early on.

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But for us our rally cry was, it

was around operational efficiency.

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It was going through this from like an

HR standpoint, looking at some of the

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first things that, that I did was what

are things that don't drive impact?

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If it didn't drive impact, if

it was wasted activity, you

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remove those things because.

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In an environment like that

where you're trying to move fast,

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you're trying to pivot, you don't

have time for wasted actions if

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they're not resulting in anything.

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So we had an aligned leadership

team that were doing similar things.

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So you had to be decisive,

you had to move quickly.

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But most importantly, it was, like

I said the core pillars were, one

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company, we're gonna be really

candid, we're gonna be transparent.

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And we also work closely with Michael

Farlekas, our CEO to do fireside chats.

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So we did these town halls, then

we shifted into even smaller

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fireside chats, let people get

everything out on the table.

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So we spent a lot of time

really bringing people along.

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We established new organizational values,

things like that, where we did it with

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feedback and input from the employees.

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We did a lot to listen to folks.

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And that was just all part of the plan.

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Like we, we were able to move pretty

quickly through this, but it was choppy.

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But we expected that to be the case and

you just have to have a plan and a vision

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in place, and we kept moving towards it.

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Jim Kanichirayil: So as I hear you

describe all of that I'm checking

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off all the boxes on what's the right

thing to do or but I'm switching my

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mindset from an employee perspective.

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Here's what I would be seeing

if I'm inside those doors,

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there's a consolidation effort.

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People are throwing around

operational efficiency as a

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phrase that they wanna realize.

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Then you're also adding in

an AI component into it.

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And if I'm one of those employees

internally, I'll be sitting

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there thinking, man, we're

all gonna just get whacked.

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There's gonna be firings left

and right, because those are all

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code words for eliminating staff.

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When those concerns got bubbled

up, how did you triage and navigate

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those conversations to calm things

down and get everybody realigned?

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Because I think that's, something

important that we should talk

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about, especially when we

transition into the AI conversation.

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Nathan Peirson: Yeah.

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So a couple things to that.

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I think where you saw that was really

leader dependent because the message

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was consistent as an organization, but

what you ran into is you had some new

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leaders that came into the organization

that were able to take that a strong

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message and vision with, their team.

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It's not about fear, it's not about people

being afraid, like jobs are gonna go away.

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It's gonna be how?

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How can you be more impactful?

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How can you reposition the work?

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And it goes back to everything I

talked about is if you're wasting

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time and you're wasting effort that

isn't having a result or an outcome.

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Don't do it.

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Some groups are really good at

that message, so you had some

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groups that were stable right away.

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New leader, Hey, I love this.

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This is fantastic.

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Like this is exactly where I wanna go.

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You had some other groups where you had

different leadership that maybe wasn't

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new, that had been here before in the

past, and they'd experienced it and.

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It took longer.

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It took longer because those leaders

themselves were also going through that

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change piece of, Hey, is this gonna work?

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that I'm seeing from new leadership, is

this the way that it's going to play out?

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'cause there could have been a

little bit of concern for their

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security and changes and things.

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So you had different pockets and the only

way to combat it is you've gotta be on the

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same page and you've gotta have leaders

that echo and really believe the message

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because if you've got folks that aren't

aligned or if you've got folks that, that

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struggle with it themselves and that shows

up to their teams, that's a challenge.

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I think having strong leadership and

people on board that are supportive,

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that can help their employees like

work through that and they can do it

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genuinely and authentically, that,

look, we have the best intentions we

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are doing this for these reasons, but.

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When, you've got a leader that

has some of those concerns

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themselves, like it, it's hard.

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Like it's impossible to really

have the message and, drive

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the, impact that in some places.

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So that's where I said it

was like different pockets.

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Some groups moved a lot

quicker than others.

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Jim Kanichirayil: Got it.

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So the other thing that I'm thinking about

you know, when organizations and I've

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said this before on other shows, when

organizations make a commitment to some

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level of AI within their organization,

it's usually driven by some CEO or

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some executive who just says, we're

gonna do this and starting tomorrow.

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You need to come to me with ideas on

what you're doing, and if you don't

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have ideas in front of me you should

start getting your resume ready.

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Or something like very abrupt like that.

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It's almost like a When you look how

internally you started the no, not

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the an extreme example that gave you.

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When you talk about your how was that

rolled out and messaged to for adoption?

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Nathan Peirson: Yeah.

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So look man, I think that's

gonna be the critical piece and

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I'm sure we'll talk about it.

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I'm not gonna say here at the end

that we're an a plus when it comes

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to adoption and I don't think you

can expect to be out of the gate.

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This, is a transformation.

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It's gonna take time.

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What I really appreciate about.

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On it about our leadership team

and how we communicate is, it's

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not a draconian, Hey, do this.

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Or to your point of, Hey, start

getting your resume ready.

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And those things, and I know that was

an extreme example, but it's a very

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pragmatic approach, is that, look, we're

gonna start to introduce these things.

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We, we want to get used to them, we

want to get comfortable with them.

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This is how you should

start to think about it.

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These are the tools that we've given

to you, it's something where it was

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probably a little bit, I mean you

talk about it more specifically, but

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it was probably a softer launch early

on around that as opposed to, Hey, by

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this date do these types of things.

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We had those discussions of

where there were opportunities.

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It's a big change.

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And I think that's where people can

get themselves in, into trouble is

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thinking you're just gonna, to your

point, flip a switch and all of a sudden

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AI's gonna solve all these things.

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It doesn't work that way.

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And I guess maybe one of the other

things I, I could have talked about

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too, and we talked about like some

of the core tenets and things of

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the transformation is simplicity.

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So we talked about transparency and

all those things, but I'm such a big

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proponent in keeping things simple.

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'cause you can overcomplicate everything.

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So the same thing with ai

it can be overwhelming.

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It can be really complicated.

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Or you can make it simpler,

easier for folks to consume.

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And really done a good job over

time of trying to create simplified

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messages where people can understand

what it means in those because you

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get yourself out over your skis a

little bit at the beginning where.

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it's not as simple and people are

going all over the place with fear

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and, all those different pieces.

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.. Thomas Kunjappu: This has been

a fantastic conversation so far.

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make sure to join our community.

362

We are building a network of the

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364

I will personally be sharing

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365

can all thrive in the age of ai.

366

You can find it at go cleary.com/cleary

367

community.

368

Now back to the show.

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Jim Kanichirayil: I like your

emphasis on simplicity, and I

370

wanna go back to something that

we were talking about earlier.

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A few of the things that you

emphasized as you were communicating

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the consolidation piece earlier was

transparency, candor, and consistency.

373

And that all falls into

what's our communication plan.

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How did the lessons that you learned from

that exercise inform your communication

375

plan when it came to this AI initiative?

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Nathan Peirson: Yeah so I wouldn't say

AI was a separate initiative like it

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didn't feel like, hey we, stepped back

and said, Hey, this is AI transformation.

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I think it was more around

organizationally, where are we going?

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So early on we created the, chief AI role.

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So that was a really important piece.

381

We had an individual that was part

of a prior acquisition that was doing

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a great job leading the AI team.

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But we felt this is a really

important, it's a critical

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role for us as an organization.

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So it was elevated to an

executive level position.

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So it didn't become, Hey, we've

gotta go do an AI transformation.

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Let's put somebody in charge of it.

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It was, this is who we are.

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This is part of our business.

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We're an AI native platform, and

we're gonna be an AI native company.

391

And the components of that are the

customer, the client facing, and it's

392

also the internal AI transformation

when it came to the workforce.

393

So that's really how it began — is

that was a message to the organization.

394

And then you double down every

time that you're talking to

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employees, whether that's fireside

chat, whether that's a town hall.

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You're talking about ai, you're

talking about the things that we're

397

doing in our platform, you're talking

about things we're doing internally.

398

So it becomes that, that drumbeat,

it becomes that drumbeat about how

399

we operate and, how we talk about it.

400

So you start to get people more

comfortable so it doesn't feel like

401

it's a transformation where it's like

a big splash and then it goes away.

402

This is who we are.

403

Jim Kanichirayil: I like how you're

emphasizing embedding this into

404

the culture, into the organization

and saying, this is who we are.

405

One of the things that

I'm curious about is.

406

Why was it important to have

somebody at the C-suite level who

407

owned AI as part of that strategy?

408

Nathan Peirson: Yeah, I think

it's, that's a great question.

409

I think in our experience, it's,

it becomes dedication, focus, and

410

responsibility when you've got

this on your side of the desk.

411

With anything, but with AI in particular,

that, that's a really hard ask for,

412

somebody that doesn't have the visibility,

doesn't have the influence potentially

413

across when you are trying to really.

414

Transform an organization, and

it was so important and inherent

415

to everything that we were doing.

416

Like it only made sense for

us to give it the visibility.

417

And I, think it's a

strong, move internally.

418

I think it's a strong move from an

external standpoint, from a customer

419

standpoint about our commitment to AI.

420

So those are really the, pieces with us.

421

It wasn't a long drawn out decision.

422

It made a ton of sense to have that voice,

that perspective and that leadership at.

423

Jim Kanichirayil: I like the

rationale of making it visible and

424

signaling the importance of the role

by creating it, what were the other

425

downstream impacts of having this

role in place in terms of org design?

426

How has this changed sort of how

the organization is structured?

427

Since putting this emphasis

on AI going forward and having

428

a C-suite role in place.

429

Nathan Peirson: Yeah, so you got

a couple of different things.

430

So a couple big roles that kind of

materialized under this role initially

431

was AI transformation internally.

432

So reporting into this chief AI officer.

433

And then you also had a, we had

a go-to-market AI transformation

434

role, which was external-facing.

435

So that was an individual that was kinda

the right hand to the chief AI officer.

436

That role moved into

our sales organization.

437

But they're really focused on

really the customer aspect of it.

438

Evangelizing ai, the community aspect.

439

So how do we really build and educate?

440

'cause there's education that.

441

Internal folks need, you gotta do

a lot of communication, education.

442

There's just as much externally when

you're talking about customers and

443

those things because everybody's in

the same boat for the most part of

444

you hear about ai, how do I use it?

445

How do I create efficiencies

and those things.

446

So those roles were really critical.

447

And then org structure.

448

The other thing to think about is.

449

It was a right time for

us to be able to do it.

450

You've got product and technology

engineering under A CTO, then

451

you've got a Chief AI officer.

452

So what's really important is those

roles are clear in what they're

453

responsible for, how they work

together, and how they hand off.

454

Work information and those things because

they're codependent on each other.

455

So that's the biggest piece if you're

thinking about this from an org design

456

standpoint, is how is this more than just

a figurehead role and how is it really

457

working with architecture and development

and those things where the work's being

458

done by developers and in engineering.

459

So that's, like I said, that's probably

the biggest org piece to flag when

460

you're thinking about setting that

up in a separate function as well.

461

Jim Kanichirayil: I wanna dig deeper

into something that you just mentioned,

462

and that was, you wanted to make

this more than a figurehead role.

463

And then when you have product and

engineering rolling into the CTO, and

464

then you have the chief AI officer as

the CTO's peer, how did you integrate

465

the AI component into something that

isn't necessarily on their downline

466

and it's on somebody else's downline.

467

How did you get those two functions

working more closely together?

468

So it's embedded all across that function.

469

Nathan Peirson: It's, a lot

of time, lot of conversations.

470

If you're doing product strategy

planning, tech planning even though

471

it may be under two different leaders

working collaboratively together that,

472

that's what it comes down to is like it.

473

It doesn't matter where it sits.

474

If you've got the processes and you've

got the workflows and you've got the

475

handoffs and you're, you have the

governance and structure that the

476

right groups are talking to each other.

477

I think where you have to figure out

early on, and we ran into this too,

478

is that it's not happening in silos.

479

So you've really gotta be able to

zoom out and you start to have a

480

broader product lens and you've got

somebody that's looking across those

481

and you've got the groups interacting.

482

You've got cadence and governance

and all those types of things.

483

So sure that you've got the structure in

place to be successful is super important.

484

Under that it's not just

about, we've got the people in

485

place, but operational rhythms.

486

Like how is this actually gonna work?

487

Because it's really easy to get siloed.

488

I also didn't mention the

AI team sits in New Zealand.

489

A lot of the tech team, probably

60-40 India to the US, so you've got

490

three different time zones as well,

which also creates fun opportunities.

491

Jim Kanichirayil: That's

one way to describe it.

492

There was another aspect of

your org design conversation

493

that caught my attention.

494

And that was the GTM role for AI

transformation that was external facing.

495

I've never heard of that.

496

And I like it in concept.

497

Tell me a little bit more about

conceptually what that person is

498

supposed to do, and because I've

never heard about this role, what were

499

the things that you were looking for

in terms of competencies and skills

500

that fed into this role being created

and what they would be executing on?

501

Nathan Peirson: Yeah we, had an

individual that was excellent internally

502

that was in the AI organization as

we scoped out the AI organization

503

and the roles of what was important.

504

This individual, there was just a lot

of opportunity when you looked at from a

505

customer-facing, from a market standpoint.

506

So it was really the opportunity.

507

I don't know, like it's hard for me

to say if we didn't have somebody that

508

was so strong in the role internally,

if we would've built and created that

509

and gone and hired somebody externally.

510

But it just made a lot of sense for

us because again, the legal space.

511

Just from a market standpoint

is it's still maturing.

512

And if you look at anything right

now, like legal tech is, booming.

513

AI and legal tech is booming.

514

So having somebody that understands

it, understands the legal space,

515

understands ai, that can be that

evangelist that can go out there and.

516

Educate and create awareness and

really help showcase the impact that

517

the product and the platform can have,

but also bring feedback back into it.

518

It was such a critical role for us.

519

It was just I think it just was a

perfect situation of having somebody

520

that we thought a lot of that had a great

skillset and it meshed well with exactly

521

how we want to position in this market.

522

Jim Kanichirayil: So when you look at

that person getting rolled out in this new

523

role that's created and they're primarily

customer facing what signals did you get

524

in terms of impact from the customer base

about this new role being created and

525

how they actually moved into the market?

526

Any observations from the

527

customer side that you feel

are important to, to highlight?

528

Nathan Peirson: Now, I don't

know if I can speak specifically

529

to one-off customer feedback.

530

We got a lot of, good positive

feedback when it came to trade.

531

She's on the road a lot.

532

That, that's a big part of it is

focus groups, facilitated discussions,

533

there's a lot in the legal community.

534

And that, that's where she's at.

535

She's out and active in those.

536

I think the positivity is, you

do hear some, of the feedback

537

that can create these connections and

start to create this community around it.

538

And our products and, all those things.

539

But I can't speak to any more

specific feedback that we've

540

Jim Kanichirayil: Got it.

541

So when I think about what we've

been talking about, there's

542

been a lot that's happened in a

relatively short amount of time.

543

And so far our conversation's

been more strategy focused with

544

some execution elements of it.

545

I wanna dig a little bit deeper

and connect it to the front line

546

because any transformation initiative

that doesn't connect the dots for

547

the front line is gonna fall over.

548

So as you're doing all of this stuff.

549

What were the things that you saw from

the frontline that was often surfaced,

550

and how did you get those frontline

folks aligned in the same direction?

551

Nathan Peirson: Yeah truthfully, it's

hard and it's tough early on, especially

552

when you're the new leadership team.

553

Transformation in general.

554

Lots of changes.

555

So we were doing a lot at once.

556

So you're, balancing all those pieces

out, so I'm not gonna say a hundred

557

percent correct out of the gate.

558

I think what worked well for

us, again, was consistency.

559

Transparency, talking about,

from early on, the front lines.

560

It was folks not understanding

ai what it meant for them.

561

Fear of, oh, you just, you're

gonna replace our jobs.

562

This new leadership's already

transforming the business.

563

To your point earlier, now

they're talking about ai.

564

There was just a lot of uncertainty.

565

And I, I think over time, as we

stacked wins and built credibility.

566

You start to see some of that open up.

567

But what happens, which is really

interesting, is you see a little bit

568

of a pivot early on to where like

folks didn't necessarily understand ai.

569

And as you talk about it, then you

start to see the pendulum swing to

570

where you've got so many folks using

AI that you're almost having to bring

571

it back a little bit of, all right,

we've swung the pendulum to, we have

572

so many people engaging with ai.

573

Now that's really snowballed.

574

How do we start to get ahead of that?

575

So that's when we started

doing more education.

576

We

577

created a course it's called

supervising AI and that's for everybody.

578

And it was really to help frontline

individuals to either get a good table

579

stakes of what AI meant, or if they

had that foundation to understand

580

responsibility and how do I work with ai?

581

So we started to do things like that

where it was really more around,

582

okay, people are fear's gone.

583

People are starting to understand

how do we start to rein it in a bit?

584

So we're doing it in a coordinated

fashion so you don't have everybody going

585

rogue, throw in data and information

in the AI and all those things.

586

So that is really the evolution

of once it started to snowball.

587

We've gotta educate, we've

gotta create communications.

588

We've gotta do these things to

really help people understand, okay,

589

how do you make the most of it?

590

They're not afraid of it anymore, but

now we need 'em to be smart with it.

591

So that's like that's the evolution

of I think what could happen.

592

Jim Kanichirayil: When you talk

about when you think about that

593

question, how do you, now that you

have adoption, people are using it?

594

How do you use it smartly?

595

What were some of the things that you put

into place to define that out and, create

596

some guardrails within the organization

so that people aren't going fully rogue?

597

Nathan Peirson: Yeah so, governance is

super important, and so getting that.

598

In place early.

599

And also testing the governance early

is gonna be a really important piece

600

because like I said, you're not gonna be

great with any of this stuff overnight.

601

But like I said, it can snowball, so you

can get way out ahead of yourself as well.

602

So governance is gonna

be really important.

603

I think the, education piece like

that, was really important for us.

604

And I think it was a concept of,

you heard people talk early on

605

oh, like ai, like it's a coworker.

606

Look at all the stuff that it can do.

607

Really thinking differently

and helping people understand,

608

look, AI is not a coworker.

609

AI is your subordinate.

610

Think about it that way.

611

Like you need to inspect this information.

612

You need to inspect what's coming out.

613

So it's helping people understand

it's not about just plugging it in

614

and having AI do the work for you.

615

It's how you engage with it.

616

So that was a big piece for us.

617

And we do have groups that are

reliant on ai, let's say like in the

618

engineering team and things like that.

619

There are different certifications that

we've put in place that they have to, go

620

through to make sure that they understand

again, responsible use in those types of

621

things before they're turned loose with

some of the tools and things like that.

622

So that is something we've put in place

probably over the last, I don't know.

623

Four months or so we've got

some of those things stood up.

624

But like I said, it, it snowballs.

625

It's got a lot of adoption.

626

Jim Kanichirayil: Got it.

627

So one of the things that you mentioned

that I thought was really interesting

628

was all of this effort into educating

across the entire organization and even

629

your customer base on what this means.

630

Going along with that, you also

talked about you have to be able to

631

connect to the employee, what this

means for them at the desk level.

632

Tell me a little bit more about what

that looked like in terms of the internal

633

conversations to paint a picture of what

the future looks like to the employee.

634

Nathan Peirson: Yeah, and look,

I don't think it resonates

635

with every employee today.

636

Like I don't think that's gonna

be realistic because there's gonna

637

be an opportunity to leverage

AI in a lot of different jobs.

638

But some of it, it's not

necessarily mandated today.

639

Some of it is more nice to have.

640

So it's not necessarily having the impact.

641

But what we wanted to start with

is helping people think about how

642

they could use it, how it could have

a positive impact on, their work.

643

'cause if you go back, everything

that you look at, what is it?

644

You get 80% of impact

through 20% of the actions.

645

80% of the actions people are

doing it's creating minimal impact.

646

So those are the things that you

start to challenge individuals at

647

a team level, individual basis.

648

Look, don't be fearful about your job.

649

Think about how can you be more efficient?

650

How can you be more effective that

80% of time that is not having,

651

like the more significant value?

652

How can you automate, how can you

leverage AI for these types of things?

653

So it's that.

654

I'm not saying we've had conversations

to every employee in every group

655

that the light bulb's going off.

656

But yeah I think that's been a big

piece of it, and that's a big part

657

of the training and things too.

658

That's just the constant drumbeat

and that constant communication

659

is, not here to take your job.

660

It's here for us to be able to

create capacity for you to do more

661

exciting, more impactful work.

662

So you should be excited about that.

663

And I think people start to get that they

don't necessarily know how to use it yet,

664

and that's super fair because it is new.

665

They're still learning.

666

But I think about things

like communications

667

Jim Kanichirayil: You're doing a lot

of communication across all levels of

668

the organization, but you mentioned

something earlier, which was you've

669

gotta be able to connect what this

is gonna mean — how AI is gonna

670

impact work at the employee level.

671

What's this mean for me?

672

Tell us a little bit more about

what those conversations looked

673

like and how they were received.

674

Nathan Peirson: Yeah I think that those

conversations are, really important.

675

As we progressed through this and as we

built credibility in the organization

676

and trust and, those types of

things, I think the fear went, away.

677

AI's not necessarily here to, replace us.

678

It's here to help us be productive and

to let us have an opportunity to work on

679

higher impact work and things like that.

680

So that, that was a big piece of

the messaging where there was an

681

enterprise-level push within teams.

682

But we just spent a, lot of time

helping folks understand, and

683

a lot of that was with managers

and leaders and, those things.

684

But it, really came down to.

685

I think maybe I've mentioned this

before, but if 80% of the work is

686

lower impact, if you're getting 80%

of the output from 20% of the work,

687

there's a lot of low impact work there.

688

How can you think about AI to become

more efficient, to enable or empower

689

you to have higher impact, to think

more strategically or make a bigger

690

impact, all those types of things.

691

That's where the conversation

really shifted with individuals

692

is this isn't gonna replace you.

693

But it may give you a

different work experience.

694

It may help you do more compelling,

more interesting things.

695

Maybe raise your impact in those.

696

That's where the conversation went,

and I think that resonates with folks.

697

And I will say we are not there.

698

It's not a hundred percent of employees

fully understand and can speak to that,

699

but I think that's where it's going,

is people understanding, hey this,

700

can really help me out and help me

be more effective and more efficient.

701

Jim Kanichirayil: That makes sense.

702

So you're, still relatively early

in the process of all of this stuff

703

and particularly the AI stuff.

704

But with that being said I think it's

gonna be worthwhile for you to take a look

705

back and think about some of those lessons

that you learned in the process that

706

you might have taken a different road.

707

So anything come to mind as far as

key things that you've learned so far?

708

Nathan Peirson: I think some of the

challenge when you look at it is we

709

were doing a lot, so are there things

we could have done differently?

710

Yeah, probably.

711

But also when you're, juggling like

10 different things and you've got

712

new leaders and you're transforming

and those things sometimes you don't

713

have the luxury to slow down on those

things, but I think from mindset

714

standpoint, you really have to understand.

715

This is not gonna happen overnight.

716

And yeah, we may be early.

717

I think this is a long transition

for, anybody in a long transformation.

718

It's gonna be embedded in

what we do going forward.

719

It's embedded into our new hire,

onboarding and orientation.

720

The education that I talked about

that we've rolled out, that's not

721

part of the standard curriculum.

722

You join the organization, you

start to understand how we think

723

about it, what's expected of you.

724

So you start to ingrain that.

725

It becomes part, of your DNA.

726

Early on, like we didn't

have some of those tools.

727

We didn't have some of the,

training, so we were moving fast

728

and knowing it was gonna be a bit

choppy, so we were eyes wide open.

729

I think we were pragmatic

from that standpoint.

730

But anything you can do to have a view of.

731

Look, it's not gonna happen overnight.

732

Change takes a while.

733

This is a huge change initiative.

734

So communicate over,

communicate, bring people along.

735

Don't try to like just throw all the

people, and I am such a proponent of

736

just keep it really simple and make

sure people understand that message.

737

Enablement, empowerment, not replacement.

738

Ai, it's not your coworker.

739

Don't go out there and have

them do your work for you.

740

They can help you.

741

It can help you.

742

You can review it, but you have to own it.

743

You have to own what's coming out of it.

744

You're responsible for those things.

745

And then I think the other thing

for us is I think companies will

746

run into this is make sure your

governance and those things are ready.

747

'Cause there'll be a tipping point to

where everybody's wondering how to use

748

it and those things, and they'll see

somebody else use it and they'll figure

749

out, they can throw some information

into whatever tool that they're using,

750

and it's gonna spit something out

and it's gonna snowball really quick.

751

Then you gotta get your arms around it.

752

I think those would be the things

that, that I would say is do

753

your research and just be really,

thoughtful that this is a journey.

754

It's not, a sprint.

755

Jim Kanichirayil: Yeah,

that's that's good input.

756

And really great stuff overall in the,

in terms of the entire conversation.

757

I know that we're just scratching the

surface of of what you've gone through

758

and we're only telling probably 25% of

the story because the, there's gonna be

759

a lot more that happens a year from now.

760

I'm sure people are gonna want to continue

the conversation with you and if they

761

want to get ahold of you, what's the best

way for them to get in touch with you?

762

Nathan Peirson: Yeah, people can

reach me anytime on LinkedIn.

763

I try to be as active as

possible responding to

764

messages from that standpoint.

765

But I'm also like, if people want to

send me an email directly, they can

766

do it to nathan.pearson@onit.com.

767

Like I said, always happy to network

and engage with colleagues and peers.

768

Yeah, happy to share lessons learned.

769

Jim Kanichirayil: Awesome stuff.

770

So I appreciate you hanging out with

us and, sharing your story to date and

771

I think there's a lot of really good

stuff in the conversation that we had.

772

When I think about what stood out to

me, I wanna pay particular attention

773

to a few things that you did that I

think are generalizable across any

774

organization when they're trying to go

through a transformation initiative.

775

What I liked the most about what you

did is that as an organization you

776

demonstrated commitment to communication.

777

It showed up in how you actually move that

change management process with an emphasis

778

on educating and inspiring at all levels

of the organization and externally to

779

the customer base because that actually

created a unified vision for the future.

780

Across the organization.

781

And I think from a vision and mission

perspective, those are fundamental

782

things that you need to establish

and get everybody aligned on in

783

order to have a chance at success.

784

And then you just committed to it.

785

So I think when you're looking at how

do you move forward with as little

786

friction as possible, those are the

fundamental aspects that stood out to

787

me in this conversation that I think

it'll set up a lot of organizations for

788

success, so I appreciate you sharing

that along with everything else that

789

we talked about in this conversation.

790

For those of you who've been listening

along, if you like the discussion,

791

make sure you leave us a review on

your favorite podcast player and then

792

tune in next time where we'll have

another HR leader hanging out with

793

us and sharing with us the stories of

what they're doing to future-proof HR.