Marie Rodriguez

Your Approach to OD Might Be Costing You Millions (And no, reordering boxes won’t fix it.) Most companies treat Organizational Design like a back-office admin task. 📌 Build the chart. 📌 Assign titles. 📌 Done, right? Wrong! If your OD and L&D strategies aren’t aligned with performance, you’re leaking time, talent, and revenue. Here’s what I’ve learned after 20+ years building high-performing teams and scaling operations 10X: 💥 OD is not a cost center—it’s a revenue lever 💥 L&D isn’t an HR perk—it’s a margin multiplier 💥 Structure drives behavior. Behavior drives performance. When org design is done right: ✅ People move faster, with less friction ✅ Strategy gets executed—not just discussed ✅ Leaders know how to develop talent—not just manage tasks ✅ Culture isn’t just a poster—it’s the playbook And when it’s not? ❌ Decisions bottleneck ❌ Talent turns over ❌ Opportunities get missed ❌ Performance flatlines I wrote a full blog post on how to turn Organizational Design plus L&D into your company’s competitive advantage. I share: 📥 Real examples 📊 Market research 🛠️ Tools that actually work 📈 And a mindset shift every CEO and HR leader needs to make 👇 Read the full post here: Why Organizational Design is a Revenue Lever, Not a Cost Center https://lnkd.in/g-kxwW7w 🔄 Then share it with a leader who’s still duct-taping their org chart together. Let’s build systems that perform—not just look pretty. #OrganizationalDesign #LeadershipDevelopment #BusinessGrowth #ODandL&D #PerformanceMatters #PeopleStrategy

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Are you (or someone you know) facing an ICF PCC credential performance evaluation? My team and I have been assessing ICF performance evaluations since 2012, guiding leaders and coaches toward ACC, PCC, and MCC certification. So we've seen all the biggest mistakes, and worked to find simple ways to help. One of the biggest hurdles is the big leap from ACC to PCC. After more than a decade of listening to recorded coaching sessions, I’ve seen 4 simple shifts that make a real difference in passing PCC and set you up for MCC. If you or someone you know is preparing for PCC evaluations, these quick tips can help deepen your coaching sessions, which is exactly what ICF markers look for. When I worked toward my MCC, I remember how tough it was. Many coaches today feel the same overwhelm. It’s not you, the path really is challenging but also a worthy pursuit. That’s why I’m here: to make the process clearer and more supportive, so you can grow into the kind of coach you want to be. 👏

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A paradox that frustrates me as an OD practitioner is being pro-worker/workforce. Hiring is better managed as a high risk matter of design. Across the spectrum of core capability roles to commodity/enabling roles, for most organizations applying real OD often necessities downsizing by design. At the same time, the covid-to-now exploitation of workers for optics, dividend protection, and incentive manipulation has been hard to live with. So on one hand there's a real incentive right now to examine purpose, "fitness" of design, and pursue sustainability. On the other hand, the impacts to workers due to questionable AI demands and real design work. It's a hard time to be working in this field, in my opinion.

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The ICF Portfolio Path is an alternative credentialing route for coaches whose learning and practice haven’t followed a single, formally accredited program. Because mastery rarely comes from one institution alone. It emerges through reflection. Through years of practice. And refining how you listen, respond, and trust yourself in the work. The Portfolio Path asks for ownership. Ownership of how you curate your learning. Ownership of how you refine your coaching presence. Ownership of submitting recordings that genuinely reflect MCC-level mastery. In my experience, this is where mentorship matters most. The Portfolio Path isn’t for everyone. It’s for coaches who’ve grown organically, who value depth over formality, and who want their credential to reflect how they actually practise, it can be a deeply aligned route. The Portfolio Path is less about proving something and more about inhabiting the craft more fully. If you’re exploring the MCC Portfolio Path, our next MCC Mentor Coaching Cohort begins in February 2026. DM me “MCC” and I’ll send you the details.

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Most HR pros get sidelined because they play cop, not partner. 🤐 That’s why your CEO makes a $2M decision without you in the room and then calls you after the fact to “update the policy.” Yesterday in my Apeiron Network peer group, we talked about being a trusted advisor. It hit me - for HR Departments of One, this shift is survival. David Maister’s Trusted Advisor framework shows the gap: - Credibility: Know the business as well as you know the handbook—or you’ll never be invited into real conversations. - Reliability: Every dropped ball tells leadership you’re replaceable. - Intimacy: Leaders won’t bring you the real problems if they don’t feel safe with you. - Self-orientation: Nobody cares that “it’s best practice.” They care how it impacts revenue, retention, or risk. Here’s the reality: Policy cop = ignored → sidelined → career ceiling. Trusted advisor = indispensable → influence → career accelerator. Once trust is built, you’ll get pulled into more strategic areas: mergers, leadership development, organizational redesign, talent forecasting. The more you deliver value there, the more people stop seeing you as “just HR” and start seeing you as a business partner. Your path from doing to advising is paved less by technical HR skills and more by how well you manage trust, relationships and influence. The frameworks Maister presents aren’t optional. They become your mental scaffolding each time you take on a new initiative or raise a sticky issue. If you want to join my community where we talk about this stuff - join the waitlist at hrdoo.com

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Here’s a harsh truth most leaders won’t admit: We’re trying to solve tomorrow’s problems with yesterday’s structure. Traditional org charts were built for control, not creativity. For predictability, not pace. For hierarchy, not human potential. But the future? It demands something else. We need: 🔁 Fluid roles that flex with the business 🎯 Teams aligned around outcomes, not departments 🧠 Decision rights that follow expertise, not title 🚀 Space for cross-functional “pods” to move fast and learn faster If your Customer Success, RevOps, or Enablement teams still need permission to solve problems… You’re not building the future. You’re preserving a power structure. Great org design is an act of strategy, not stability. It should enable clarity, autonomy, and collaboration at speed. The real test of leadership isn’t how tightly you hold the organization together. It’s how well it moves when you’re not in the room. The challenge I'm asking myself (and YOU) today: What part of your org chart still exists because “that’s how we’ve always done it”? What if you gave your team permission to redesign it? #CreatingTheFuture #OrgDesign #Leadership #FutureOfWork #CustomerSuccess #TeamDynamics #PostSalesLeadership #NextSalesLeadership

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Before you approve that next L&D purchase, ask this: "Will this create capability, or just deliver content?" Most can't answer. I was in a budget meeting last week where a CEO was about to approve $50K for "leadership development." I asked the question. Silence. Finally: "Well... It's leadership training. That's good, right?" Here's the difference most companies miss: Content delivery: Workshops that happen once. Knowledge that lives in people's heads. Skills that depend on individual motivation. Capability creation: Systems that work repeatedly. Frameworks embedded in daily operations. Processes that outlast any individual. The brutal reality is that most L&D spending is content delivery dressed up as capability building. Before you spend another dollar, ask: "Will this still work if our best people leave?"  "Can new hires access this knowledge systematically?" "Does this create repeatable processes or just personal insights?" Capability creates competitive advantage. Content creates expenses. Ready to invest in capability that builds organizational strength? What's the most expensive training program you've seen deliver zero lasting capability? #LeadershipInvestment #CapabilityBuilding #ROIFocused #FractionalCLO

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I had the pleasure of sitting down with Jeremie K Brecheisen from Gallup, who has spent over 15 years helping leaders understand what truly drives high performance. We talked about strengths, leadership and why some cultures thrive while others stall. We also explored why so few CHROs move into CEO roles, how HR can get closer to the customer and where AI genuinely adds value rather than becoming a trend we feel obliged to follow. A few threads that stayed with me:  • The commercial advantage of leaning into strengths • The common mistakes leaders make around performance • How HR can shift its identity from cost to value • Where data and AI actually move the needle • What aspiring CHROs should focus on next If you’re interested in the future of HR, AI, leadership or culture, this one is for you. Links to listen in the comments below.👇

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200 HR Directors & CPOs. 1 dominant topic...but not what you think. This week, I joined 200 Chief People Officers and HR Directors at the Richmond Events CLO & Talent Management Forum in Arizona. The number one conversation? AI....But not how to embed it. How to leverage it. To enhance people's performance. To increase capability. For team dynamics. What was refreshing was that this wasn’t a tech hypefest. It was human-first. How do we use AI to enhance clarity, not create confusion? How do we equip leaders to make faster, sharper decisions? How do we upskill teams, without burning them out? This wasn’t about replacing anyone. It was about lifting everyone. AI is already on your team. The visionary leaders are training with it, not waiting to be trained by it. If you’re a CPO or senior leader navigating this shift, what are you most focused on right now? Pop it in the comments below to help others. 👇 #PeoplePerformance #AILeadership #WestPeak #HRLeadership #CLOForum #CapabilityWithAI

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New research from Guild just dropped, and if you’re a CHRO or L&D leader, this one’s worth your time. 500 of our peers across industries were surveyed—and the results struck a chord. It shows a sharp divide between teams that talk about the impact of learning and those that actually deliver it. ❌ The problem: most companies still treat learning as a cost center — not a growth engine. ✅ The opportunity: leaders that link L&D directly to business goals are 122% more likely to hit their top targets. 🚀 The takeaway: When L&D is integrated into the heartbeat of a company’s business strategy, it’s a true accelerator. As someone who’s passionate about unlocking the potential in people and creating meaningful career pathways and driving business growth, I find these insights both validating and motivating. Let’s move beyond check-the-box training and start building learning cultures that fuel business and people growth. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/ekMPCU9H #growingcompaniesbygrowingpeople #pathwaystogrowthandopportunity

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