When Human Leadership Meets Business Velocity W/ Diana Blancone

Building a Culture Where Accountability & Safety Actually Mean Something W/ Nabeel Ahmed

In this episode of We’re Not Recording, Melanie Naranjo talks with Nabeel Ahmed, Chief HR and Safety Officer at Wellbore Integrity Solutions, about what it really takes to build a culture of performance, accountability, and safety. Nabeel shares why compensation is one of the clearest ways a company communicates what it actually values, and why performance bonuses only mean something when they truly differentiate the people who go above and beyond. He also opens up about the human side of safety leadership, including the difficult responsibility of supporting employees and families when someone is injured on the job. Together, they explore why safety can’t just be a buzzword, why every employee has to see themselves as a safety leader, and why accountability has to show up in real actions, not just company values. The conversation also touches on how HR leaders can think more boldly about AI, moving beyond simple automation and toward technology that can meaningfully transform how work gets done.

Keeping Work Human While AI Changes Everything W Brandon Sammut

In this episode of We’re Not Recording, Melanie Naranjo talks with Brandon Sammut, Chief People and AI Transformation Officer at Zapier, about what it really takes to keep work human while AI changes everything. They dig into how AI is reshaping HR, compensation, career paths, and team leadership, not as an abstract future-state, but as something employees are already feeling in their day-to-day work. Brandon shares how Zapier’s AI transformation started showing up in unexpected places across the business, from HR to legal to recruiting, and why giving people concrete examples, peer-to-peer learning, and room to experiment matters so much. The conversation also explores the tension leaders are navigating right now: how to reward outsized AI-driven impact without creating compensation problems later, how to set ambitious goals without turning the wrong measure into the wrong target, and why clarity alone is not enough unless it also gives people a reason to care. At its core, this episode is about building AI-forward companies without losing the human center of work. Melanie and Brandon unpack why every department needs more than a mandate to “get on the AI train.” Teams need a clear, specific, and inspiring picture of what their future looks like, and leaders need the humility to say, “Great question. I’m not sure yet. Here’s how we’re going to figure it out together.”

People Deserve to Feel Energized by the Work They Do W/ Jeri Doris

What if the problem isn’t your job—but that you’ve never stopped to ask what actually gives you energy? In this episode, Jeri Doris shares why so many people settle into work that’s comfortable but unfulfilling, and how that disconnect quietly impacts everything—from performance to well-being. They explore the intersection of what you’re good at and what brings you joy, and why finding that overlap isn’t a luxury—it’s the difference between feeling drained and feeling alive in your work. The conversation also dives into how AI is reshaping the way we work—not just by increasing speed, but by creating an opportunity to remove the mundane and focus on what actually matters. But without intention, it risks becoming more noise, more pressure, and more surface-level output instead of real progress. At its core, this episode is a reminder: people deserve to feel energized by the work they do—and if that energy isn’t there, it’s worth asking why.

The Emotional Weight of Helping People Grow W/ Arthur Yamamoto

This conversation sits inside the quiet, often invisible weight of leadership—where helping people grow isn’t just a responsibility, it’s something you carry with you long after the workday ends. Arthur and Melanie unpack what it actually feels like to be responsible for someone else’s development: the pressure to have answers you may not have, the tension between surfacing problems and being able to solve them, and the reality that much of this work goes unseen or unrecognized. They explore the emotional cost of caring deeply—losing sleep over your team, holding their uncertainty, and navigating the gap between what employees expect and what managers can realistically provide. At its core, the episode is about redefining growth as a shared responsibility. Not something managers own alone, but something built through trust, clarity, and honest expectations—where the goal isn’t just to retain people, but to genuinely help them become who they’re meant to be, even if that journey takes them elsewhere.

From Controlling Work to Activating People W/Bala Sathyanarayanan

This episode breaks down the shift from managing work to actually activating people. It explores how real leadership isn’t about control, tracking, or oversight—it’s about creating clarity, building trust, and unlocking the effort people already have inside them. When employees feel connected and developed, they show up differently—and that’s what drives customer experience and business results. It also hits a hard truth: people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Which makes leadership the difference between engagement and disconnection. And as teams scale and AI replaces more managerial tasks, control stops working. What’s left is leadership. Because at a certain point, the job isn’t to manage work. It’s to activate people.