Thriving organizations are the backbone of our society. They provide jobs, services, and products to communities around the world. It’s essential that you know how to get yours thriving when it shows signs of weakness since navigating what your organization needs to truly thrive is a complex challenge.
We can help you do just that! Unison is a company with a mission: to make your organization thrive by uniting you under new systems and mindsets.
Purpose
Our purpose is to guide organizations to thrive.
Vision
We envision a world of thriving organizations who place their people at the center of their success.
Mission
We will guide you on your journey towards thriving and show what it takes for culture, operations, and leadership to work in unison.
We help purpose-driven organizations build world-class culture, demonstrate operational excellence, and grow leadership capacity.
We help people and organizations succeed by taking a people-centered approach. We assist them by improving their workplace culture and achieving better results through our strategies.
We weren’t always guides. We’ve been teachers, salespeople, consultants, founders, personal assistants, and executives. And, we’ve have also experienced first hand the pain of dysfunctional teams, toxic workplace cultures, and burnout. Knowing that pain has brought us to this work and to each other. Together, we’ve tried to build the kind of team and culture we support others in building. It’s always a work in progress and we are learning right alongside our clients. Check out the journeys we’ve been on that have brought us to this work below!
Having had the chance to build People Operations for high-performance companies like Chipotle and Huron Consulting earlier in my career, I landed a role as Deputy COO at a startup that had raised $25 million and seemed on a rocket ship to growth. I recruited many talented and kind people to work there, who showed up compelled by a powerful vision to address some of humanity’s greatest challenges and the resources to make it happen. Yet, despite our big hopes, we floundered in a toxic culture shaped by leaders who stifled our skills and creativity. I left shortly before the entire company imploded, and took some needed time off to recover from such a challenging and (to be real) traumatizing work experience.
Then, I began working at Unison. From the moment I started here, the team has truly believed in me, asking for my opinions and views in guiding the formation and trajectory of the company and inviting me to become a partner. I was hesitant about entering client spaces that seemed, from the outside similar to my previous companies: well-capitalized fast-growing startups. But the belief and support I got from the Unison team helped me to step into an interim Chief People Officer role at Fearless, one of our clients, where I helped build culture and the PeopleOps team from the ground up. Together with the COO, we built a culture of care and a high-trust team. I’ve witnessed first hand how when companies are willing to build the right culture, they truly become high performance.
With the Unison Team behind me, I’m regularly grounded in the importance of people-first cultural practices, strong internal systems, and good process, which I help our clients to build as well.
The experience was an eye-opener for me and also left me wondering if others face burnout or frustration because they were locked in a mindset like mine. Today, I proudly embrace my role as someone who helps others shine in their contributions. As part of the Unison team, I build systems like our playbook, which gives our guides ready-to-deploy resources for clients, and a process through which my teammates can deliver five modules of content with the same amount of effort it used to take us to produce one. As a guide, I work to help others do the same!
I’ve always believed in the power of good leadership. For almost a decade, I worked as a social entrepreneur education start-up, African Leadership Academy in South Africa, helping to prepare Africa’s next generation of transformative leaders. Though I so deeply believed in the mission and loved my colleagues, I longed for leadership opportunities that captured the full range of my ambition, but that didn’t cost me generational wealth. I wanted to grow as a leader, so I sought new opportunities.
After years as a solopreneur, building a cross-border consulting practice, I landed an exciting position as an administrator at a private school in Baltimore. But when the pandemic hit, cuts were made, and I was asked to take the role of 7th-grade history teacher. Teaching during the pandemic proved extremely challenging, especially as my wife and I had just had our third child, I was commuting 90 minutes each way every day, and we were expected to navigate frequent changes between teaching classes online and in-person. To find more time in the morning to help my wife with the kids, I planned with other teachers to switch schedules but my manager thought it was “unprofessional”. I felt deeply uncared for and I knew then I owed it to myself and my family to find something that would esteem our wellbeing.
Thankfully, I had started some part-time work with Unison Solutions to generate more income for my family. I thoroughly enjoyed the coaching and leadership development I got to do, I couldn’t help but think “I could do this all day long.” I had the full support and confidence of the rest of the team and the flexibility of working within a schedule that allowed me to support my family. Additionally, I was offered a chance to be an owner and partner in the company allowing me to be to build the generational wealth that systematically escapes so many. This was especially meaningful to me after the summer of 2020, I had been talking with many close friends and family members about the need for Black ownership and Black leadership, and here was a chance for me and my family to step into exactly that.
My team has my back here at Unison and I have theirs. Every day, I get to do work that nourishes me and helps me grow, and I get to help people have the same experience while building long-term equity for the sustainability of our young family. I haven’t looked back.
I’ve always believed in the power of good leadership. For almost a decade, I worked as a social entrepreneur education start-up, African Leadership Academy in South Africa, helping to prepare Africa’s next generation of transformative leaders. Though I so deeply believed in the mission and loved my colleagues, I longed for leadership opportunities that captured the full range of my ambition, but that didn’t cost me generational wealth. I wanted to grow as a leader, so I sought new opportunities.
After years as a solopreneur, building a cross-border consulting practice, I landed an exciting position as an administrator at a private school in Baltimore. But when the pandemic hit, cuts were made, and I was asked to take the role of 7th-grade history teacher. Teaching during the pandemic proved extremely challenging, especially as my wife and I had just had our third child, I was commuting 90 minutes each way every day, and we were expected to navigate frequent changes between teaching classes online and in-person. To find more time in the morning to help my wife with the kids, I planned with other teachers to switch schedules but my manager thought it was “unprofessional”. I felt deeply uncared for and I knew then I owed it to myself and my family to find something that would esteem our wellbeing.
Thankfully, I had started some part-time work with Unison Solutions to generate more income for my family. I thoroughly enjoyed the coaching and leadership development I got to do, I couldn’t help but think “I could do this all day long.” I had the full support and confidence of the rest of the team and the flexibility of working within a schedule that allowed me to support my family. Additionally, I was offered a chance to be an owner and partner in the company allowing me to be to build the generational wealth that systematically escapes so many. This was especially meaningful to me after the summer of 2020, I had been talking with many close friends and family members about the need for Black ownership and Black leadership, and here was a chance for me and my family to step into exactly that.
My team has my back here at Unison and I have theirs. Every day, I get to do work that nourishes me and helps me grow, and I get to help people have the same experience while building long-term equity for the sustainability of our young family. I haven’t looked back.
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