The HX Podcast with Stacie Baird

It's not science fiction anymore; it's Agentic AI. We're moving past the era where AI just assists us.  Now, we're talking about a coworker that can run entire recruiting workflows from start to finish. Think of it like a Tesla: you set the destination, and it drives the car. But I don't want you to be left in the dust regarding what this looks like. We are talking about autonomous scoring, outrea...

Hey humans, let's talk about that hidden bottleneck that's absolutely killing your time to hire: scheduling. We're still playing calendar Tetris, sending those dreaded email chains back and forth. By the time you get everyone in the same virtual room, your perfect candidate has three other offers. This is the administrivia that's costing you top talent. But what if I told you that scheduling isn't...

Hey humans. So, 67% of organizations are prioritizing AI for talent acquisition, but here's the HX twist: they're also terrified of its inaccuracies. In this first episode of our HX Intel series, I'm cutting through the noise to figure out what's really working and what's just hype. We've all moved past the honeymoon phase, but are we stuck in basic automation instead of using advanced AI smartly?...

In launching this series on talent, it had me thinking…where do we start? With that, we are re-broadcasting an episode with Allison Coward, an expert on #firstprinciples with the thought, why don't we start with what is, well, first.  First principles are the most fundamental, foundational truths or assumptions of a concept that cannot be deduced from anything more basic. First principles thinking...

https://staciebaird.com/the-hx-podcast In this episode, I'm kicking off a new series that's very near and dear to my heart: talent. I was struck by a McKinsey study called "The War for Talent," published back in 1998, which happened to be the first year I was in recruiting. Reading it again, I was shocked to realize that the core challenges it identified; a shortage of leadership talent, a lack of...

On this now two year anniversary, I felt that this deserved a replay! This is an episode that is an enormous part of why I've changed the brand of the podcast to encompass the broader human experience. My daughter, Jocelyn, is my very special guest today. She talks about her leukemia diagnosis over two years ago, and the battle that would take up all of 2023, and change the way she has to look at...

In this episode of the HX podcast, as part of our "Well at Work" series, I had the privilege of speaking with Justin Long, an author who shared his incredible story of resilience. I was so impacted by his journey, which he says truly began when he got sober at age 32 after years as a "raging alcoholic filled with self-loathing". Justin recounts growing up in an emotionally dysfunctional household,...

If you remember making mixtapes off the radio and your parents' only rule was to be home when the streetlights came on, this episode is for you. Jenn and I are zeroing in on our specific slice of Gen X, a micro-generation we're calling the 'Goonies Generation'. We're the kids born in the late 70s who had one foot in an analog childhood of latchkey independence and another in a fully digital adulth...

In this episode, Jenn and I are diving deep into something we know a lot about: being Gen X and hitting that phase of life that people used to call a 'midlife crisis.' We're calling BS on that and reframing it as what it really is... a  reboot . With our kids getting older, we finally have the space to ask what we want, not just what our families need. We get real about everything from navigating...

Hey humans, in this episode of the HX podcast, we're diving into the "Gen X Leadership Load". If you're a Gen Xer, you probably feel like the forgotten middle child, and I found some pretty jarring data that shows just how much we're dealing with. We're the first leaders in history to be sandwiched between four generations at work and two at home, acting as translators between old-school structure...

In this week's episode of our #WorkWell series, I'm building on last week's assignment with a new one that is both simple and challenging. After taking time to reset, I started asking myself a critical question every time I felt the urge for a distraction: "What would actually restore me right now, not just distract me?" It's so easy to fall into mindless scrolling or shopping, but I've found thos...

Hey humans, we're continuing our #WorkWell series, all about mental health in the workplace. In this episode, we're getting real about the difference between just being tired and being truly, deeply depleted.  I know that feeling because I was just there myself. After we recorded our last episode on burnout, I felt almost out of my body, completely depleted and neurologically dysregulated. The onl...

In the second of our small series on Mental Health at Work, Jenn Mason and I tackled a really challenging episode (as you can see by the title). We jumped right in by asking if resilience is being "weaponized" - used as a justification for harmful systems rather than a skill to be supported.  We explore the dark side of a resilience culture, where praising people for surviving toxic, high-demand e...

In the first episode of our "Mental Health at Work" series, my colleague Jenn Mason and I tackled the critical distinction between being tired and being truly depleted. We start by defining burnout as work-related exhaustion that happens over time, while compassion fatigue comes from the emotional toll of over-identifying with the suffering of others. We contend as well, though, that depletion is...

What if we could rewrite the rules of abundance? That's the question I tackle in my latest "What If" episode of the podcast. I believe we're on the cusp of a new era, one where we can move beyond the old, scarcity-driven models and embrace a future of limitless possibility. In this episode, I explore what it would mean to have a world of abundance, not just in terms of material wealth, but in all...

Hey, humans. I want to talk about something that so many of us struggle with, and that's the feeling of not being enough. This is a part three of a series called "What If". I highly recommend going back and listening to the previous two if you haven't heard them already. I know that shame spiral all too well; when my life shifted in a single moment almost ten years ago, I found myself in a very da...

What if you understood that control is just a myth? I know so many of us, especially when we look at the news or our social media feeds, can feel a sense of complete overwhelm, like the world is totally out of control. And in response, we try to control what we can to feel safe and grounded. But what if that feeling of control is just an illusion? In this episode of our "What If" series, I want to...

Hey humans, welcome to "What If," a new, short-format summer mini-series. I know life is busy, so these episodes are five minutes or less, designed to help you focus inward. This week, we're tackling a feeling many of us have been made to feel: that we are "too much". Whether you've been called too emotional, too quiet, or too opinionated, these labels can cause us to internalize the message that...

Welcome back to the continuation of my conversation with Mike and Reggie about the human experience of AI. In the first part, we laid the groundwork by discussing how to get started and facing the philosophical questions and fears surrounding this technology. Now, we get into the really exciting applications, exploring how my guests have gone from beginners to power users, integrating AI into thei...

On this special two-part episode of the HX Podcast, I'm so excited to be joined by two of my colleagues from CMS, Mike and Reggie. We dive deep into the human experience of artificial intelligence, starting not with the technology itself, but with the people who use it. Mike and Reggie share their personal histories and what drives them, from a passion for service to the constant search for a bett...

Hey humans! On this episode of the HX podcast, I wanted to talk to my fellow Gen Xers about something that was programmed into us back in our twenties: the idea that our worth is tied to our productivity.  I see it causing problems in business and in people's lives.  I know this from my own career in startups, where that hustle culture was rewarded and it hard-coded into me the belief that being e...

Hey humans! In this episode, as we continue our series on 'Assuming Positive Intent,' I'm diving further into a topic I believe is one of the most challenging things we navigate: the duality between victimhood and accountability. To pick up from last week, I really break down what victimhood looks like – that mindset rooted in an external locus of control, where we might blame others or circumstan...

In this episode of my 'Assuming Positive Intent' series, I wanted to share a personal insight that really struck me, especially as I've been feeling a bit exhausted from a big push at work. I talk about the crucial difference between falling into a 'victimhood' mindset and practicing 'self-compassion,' and I offer one simple but powerful shift I've been using. I'm finding this helps me foster empa...

This podcast episode is a special one for me, as I pay tribute to a man who was truly a force bigger than life: Tom Frank. He was an incredible storyteller and an icon, and I think of him often. This particular episode, which we originally recorded back in September 2020, features Tom discussing the culture of organizations and sharing his history as one of the original members of the P.F. Chang's...

Hey humans, you won't want to miss this episode! I chat with Seth Turner from AbsenceSoft about a seriously important topic: leave management. We're digging into how we can shift our thinking from just processing paperwork to truly supporting employees during critical life moments. Seth shares his journey into this complex world and how his company is aiming to bring more humanity and efficiency t...